Miami-Dade historic courthouse bids to start at $52.3M

MIAMI – With A. Ten Eyck Brown as the architect in 1925, it took about three years to build a 27-story neo-classical skyscraper in Miami to house City Hall, a courthouse, and a jail.

In 1989, the U.S. National Register of Historic Places deemed the building with a ziggurat-shaped cap, at 73 W. Flagler St., worthy of preservation. Maintaining it proved challenging.

In 2021, it was home to the civil courthouse when it evacuated over safety concerns after 98 people died when a 12-floor condominium partially collapsed in Surfside.

Miami-Dade County officials have been searching for a buyer. Property records show the assessed value is over $43 million. An upcoming bid starts at $52.3 million.

According to the county’s invitation, the pre-bid conference is July 15, tours are July 27 and Aug. 3, the deadline for questions is Aug. 23, and the deadline for bids is Sept. 4.

Eleventh Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Nushin G. Sayfie and former Chief Judge Bertila Soto released a statement to the Daily Business Review saying they felt the move out of the “iconic building” was “bittersweet” and they were “hopeful” the next owner was going to “put much less stress on it.”