Miami-Dade County commissioners have grown fond of awarding no-bid redevelopment deals involving county-owned land to politically plugged-in developers.
But the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) derailed their efforts to expand the practice to county-owned public housing sites where tenants receive federal rental assistance.
At the county commission’s June 2nd meeting, staff is scheduled to provide them with an update that the no-bid deals cannot move forward.
HUD’s public housing czar refused to sign off on two separate county lease agreements for multiple public housing sites in South and North Miami-Dade, pointing out lack of competitive bidding could raise ethical dilemmas that result in federal audits and other enforcement actions.
On March 13, Miami Dade Housing and Community Development Executive Director Nathan Kogon received a letter from Janice Clark, HUD’s public housing director that said:
“After careful consideration, we are unable to approve your request…our determination was reached only after thoughtful review and risk assessment which included but was not limited to a conflict of interest, concerns regarding transparency, accountability, and fairness, and lastly, multiple potential noncompliance issues that could expose your agency to audit findings, questioned costs, or other enforcement actions.”
On behalf of the Miami-Dade County Commission, Kogon had sought HUD’s blessing for a pair of no-bid deals championed by county commissioners Kionne McGhee and Marleine Bastien. The lucky developers: An entity led by Michael Swerdlow, Alben Duffie and Stephen Garchik, and a joint venture led by Miami-based Pinnacle Housing, respectively.
McGhee, who represents cities and communities in South Miami-Dade, pushed for Swerdlow and his partners to gain control of approximately 44 acres with a combined 390 public housing apartments. Swerdlow, Duffie and Garchik proposed to build around 600 apartments, including units to replace the existing rental assistance apartments, as well an undetermined number of for sale townhomes that would be sold at the same prices as homes sold under Miami-Dade affordable housing programs.
The partners offered to pay the county $5,000 for each townhome sold, a 30 percent share of the developer’s fee and 10 percent of the cash flow from the rental units, per county documents.
Michael Swerdlow (left) and Pinnacle Housing’s David Deutch (right) led development groups that go no-bid deals to redevelop Miami-Dade public housing sites.
In Miami’s Little River neighborhood, which is part of Bastien’s North Miami-Dade district, she gave her seal of approval for Pinnacle and Smith & Henzy to take over three public housing sites with a combined 232 public housing units. The duo wants to build three separate projects with 821 apartments and 22 for sale townhomes.
Under a 99-year lease, Pinnacle and Smith & Henzy agreed to pay Miami-Dade a total of $704.7 million in rent over the life of the agreement, plus $16.8 million in additional benefits, such as 15 percent of the developer’s fee and net cash flow, county documents show.
McGhee and Bastien were able to bypass Miami-Dade’s own procurement rules utilizing a 2022 county commission-approved administrative order that started off as a way for elected officials to spearhead redevelopment deals for surplus land owned by the Miami-Dade government. The pair sought to expand the practice to public housing sites that the county took over from HUD under the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration program.
The obvious conflict is that county commissioners can cut these deals with their favorite developers without any meaningful vetting. However, the no-bid deals for the public housing sites still required HUD’s greenlight.
In her March 13 letter to Miami-Dade’s Kogon, HUD’s Clark explained that federal rules supersede local no-bidding practices like the county’s:
“Federal procurement rules by design are structured to ensure that taxpayer dollars are expended in a manner that provides full, fair, and open competition…Specifically, when the federal rules are more stringent, the federal rules preempt state and local authorities as applied to public funds.”
In other words, county commissioners can’t play the game of rewarding developers who fund their campaigns when federal funds and federal programs are involved.
Swerdlow, through various entities, is among the largest donors to the campaigns of county commissioners running for reelection this August, dropping $105,000 to all the incumbents according to 2026 first quarter finance reports analyzed by the Miami Herald.
Pinnacle principals David Deutch and Louis Wolfson, along with their spouses, each gave $1,000 to three incumbent county commissioners seeking reelection this year: Juan Carlos Bermudez, Danielle Cohen Higgins and Micky Steinberg. The duo also gave a combined $10,000 to New Leadership for Miami, one of dozens of political action committees chaired by Christian Ulvert, the political consultant who managed the campaigns of Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins. Ulvert is managing the campaign of Cohen Higgins.
McGhee automatically won reelection in 2024 with no opposition. Still, in the first quarter of this year, a Swerdlow entity donated $25,000, and Deutch and Wolfson each kicked in $5,000 to 1 South Dade, a political action committee chaired by McGhee.
Last year, McGhee also sponsored a resolution amending a previous no-bid deal with Swerdlow involving his pending $8.1 million purchase of 17 acres of county-owned land near Florida City where the developer is planning to build a Costco. County commissioners approved McGhee’s request to hire Swerdlow to build a 400-unit workforce housing apartment project on a portion of a 22-acre parking lot and storage facility adjacent to the Costco site. The county would pay Swerdlow a 3 percent developer’s fee based on the construction cost.
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