Miami-Dade is going to court to seize a fuel yard it passed on buying.<\/p>\n
In an 11-1 vote, the County Commission authorized<\/a> Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to pursue eminent domain<\/a> against the privately owned fuel depot on Fisher Island that supplies PortMiami.<\/p>\n The move targets a roughly 10-acre fuel tank farm that Chicago-based developer HRP Group<\/a> purchased last year for about $180 million and later offered to sell to Miami-Dade for $400 million.<\/p>\n Levine Cava and the Commission balked at the offer<\/a> this month, calling the price unreasonable for the depot, which has served the port for more than a century.<\/p>\n Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who cast the sole \u201cno\u201d vote, warned against running headfirst into a potentially costly property-seizure fight.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a decision that will impact this county for the next 50 years,\u201d she said. \u201cIt should not be made lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n Commissioner Oliver Gilbert, who is running for Congress<\/a>, sponsored the authorizing resolution<\/a>. He told reporters after Tuesday\u2019s vote that it\u2019s \u201cinsane\u201d to expect to buy a property and flip it only months later at a more than 100% markup, the Miami Herald<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n Cruise industry executives from MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean appeared at County Hall in support of the measure, characterizing it as vital to the port\u2019s future.<\/p>\n Under Florida\u2019s eminent domain law<\/a>, Miami-Dade must now observe a 30-day negotiation window before it can formally file a petition for the property.<\/p>\n Deputy Mayor Roy Coley said the county wants to settle on terms Levine Cava would accept, but stopped short of saying whether Fisher Island residents \u2014 who are suing both the county and HRP<\/a> \u2014 would be part of those talks.<\/p>\n If no agreement is reached, a jury will set the price.<\/p>\n HRP blamed the county for the issue, saying in a statement cited by NBC Miami<\/a> that \u201cyears and, frankly, decades of failure to plan for PortMiami infrastructure\u201d led to the current impasse. The company said it intends to contest the taking and see its planned residential projects<\/a> through.<\/p>\n HRP\u2019s local partners in the venture include \u201ccondo king\u201d Jorge Perez\u2019s Related Group and developer Russell Galbut, a former Board Chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.<\/p>\n