The developer behind a long-delayed Miami Beach real estate luxury resort on Watson Island wants more time to acquire financing for the $640 million project on the city owned land.
Flagstone Island Gardens developer Mehmet Bayraktar, under pressure from city officials, on Tuesday offered $500,000 to cover back rent in exchange for extending deadlines to start the construction on the luxury Miami Beach real estate marina, hotel and retail complex he's been trying to build the entire decade.
Flagstone lawyer Alexander Tachmes, of Shutts & Bowen, wrote to Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado, ``We ask the city, in view of the global crisis we have seen, to work with Flagstone just as the federal government has worked with financial companies needing funds.''
Regalado this month showed his growing annoyance with the Island Gardens delays. The city commission is schedule to discuss the situation at Thursday's weekly meeting.
Bayraktar's company has missed a string of monthly rental payments for the Miami Beach waterfront property this year, risking the loss of the development agreement.
His plan would change Watson Island, which now houses only Jungle Island and the Miami Children's Museum, into a vacation destination, with two hotels and a mall fronting a luxury ``mega-yacht'' marina. Construction crews never broke ground on the venture, regardless of a permitting, design and marketing effort that Flagstone said cost more than $40 million.
The letter shows that Bayraktar, a shopping-center magnate from Turkey, still wants to fight for the Miami Beach real estate project, Island Gardens. The city forced a February 2010 deadline for Bayraktar to start construction or risk the city offering the site to other developers.
The letter does not say how much more time Bayraktar wants. However, it says that he has all the permits needed to start building the Miami Beach waterfront property but still lacks construction dollars for the effort. According to the letter, as part of an extension deal, Bayraktar would open Flagstone's books to show the company spent $46 million on the project, which Miami voters approved in a November 2001 referendum.
Chairman of the City Commission, Marc Sarnoff, said he's skeptical of giving Bayraktar a lengthy extension but wants Miami to consider his offer. The project owes more than $400,000 in rent, Sarnoff said, and pays about $90,000 a month making the lease extremely valuable given Miami's dismal budget squeeze.
``The city can't afford the loss of $1 million a year in rent,'' he said. ``That's 10 police officers.''
Contributed by MLR Realty
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