Miami-Dade County Commission Chairman Anthony Rodriguez wants to hand political donors a rent-free 99-year lease

When Miami-Dade County dropped $182 million in 2024 to buy the old Florida Power & Light office complex at 9250 West Flagler Street, Anthony Rodriguez made sure there was a catch. Before the vote in 2024, the then- county commission vice chairman tacked on an amendment directing the mayor's office to start planning for workforce and affordable housing on some of the 26-acre property, which the county is converting into the West Dade Government Center.

Two years later, Rodriguez — now county commission chairman — knows exactly who should build the multifamily component without seeking competitive bids: A trio of developers who have generously donated to his political action committee, A Bolder Florida, and who are involved in other real estate deals for county-owned land.

At Tuesday’s Oct. 20 county commission meeting, Rodriguez is seeking his colleagues’ blessing for Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to negotiate a 99-year, rent-free lease with Flagler TOC Development Partners.

It’s a partnership involving well-connected players: Alex Lastra, a developer and former Latin Builders Association president whom Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to th; Jose Gonzalez, a former longtime executive with Florida East Coast Industries and its passenger rail subsidiary Brightline; and Ivan Herrera, the insurance and healthcare mogul behind Univista Insurance and UniVida Medical Centers.

Flagler TOC would take control of nearly six acres to build a 800-unit apartment 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." In other words, not a single dollar to the county for 99 years.

Lastra, Gonzalez and Herrera are already partners on Miami-Dade land. Last year, the trio took over Palmetto Station, a workforce housing project at the Palmetto Metrorail station in Medley that sits on 18.3 acres the county is leasing under a 90-year term. Developer Resia had walked away, and the new team expanded the project to more than 1,100 units.

Herrera, who partially sold his Univista empire for $700 million, launched a real estate development firm, Unicapital Asset Management Group, in 2025.

The Flagler deal also lands as Rodriguez faces scrutiny over how he treats those who fill his political committee's coffers. In July, the Miami Herald reported that the county's tax-funded tourism bureau gave A Bolder Florida 11 World Cup skybox tickets worth $38,500. Two months later, Rodriguez secured an extra $5 million in property-tax dollars for the bureau.

Rodriguez, who raised $2 million for his committee last year, is the top fundraiser on the county commission. As chairman, he controls the commission's agenda.

Through their companies, Lastra, Gonzalez and Herrera donated a combined $51,000 between 2024 and 2025 to A Bolder Florida, campaign finance reports show. Gonzalez's GLC Real Estate made the largest contribution, $25,000, on Nov. 4, 2024. The firm also gave $1,000 on May 22, 2025 and $10,000 on Dec. 12, 2025.

Herrera's UniVida Medical Center gave $5,000 on Oct. 4, 2024, and another $5,000 on March 12, 2025. Lastra's Desarrollo Florida chipped in $2,500 on May 30, 2024, $1,500 on March 14, 2025, and $1,000 on May 29, 2025.

Desarrollo Florida's first check for A Bolder Florida rolled in five days before county commissioners approved the Flagler Street purchase with Rodriguez's housing amendment attached.

Through an administrative procedure approved by county commissioners in 2022, developers can submit unsolicited proposals to build projects on surplus government land directly to a county commissioner. A commissioner can then seek approval from the 13-member body to waive competitive bidding and allow the mayor’s office to negotiate lease or development agreements with the entity that submitted the unsolicited proposal.

Rodriguez’s resolution to award Flagler TOC the six acres at the West Dade Government Center site bypassed mandated reviews by a county commission committee and the County Auditor’s office, the county commission’s in-house watchdog “in order to expedite this lease and development agreement."

The legislation also asks county commissioners to waive, by a two-thirds vote, rules requiring the mayor's office to hold at least two public meetings with residents and stakeholders near the property and to produce a written statement of community benefits before the board considers a housing deal.

The resolution gives Levine Cava's staff just 30 days to complete due diligence — involving updated appraisals, title work and a review of who actually owns the development company — and bring back a finalized lease for approval.

If something gets in the way, the resolution instructs the administration to "take all necessary steps to resolve such issues to the extent possible to lease the premises to the developer." That directive applies even "if the developer does not provide the requested and necessary information."

Flagler TOC appears to have been working on its proposal for more than a year. The draft lease includes conceptual renderings for the project labeled "MDC Flagler Campus – Mixed Use” that are dated on May 16, 2025. Flagler TOC hired lobbyists Oscar Braynon II and Edgar Castro with The Southern Group, who registered to represent the company in early July 2025, county records show. The term sheet is time-stamped Aug. 14.

To justify the land giveaway, Flagler TOC is dangling in-kind contributions and community benefits that "collectively exceed the full fair market value of the premises," the term sheet said. The document also states that the fair market value is based on two county appraisals, but those valuations were not included in the resolution or the term sheet.

The biggest carrot is the garage, which will have 800 dedicated spaces for the county, as well as spaces for potential apartment tenants. The garage’s cost is valued at $20.1 million, according to the term sheet. In addition, Flagler TOC would fund an affordable housing subsidy for lower-income units valued at $14.9 million; $3.1 million for Art in Public Places and $750,000 for road improvements and a park.

Flagler TOC would build the project in two phases with the first portion consisting of 400 apartments and the garage. The second phase would entail the remaining 400 multifamily units and an expansion of the garage to accommodate more tenants and more county parking.

The developer will own and operate the garage, but Miami-Dade would be on the hook for a “pro rata share” of the annual operations and maintenance costs.

In other words, the $20.1 million garage will still belong to the developers, built partly on land the county already uses for parking, and that Miami-Dade will help maintain for the next 99 years.

The number of so-called affordable and workforce housing units that would be made available by Flagler TOC also raises concerns about the deal. Only 100 of the 800 apartments would be reserved for households earning at or below 80 percent or 100 percent of Miami-Dade’s area median income, which currently is $89,800. The other 700 units would be set aside for households earning up to 120 percent of AMI, including 200 units with preference for county employees.

In Miami-Dade, 120 percent of AMI for 2026 is $114,480 for a single person and $163,440 for a family of four, according to the University of Florida's Shimberg Center for Housing Studies. The maximum rent at that level is $3,066 a month for a one-bedroom and $3,678 for a two-bedroom.

That's housing a lot of Miami-Dade residents can't afford. Meanwhile, the county faces a shortfall of more than 90,000 affordable units for households earning below 80 percent of AMI, according to Miami Homes For All.

The developers also get a very friendly completion timeline. They would have two years to secure zoning and site plan approvals, another two and a half years to start construction, and four years to finish the first subphase. Each deadline can be extended. They can also buy two more years past the completion deadline for $10,000 a month. The second phase gets an extra three years on every milestone.

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