Miami-Dade County has unveiled features of its downtown redevelopment project, for which the county is offering about 17 acres of county owned land. Known as Metro Center, is the heart of 20 acres that serves as the seat of the local government.
The county aims to redevelop downtown and transform it into a 24-hour community. For that end the project is to include affordable workforce, and market-price housing, an intermodal terminal with a direct connection to Government Center Metrorail and Metromover, a cultural Art Campus with a new library and space for History Miami, and public and fleet parking. The downtown International Terminal, providing for all buses in the government center area, is to rise north of the Stephen P. Clark Center. The terminal is part of the People’s Transportation Plan Fy 2022-2026, approved by the county commissioners, and this is probably the most difficult aspect of the project.
The Redevelopment is also to include a new Juvenile Assessment Center with office and services spaces, office space to be used by the Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces department, recreation spaces, and a new County Commission Chamber including office space & conference room.
The project would have a daycare, Pre-K, and elementary, middle school and high school buildings.
Properties listed for redevelopment include Stephen P. Clark Center, commission chambers, Hickman Office Building, Hickman Parking garage and motor pool lot. Excluded from the project are the historically designated Dade County Courthouse, the new civil courthouse currently under P3 development, and the North River Towers. The Clark Building would remain intact.
Jess Linn, planning development manager of the Department of Regulatory & Economic Resources, said the project is comparable in scale to projects such as Hudson Yards in New York and the Salesforce transit terminal in San Francisco. With a total cost of $25 Billion, Hudson Yards is considered the most expensive real estate development in US history.