Alex Lastra, Jose Gonzalez and Ivan Herrera showered nearly $460K to PACs tied to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and 10 county commissioners.
Anthony Rodriguez isn’t the only Miami-Dade County elected official blessed with tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions from a developer trio gunning for a no-bid, rent-free lease to build an apartment project on six acres of county-owned land.
Entities linked to Alex Lastra, Jose Gonzalez and Ivan Herrera pumped $458,000 into political action committees supporting Rodriguez, nine of his county commission colleagues and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Recently, The Miamian reported about county commission chairman Rodriguez sponsoring the resolution to award a portion of the county’s West Dade Government Center site to Flagler TOC Development Partners, which is managed by companies owned by Lastra, Gonzalez and Herrera. The trio, through entities they control, donated a combined $51,000 to Rodriguez’s A Bolder Florida PAC between 2024 and 2025, campaign finance records show.
The item is on today’s county commission Oct. 20 agenda and requires approval from two-thirds of the 13-member body to waive competitive bidding and allow Levine Cava’s staff to negotiate the lease agreement, as well as waive rules requiring public outreach meetings and a community benefits statement.
The Miamian searched campaign finance reports for PACs listed on the Florida Division of Elections and Miami-Dade County Elections Office databases, identifying contributions from Gonzalez’s GLC companies, Lastra's Desarrollo Florida, and Herrera's Univista, UniVida and Unicapital entities, as well as the three men personally, between Oct. 19, 2024 and Oct. 19, 2026.
Lastra is a former Latin Builders Association president whom Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to the Florida Transportation Commission. Gonzalez is a former longtime executive with Florida East Coast Industries and its passenger rail subsidiary Brightline. And Herrera is an insurance and healthcare mogul behind Univista Insurance and UniVida Medical Centers.
Flagler TOC wants to build an 800-unit affordable and workforce housing project and a parking garage that will include hundreds of spaces for county employees as partial compensation for the sweetheart deal. Under the term sheet attached to the resolution, "no additional monetary rent shall be payable under the lease," which will run 99 years.
In 2024, Miami-Dade paid $182 million for the old Florida Power & Light office complex at 9250 West Flagler Street – a purchase that generated intense scrutiny and criticism due to the county initially agreeing to pay $205 million, a price well above two independent appraisals. The county is planning on renovating the complex into the West Dade Government Center. The complex’s renovation costs have ballooned from $73 million to $255 million.
Only three county commissioners – Keon Hardemon, Micky Steinberg and René García – have not received contributions from Lastra, Gonzalez and Herrera.
Overall, the companies controlled by Gonzalez (GLC Real Estate and GLC Development Ventures), Lastra (Desarrollo Florida, plus Lastra personally) and Herrera (Univista, UniVida and Unicapital entities, plus Herrera personally) made 108 political contributions totaling $458,000.
The following infographic breaks down how much each elected official received from the three developers:
Thanks for your support
If you are receiving The Miamian that means that you genuinely care about staying up to date about true crime, corruption and controversy that infects daily life in the Magic City and across the Sunshine State. The Miamian’s purpose to serve as a source of news and analysis about the machinations going on at city halls, government centers, civil and criminal courts.
The Miamian is also a resource where you will find a steady diet of deep-dive, longform journalism about powerful people and how they wield their influence, crime capers involving shady colorful characters and volatile topics that have a direct impact on the daily lives of South Floridians.
Thank you for coming on this journey as a subscriber. Your support will help The Miamian continue growing in reach. We hope you will share The Miamian with your friends and neighbors.
Francisco Alvarado
Share The Miamian!