COCONUT GROVE, FLA. (WSVN) – The City of Miami has revoked the land deal for a seven-acre proposed sports dome after a couple paid a big amount of money to develop it several years ago.
After hearing both sides of the issue on Thursday, Miami city commissioners voted in favor of removing the contract to build a controversial Biscayne Park land deal on 19th Street and Northeast Second Avenue.
The vote came hours after one of the proponents backed out of the deal.
“This is a collaboration. It’s crucial,” said one woman.
“It remains public land,” said another woman.
“It isn’t about us versus the Centners,” said Maureen Luna, the parent of an iPrep Academy student. “This is about us giving our commissioners an opportunity.”
Back in 2022, David and Leila Centner, who operate Centner Academy, a Pre-K to grade 12 private school in Miami, had a contract with the city.
Under the contract, Centner would pay $10 million to build the sports dome. The students at the school would have time reserved at the sports facility, and it would have been open to the public for certain hours.
But iPrep Academy wanted the land to expand their school and for affordable workforce housing. It is a plan that school board members said would benefit students.
“We had a plan that would bring additional educational seats,” said Miami-Dade District 2 School Board Member Dr. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall.
However, before the commissioners made a decision on how to move forward, in a surprise move, David Centner announced the couple was pulling out of the deal.
“We are still open to improving the park. We are not interested in spending $10 million in a dome sports park. Too much harassment,” said Centner.
Centner said he was backing out of what he described as an ambush.
“It shouldn’t be this hard to give away $10 million to the City of Miami. It really shouldn’t,” he said.
The deal was central to the state’s corruption case against former Miami Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, who’s facing criminal charges.
The Centners have denied any wrongdoing.
“All we wanted to do was beautify, and so, if somebody else wants to come up and donate money to beautify, we support that,” said Leila Centner.
The commissioners said they will discuss next steps on what will happen with this property.
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Kevin Boulandier
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