Moishe Mana
Real estate developer Moishe Mana sued the Miami Parking Authority after the city agency agreed to lease land in downtown Miami to another developer.
Mana alleges in his civil suit that the parking authority failed to issue a proper notice detailing the bidding process for leasing land at 240 North Miami Avenue, across from the federal courthouse in downtown Miami. Mana wants a Miami-Dade county judge to undo the land lease to a rival company, Grand Station Partners.
The Miami parking Authority awarded the land lease to Grand Station after the development company proposed expanding an existing parking garage on the site and erecting a 33-story rental apartment building on the site’s remaining vacant land, measuring approximately 37,000 square feet.
Mana owns a lot measuring 14,300 square feet next to the parking authority’s property and wanted to combine both sites for his own development, which would include a bigger expansion the existing parking garage there.
In the suit Mana filed in the Eleventh Judicial Court of Florida, he claims the parking authority’s bidding process was unfair because the agency failed to publish notices in newspapers for a two-week period to disclose an unsolicited offer for the property
After Mana became aware of the unsolicited offer by Grand Station Partners, he proposed his own development of the parking authority’s property. But the authority’s board voted Tuesday to accept Grand Station’s offer, according to Miami Today.
Mana alleged in his suit that Art Noriega, chief of the Miami Parking Authority, approved Grand Station’s proposal because he is a friend of Grand Station executive Oscar Rodriguez.
But Robert Burlington, an attorney for Grand Station, told the Miami Herald that Mana failed to win the land lease because Grand Station proposed a better project: “He didn’t come forward with as good a proposal as Oscar’s and the entire MPA board recognized that. This wasn’t Mr. Noriega’s decision alone.” [Miami Herald] — Mike Seemuth
No comments:
Post a Comment