{"id":88557,"date":"2025-12-18T22:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/88557\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T22:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:47:13","slug":"judge-dismisses-complaint-against-miami-land-transfer-for-trumps-presidential-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/88557\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge dismisses complaint against Miami land transfer for Trump\u2019s presidential library"},"content":{"rendered":"

A judge in Miami has dismissed a complaint challenging a college\u2019s decision to gift prime downtown real estate for President Donald Trump\u2019s future presidential library<\/a>, clearing the way for the real estate developer-turned-president to build a towering monument to his political rise in an iconic stretch of the city.<\/p>\n

A local activist brought the lawsuit<\/a> against Miami Dade College, arguing the school\u2019s board didn\u2019t give sufficient public notice and violated the state\u2019s open government law<\/a> when board members voted in September to give away the nearly 3-acre (1.2-hectare) property in downtown Miami<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The site is a developer\u2019s dream and is valued at more than $67 million, according to a 2025 assessment by the Miami-Dade County property appraiser. One real estate expert wagered that the parcel \u2014 one of the last undeveloped lots on a palm tree-lined stretch of Biscayne Boulevard \u2014 could sell for hundreds of millions of dollars more.<\/p>\n

Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz had initially sided with Marvin Dunn, the retired professor and chronicler of local Black history who filed the case. In October, Ruiz temporarily blocked<\/a> the college from formally transferring the land while the challenge played out, setting a trial for next August<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But on Thursday, Ruiz ruled in favor of the college, dismissing Dunn\u2019s complaint without prejudice after the board redid the vote<\/a> on the land giveaway earlier this month at a more than four-hour-long public meeting that included fiery testimony on the issue.<\/p>\n

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Ruiz said her decision was not political but solely based on the narrow facts of the case and the confines of the open government law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis court is not deciding whether this is wise, whether the transaction is appropriate for one president or another, or for a library, or for a petting zoo. That is not what the court is here to decide,\u201d Ruiz said. <\/p>\n

Attorneys for the college maintain that the board did not violate state law, but argued that any alleged violation had been \u201cfully cured\u201d following the redo vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board has redone the vote just as plaintiff asked, and has considered this anew, truly deliberated on it and has again conveyed the land to the state,\u201d said Jennifer Hernandez, an attorney for the college.<\/p>\n

Though Ruiz dismissed Dunn\u2019s complaint, the judge acknowledged his decision to leverage his home to pay a court-ordered bond as part of the terms of her order temporarily blocking the land transfer.<\/p>\n

Ruiz described Dunn as someone \u201cwilling to put themselves, their money and their home on the line for the better good,\u201d adding, \u201cand I thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the college first voted in September to transfer the property to a fund controlled by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet, the GOP officials voted to transfer the land again, effectively putting the property under the control of the Trump family when they deeded it to the foundation for Trump\u2019s library. That foundation is led by three trustees: Eric Trump; Tiffany Trump\u2019s husband, Michael Boulos; and the president\u2019s attorney, James Kiley.<\/p>\n

Eric Trump has pledged the future library will be \u201cone of the most beautiful buildings ever built\u201d and \u201can Icon on the Miami skyline.\u201d Under local zoning rules, the best use of the property would be a towering condo building, according to one Miami real estate expert, who described the site as a potential \u201ccash cow.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press\/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America<\/a> is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge in Miami has dismissed a complaint challenging a college\u2019s decision to gift prime downtown real estate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1107,409,4144,1882,28,477,4142,48043,1137,4137,1105,30587,4175,123,125,124,99,412,4143,4227,1110],"class_list":["post-88557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-courts","tag-donald-trump","tag-eric-trump","tag-fl-state-wire","tag-florida","tag-general-news","tag-james-kiley","tag-jennifer-hernandez","tag-kate-payne","tag-lawsuits","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-marvin-dunn","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-politics","tag-ron-desantis","tag-tiffany-trump","tag-trump-lawsuits","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}