County may name its South Dade arts complex for ex-commissioner

Three Miami-Dade commissioners are sponsoring a resolution to suspend county rules in order rename the 961-seat South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center for former commissioner Dennis C. Moss.

The resolution, on the commission agenda today (7/7), would change the name of the county-owned complex to the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center, removing the county’s name. County rules would have to be suspended because they now bar such a naming.

The resolution bypassed normal committee review of county legislation. A vote today would be final.

The two-building complex at 10950 SW 211th St. in Cutler Bay was the second-largest of a handful of arts and cultural centers funded by county bond borrowing early in this century. The largest arts complex, the two-building Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, was named for the $30 million donor who helped to fund the county project. No donation is mentioned in the legislation to rename the South Dade complex.

The South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center won county commission approval in 2005, with then-commissioner Moss a strong supporter.

Construction began soon after, but a string of delays and construction flaws prevented completion of the $38.5 million complex until it finally opened in 2011.

The project, designed by famed Miami architectural firm Arquitectonica International Inc., included, according to the county website, a “961-seat state-of-the-art theater,” a separate activities building with smaller studio space for lectures and other events, and an outdoor promenade between the two.

The legislation before commissioners notes that Mr. Moss was first elected to represent his area in 1993 and left office Nov. 17, 2020 “due to term limits.”
The resolution by commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins and Kionne L. McGhee, sponsored by commission Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz, also notes a list of community organizations in which Mr. Moss has been active.

The resolution notes that county rules say that three-fifths of members present can “name a county road, facility or property after a living individual who ‘has made a direct, significant lifetime contribution to this community.’”

But those same rules say that the renaming “may not be for any elected municipal, county, state or federal official currently serving or having served in any elective office within the last five years.” That period would exclude Mr. Moss.

To overcome that prohibition, the resolution would simultaneously name the cultural center for Mr. Moss and by two-thirds vote suspend the rule that such renaming could not be done.

Beyond arts centers, naming of some county assets has entailed payments to the county. Last year county commissioners approved a $135 million, 19-year deal for the naming of the county’s FTX Arena, also designed by Arquitectonica. Commissioners did not seek any corporate naming deal for the South Dade arts center.