Gables vice mayor sits out vote as city starts over on land sale to politician’s bosses

Despite controversy and some hesitation from elected officials and residents, the Coral Gables City Commission voted 4-0 Tuesday to move forward with the sale of a city-owned parking lot to a buyer whose backers also happen to be Vice Mayor Michael Mena’s bosses.

With administrators defending the proposal, commissioners voted in support of an amended ordinance to sell the surface lot at 350 Greco Ave. for $3.525 million to Delaware-registered JRFQ Holdings, LLC.

The partners behind the listed buyer also own the MSP Recovery Law Firm, where Mena has been employed since July 2019.

Mena made the relationship known when he voted earlier this month for the sale in the first of two required approvals. At the time, he said he would not be recusing himself after receiving an opinion from city attorney Miriam Soler Ramos that he could vote without conflict. Mena also told the Miami Herald that his relationship with JRFQ Holdings partners John Ruiz and Frank Quesada, a former Coral Gables commissioner, was “hardly a secret.”

But on Tuesday, after activists questioned the ethics of the transaction, Mena recused himself even as City Manager Peter Iglesias dismissed criticisms. Mena wrote in a text message that he abstained “to ensure the public trust” in the decision made by commissioners about the property.

Though the commission voted previously for the sale, they started fresh Tuesday without Mena, and will vote again on the deal in June.

“There has been nothing wrong done here. Nothing. I say that into the record,” Iglesias said.

A history of the sale

The city most recently considered the sale in December 2019, when a company that owned an adjacent parcel, BF Group, LLC, expressed its interest in the lot. An appraisal was conducted and valued at $3.35 million. Then in October 2020, BF Group sold its land next door to the city lot to “an entity who also had members in common with JRFQ Holdings,” according to a city presentation.

In November 2020, negotiations began between JFRQ’s attorney, Iglesias and Ramos. A $3.525 million contract was made for the sale of the property, subject to the approval of the city commission.

This year, in March and April, four city advisory boards recommended the approval of the proposed sale. On May 11 the commission took an initial vote to authorize the agreement, which was followed by Tuesday’s vote.

Commissioners will yet vote again on the sale June 8, which has been amended since the initial vote to be worth $3.525 million, from $3.5 million, and requires the developer to provide 34 public parking spaces and accompanying electric vehicle charging stations. It’s still unclear what the developer plans to build on the surface lot, which most recently served as the city’s COVID-19 testing site.

The city waived city procurement code provisions that require public land worth more than $1 million go to a publicly advertised bidding process.

On Tuesday, Iglesias said the sale to a next-door owner is optimal, since the relatively small parcel of land on its own would be “difficult to develop on its own.”

He added that while “this project may be a little pain,” there was no wrongdoing in reaching the deal, acknowledging some of the concerns of residents who worry about the ethics and transparency of the sale.

Iglesias said he never met with Mena or Quesada on the sale, and only dealt with the buyers’ attorney.

Residents not happy

Coral Gables Neighbors Association Secretary Leon Kellner called for Mena and Ramos to resign over the handling of the sale in an open letter published May 17 on behalf of the association.

Kellner took issue with the lack of information provided by the city as the sale moved through the process, the waiving of the bid requirement and the connections between the buyer and the city commission. He asked that the city delay the vote.

“The saga of 350 Greco Avenue is an embarrassment to our City Government and demonstrates that Commissioner Mena and his enabler, City Attorney Miriam Ramos, have overstayed their welcome and it is time for them to resign,” he wrote. “Our government is not made up of rational folks but rather those who want to take advantage of us, the residents.”

Attorney David Winker, who often represents groups of residents in Coral Gables, sent a letter earlier in the month to the city attorney and the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, alleging Mena’s vote was prohibited under Florida law.

During the meeting Tuesday, Arthur Cullen, owner of nearby restaurant Havana Harry’s, also said the commission should delay the vote. His customers depend heavily on the parking spaces the lot provides, he said, and he worried about the lack of notice given to himself and surrounding business.

“I only knew of the impending sale a few weeks ago,” he said.

Commissioners showed some concern

Mayor Vince Lago, who has heard about the proposed sale from residents, said he took issue with the fact that there is no requirement to notify neighbors about the sale of public land.

“It’s important to notify the adjacent businesses and talk about a plan for parking in the one or two years [of construction],” he said. “This is going to be an issue for businesses.”

Newly elected Commissioner Rhonda Anderson acknowledged residents’ worries, and wondered if an open bid process would make people feel better about the deal.

Commissioner Jorge Fors acknowledged the worries of residents, too, but argued that in the early iterations of the sale “nobody cared.” Now that Ruiz and Quesada are involved, “allegations of impropriety fly,” he said.

“At the end of the day, it’s the same deal but different name,” he said. “I get that it looks bad ... but like many things in life, things look bad and you look at the facts and they’re not bad. I really focused on the facts.”

Fors noted that the price is the highest it could be according to a two-month-old appraisal, which he defended as a beneficial sale for the city.

At the end of the discussion, he joked: “If anyone wants to offer more, you can find the city manager’s email on the website”