Miami voters to weigh in on century-long Riverside Wharf lease

City of Miami voters will get a second chance to weigh in on a vast mixed-use downtown project at an August special election that would add a luxury hotel and a site lease up to a century.

In December, MV Real Estate Holdings, along with Driftwood Capital, announced Riverside Wharf, a hospitality-driven entertainment complex on the historic Miami River.

The public-private partnership involves the city, which owns the site on the river’s east bank and leases it to Riverside Wharf LLC.

Voters approved the original lease in 2016, as charter requires. But the city commission recently approved a resolution asking the city attorney to prepare a new charter amendment for consideration at a special election Aug. 23.

If approved by voters and by the city and developer in a final lease, the move would add 50 more years to the lease and permit the Wharf to build a hotel at its expense.

An affirmative vote would authorize the commission, by a four-fifths vote, to waive competitive bids and authorize the city manager to negotiate an amendment to the original lease with Riverside Wharf LLC to lease and develop city land at 236 and 298 SW North River Drive.

“… amending certain terms of the lease, including but not limited to, an extension of the existing lease term for an amount of time not to exceed an additional fifty years and authorization to permit the tenant to construct a hotel on the property, at the tenant’s sole expense,” reads the latest resolution.

The public-private partnership first went before voters in 2016. They then approved a plan for a complex of four riverfront restaurants and event spaces and a fish market and oyster bar to be run by Garcia’s Seafood, along with a new portion of riverwalk.

The original lease was for 30 years with two options to renew for 10 years each, for a total of up to 50 years.

Riverside Wharf is to be a 200,000-square-foot, two-tower development anchored by a 165-room Dream Miami luxury hotel.