Should Miami sell part of Watson Island? Voters will decide on plan for condos, park
City of Miami voters will decide the fate of a proposed development on Watson Island, which would include luxury condominiums and a 13.3-acre city park.
The Miami City Commission approved the wording of the ballot question at its meeting on Thursday. Now it’s up to voters to decide on the November ballot whether the project will go forward.
If approved, developers would pay $135 million to buy or lease 5.4 acres of city-owned land on the north side of Watson Island to build condos. Another 10.7-acre parcel on the south side has already been leased to a different developer. Under the plan that will be on the ballot, that developer would be able to sell 3.2 acres of that lot and would use the remainder to build a condo hotel.
The developers on the north side of the island would be required to leave 13.3 acres on Watson Island to the city to use for a park. District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo said the park would support educational programs, including partnerships with the Pérez Art Museum Miami and the Frost museum.
Developers on the north side of the island would also foot the bill for the park, Pardo said. That would include the estimated $38 million it would cost to build it and about $2 million a year to maintain it.
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The two agenda items related to the project were passed as part of a consent agenda at the commission meeting, so commissioners did not discuss or vote upon them individually.
The proposed project spans both the northern and southern portions of Watson Island, which is divided in half by the MacArthur Causeway. Watson Island is what Pardo calls “prime” Miami real estate. He told the Miami Herald he is “thrilled” about the project.
“I’ve never seen a deal with so much public benefit,” Pardo told the Herald on Thursday after the items passed.
One of the developers behind the project on the north side of the island, Ecoresiliency Miami LLC, said it would spend the coming months sharing their vision for the site with voters, calling it an “innovative project [that] will deliver much needed public green space to Miami taxpayers.”
“We are pleased to have received approval to move forward with a referendum that allows voters to decide the future of Watson Island this November,” they said in a statement.
The 5.4-acre lot would become the site of 600 condominium units. In addition to the condo building and the city park, development on the island would include shops and office space, as well as a bay walk.
As a part of the deal, developers on both the north and south sides of the island would be required to contribute a combined total of $24 million for affordable housing and infrastructure projects throughout the city.
District 4 Commissioner Manolo Reyes told the Herald he supports using the majority of the contribution for affordable housing. But he supports using some of the money for infrastructure projects, like improved drainage to mitigate flooding.
Pardo was less enthusiastic about using the contribution for affordable housing. Instead, he said it should go toward infrastructure projects to improve the city’s climate resiliency. Pardo’s District 2, which includes Watson Island and much of the city’s waterfront, is particularly prone to flooding and climate-related damage.
“Of course I worry about affordable housing, but everything stops if we have a really cataclysmic climate event,” Pardo said. “That’s what I worry about the most.”
Both commissioners said they expect the ballot measure to pass in November.
