South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
A field of dreams
Fort Lauderdale still waiting on David Beckham, Inter Miami to deliver promised park
FORT LAUDERDALE — Some see only a field of weeds.
But the grassy 20-acre parcel south of Inter Miami’s DRV PNK stadium is so much more.
On game day, the land northwest of Interstate 95 and Commercial Boulevard becomes an overflow parking lot for soccer fans.
But one day, it’s supposed to be transformed into a long-promised park. For now, no one can say when the field of weeds will turn into a field of dreams.
Four years ago, soccer star David Beckham and his partners made a deal with Fort Lauderdale to build a $170 million stadium in return for a 50-year, rent-free lease of cityowned land at the old Lockhart Stadium site. In return, residents would get a sprawling park with a playground, dog park, walking trail, fitness area, yoga lawn, sports field, kickball zone and open green space.
Inter Miami built the 18,000-seat stadium in record time. But the pandemic and other unexpected delays have stalled the park, city officials say.
Under the original deal, the team’s owners promised city officials they would transform the taxpayer-owned land into a public park by July 2022.
That deadline has come and gone.
Growing restless
Last year, commissioners extended the deadline to July 2023. But work has yet to begin.
In the meantime, residents are growing restless.
“We want to see a field of weeds converted to a park,” said Donna Mergenhagen, president of the nearby Palm-Aire Village Condo Association. “We’re still waiting. It would be nice to drive by and not see an eyesore.”
Commissioner John Herbst says he’s on a mission to get the park built as quickly as possible.
Herbst, whose district includes the stadium, has met twice in recent weeks with Inter Miami officials but says negotiations have already hit a snag.
Inter Miami now wants taxpayers to cover $6 million in demolition costs and another $1.3 million in building permits, Herbst told his colleagues during a recent City Hall meeting.
The commission plans to discuss the matter during its next conference meeting on March 7.
Mayor Dean Trantalis defended Inter Miami, saying city officials have not yet agreed on what they want in the park.
In late 2021, Inter Miami officials floated the idea of bringing a professional women’s soccer league to town. If city leaders were to sign off on the deal, a training facility and practice field would rise on land south of the stadium, whittling away space left for the public park.
“We kept coming up with different ideas,” Trantalis said. “We talked about doing a skateboard park. We talked about an e-sports facility. We talked about doing a tennis academy with Chris Evert. The commission has not even decided what the final product will be.”
Trantalis says a new idea has since come up for a Rafael Nadal tennis academy complete with residential dorms. He could not say how much room would be left for a park if the tennis academy were built.
Stephanie Toothaker, an attorney and lobbyist for Miami Beckham United, could not be reached for comment.
Spending $1 billion in Miami
Under the agreement, the city also has the option of building the park at Beckham United’s expense — a fact mentioned by Toothaker in previous public meetings. But both Herbst and his predecessor,
Heather Moraitis, gave that idea a thumbs down.
“I want them to build the park,” Herbst told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “They can get it done quicker than we can.”
Last year, Miami sealed a deal with Beckham and company to build a 25,000seat stadium for the team on Miami’s only city-owned golf course.
The $1 billion project known as Freedom Park also calls for an office park, hotel, retail village and 58-acre public park.
Fort Lauderdale will continue to host games for the next few years until
the Miami stadium opens, Herbst said.
Here’s the sticking point: When work begins on the park in Fort Lauderdale, the stadium will lose its overflow parking.
“For the past several years, Inter Miami has been utilizing the park space for parking,” Herbst said. “That’s something we can’t allow to continue because we’ll never get the park completed if we continue to use it for the next four years as a parking lot. That’s not an acceptable solution.”
Miami officials have said they want the stadium open by 2025, but Herbst says he’s been told it might not be ready to open until 2027.
Get it done
Moraitis, who left office in November, says she’s watching the negotiations closely.
“They built the stadium in six months,” she said of Inter Miami. “I hope they can get our park built in six months.”
The parking problem has historically stood in the way of the park, Moraitis said.
“Right now Inter Miami is trying to figure out where patrons can park if they close down the 20-acre site they’re using for parking,” Moraitis said. “That’s the issue. That’s what the issue’s always been. And they just tap dance around it.”
Mary Peloquin, who sits on the board of the Coral Ridge Civic Association, has grown tired of waiting.
“I find it infuriating,” she said. “The deal was they were going to build a park. Now all these other ideas have been thrown out there. It’s supposed to be a park. Right now it’s a parking lot.”
Peloquin was exasperated to learn that yet another plan has floated up in recent weeks.
“It’s not supposed to be anything else but a park for the residents. That was the deal. It’s just kind of maddening to have these other things pop up.”
Mergenhagen, the neighborhood leader from PalmAire, is also eager to see a park built.
“If tennis is so popular why are we converting tennis courts into pickleball courts?” she said. “We seem to be very good at making other people money on public land in this city. Most of my neighbors feel like we are the orphan part of Fort Lauderdale. Many promises were made and none of them have come to pass. The park is just one more.”
Herbst told the Sun Sentinel no one from Inter Miami had mentioned the idea of a tennis academy to him just yet. But he, for one, doesn’t like the idea.
“Anything that takes away open space is not what we promised the residents,” he said. “They are carving away what the residents were promised. This is going to be a pocket park by the time they’re done with it.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsen tinel.com or on Twitter @ Susannah_Bryan