Jeffrey Soffer-Stephen Ross joint airport hotel contract on runway

A county committee this week is to dig into a contract to build and run a new Miami International Airport four-star hotel with two national giants of the real estate business who are well known in Miami, the owners of the Miami Dolphins and the Fontainebleau Miami Beach.

Reversing a firm stance she took in December, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is now bringing the proposal to the committee to expedite a lease for a 451-room hotel with a firm controlled by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and Fontainebleau owner Jeffrey Soffer.

The contract is signed by Mr. Soffer for their jointly owned FDR Miami. The real estate powerhouses have worked together on projects including the Marriott Courtyard Downtown Boston and a private service center at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, which like Miami International is under the wing of the Miami-Dade County Aviation Department.

After two unions objected in December, the mayor blocked a lease that a selection panel last August had recommended go to FDR Miami. The mayor then called for a new request for proposals (RFP) focused on workers, local hiring, the environment and community benefits.

But now she cites rapid air traffic growth and says “an entirely new RFP could delay forward progress on this important infrastructure project that is key to our continued growth at the airport.” Also, she says that FDR Miami cut new deals with the objecting unions and “it’s critical that we take full advantage of this RFP to invest in our local workforce.”

In the 1.82-acre, 50-year lease, FDR would design, build, finance, operate and maintain a four-star hotel. The county anticipates $240 million total from FDR, starting at $197,832 rent the first year at $2.50 per foot. Rent would rise yearly and total about $20 million over the 50 years.

But the bigger payout would begin in the fourth year as the hotel opened, when the county would get the larger of $2.5 million annually guaranteed or 3.5% of gross receipts, calculated each month. The guarantee would rise with the Consumer Price Index and is expected to total $220 million – the county counts on far more as 3.5% of gross comes to exceed the guarantee.

FDR would build and run an all-day full-service restaurant and bar; rooftop restaurant; pool with terrace; business, meeting and event space; fitness center; a spa, and valet service. There is no mention of attempting to be a convention hotel, which was in earlier plans for a new airport hotel.

The hotel is to sit east of the Dolphin Garage and south of the terminal in an area where the once-planned Airport City was to rise, linking to Concourse D via a climate-controlled bridge with moving sidewalk. FDR would pay standard airport rates for exclusive use of 200 parking spaces in that garage or elsewhere at the airport for the hotel valet service.

The lease that the county’s Airports and Economic Development Committee is to weigh in on this week and recommend full county commission action on June 21 says the flag under which the hotel will operate is Westin Hotels & Resorts.

The legislation does not mention the current hotel at the airport, the 63-year-old, 252-room Miami International Airport Hotel that has been a thorn in the side of county government for 20 years as officials several times sought to oust operators and deal with operating irregularities.

That hotel is built into the heart of the main terminal at Concourse E.