NBC 6 South Florida
“How corporate landlords impact South Florida's housing market”
WLRN
“Highest in nation: 1 in 6 Miami homes sold to investors, crowding out traditional homebuyers”
Tampa Bay Times
“Florida homes owned by corporate investors: 117,000 — and counting”
In 2021, Miami voters rejected a 75-year lease of this same public waterfront — every precinct counted. City Hall didn’t listen. A court settlement put it back on your ballot, on terms written in 2017 that the City is barred from renegotiating.
And the 69 words you’ll read in the booth? The City Attorney said it himself, on the record: the ballot language “is negotiated” with the developer — and “the court never reviewed that ballot language.”
They needed nine years and a court order to ask you again. You only need one word.
Vote NO →The financial terms in this lease were set in 2017 and never updated. Since then your rent, your insurance, your groceries and your property taxes have all gone up. Under this deal, the operator pays yesterday's rate to run your waterfront — and by the City's own numbers, Miami collects less than it does today.
Rent frozen at 2017 values
Less revenue than the City earns now
Nothing in your life is still priced at 2017. This deal is.
Out-of-state operator, private-equity funded
Miami profits leave Florida
They bought the neighborhood. Now they want the bay.
The tenant is Virginia Key LLC — a joint venture led by Suntex Marinas of Dallas, Texas, backed by private equity. The same class of investors buying up Florida homes and driving your housing costs would control 27.62 acres of Miami's shoreline. The profits get wired out of state. The consequences stay here.
Forty-five years, plus two fifteen-year renewals the tenant can trigger on its own. That is up to 75 years — three generations — with no binding requirement for affordable slips, no enforceable construction schedule, and parking the tenant may change at its own discretion. Everything voters are promised sits outside the contract.
Renewals at the tenant's sole discretion
No enforceable public-access guarantees
This lease will outlive almost everyone voting on it.
Only City of Miami voters decide this. Early voting Oct 24–31. Registration closes Oct 5. Bring someone with you.