With Messi Incoming, Inter Miami Faces One Last Hurdle For New Stadium. It's Been Kept Quiet

Jorge Mas, the managing partner of Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami, told reporters last week that the start of construction for the team’s new stadium complex was “imminent.”

But the club, which Mas co-owns with David Beckham and just signed Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi, has yet to secure the necessary zoning changes that would clear the way for the 73-acre Miami Freedom Park development next to Miami International Airport.

The Miami-Dade County Commission has been quietly advancing amendments to zoning rules around Miami International Airport that currently prohibit developments that draw large crowds. The resolution, which would change the regulations around the airport’s “Outer Safety Zone,” makes no mention of Miami Freedom Park, but Inter Miami needs the rules to change in order to build a planned retail and restaurant complex adjacent to the stadium.

Construction of the stadium development gained new urgency this month after Messi announced his intention to join Inter Miami. Messi’s contract is reportedly worth $50M to $60M per year for 2.5 years with an option for 2026. His first game for Inter Miami is expected to be on July 21.

Inter Miami is aiming to finish the 25,000-seat stadium by the summer or fall of 2025.

Current zoning rules, which apply to developments within 5,200 feet of the end of an airport runway, prohibit the construction of residential developments, educational facilities, hospitals, religious facilities and “other buildings for public assemblage” that would draw crowds of more than 50 people.  

The proposed changes to the OSZ were first submitted in March and would amend the list of prohibited developments by removing the “other buildings for public assemblage” language and replacing it with a prohibition on the development of auditoriums and theaters. There is no mention of the planned development or the soccer franchise.

The rules change is the latest, and likely last, hurdle the team needs to clear in order to begin construction of Miami Freedom Park on the former site of the International Links Melreese Country Club located just east of Miami International Airport. The golf course, which was on city-owned land and was operated by the De Lucca family, closed in February to make way for the soccer complex. 

The stadium would sit outside the OSZ, but parts of a planned soccer village that would include restaurants and bars are inside the zone and would be subject to the prohibitions on facilities that attract more than 50 patrons. The zoning rules also apply to the area around Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport and the Miami Executive Airport. 

Miami Freedom Park is also planned to include an office building, a 750-room hotel and a 58-acre public park.

Miami-Dade County Commissioners passed the first reading of the ordinance adjusting the OSZ rules on April 4. It cleared the Miami-Dade Airport and Economic Development Committee on June 14 by a unanimous vote and will need to receive final approval from the commission before going into effect. 

A final vote has not yet been scheduled, but Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine's office has submitted a required social equity statement postdated to July 6, the date of the next County Commission meeting.

The letter outlines the proposed changes to the zoning rules and highlights some types of businesses that will be authorized under the new language. 

"It should be noted that under the proposed Ordinance nightclubs, restaurants, and amusement parks are allowed in the OSZ," Jimmy Morales, the county's chief operations officer, wrote in the letter.

The county mayor's office declined Bisnow's request for comment. Inter Miami and Mas didn't respond to requests for comment. 

Inter Miami has been working to build Miami Freedom Park since at least 2018, when around 60% of Miami voters approved plans to shutter the city golf course to make way for the stadium. 

Miami city commissioners approved a no-bid, 99-year ground lease of the site last April but the project was delayed in August after Miami-Dade County zoning and aviation officials told city officials that the stadium complex required approval from the county’s Aviation Department, which runs Miami International Airport and reviews plans in the OSZ. 

The Aviation Department first voiced concerns over the development in an April 2021 report that said the stadium could impact airport operations. It also took issue with the stadium’s proposed height, saying it posed a potential problem for planes using the longest runway at the airport immediately west of the site.

Inter Miami adjusted the stadium height to bring it into compliance with zoning requirements around the airport, according to an updated report from June 2022. 

Other officials are worried about the development’s impact on traffic. City Commissioner Manolo Reyes, the only commissioner who has consistently voted against the project, argued during a contentious meeting on June 9, 2022, that the development would choke surrounding roads with traffic and called for an independent study to look at how the project would impact congestion.

Reyes’ office and representatives for the Aviation Department didn't respond to Bisnow's request for comment.

Mas, who is also the chairman of the board and co-founder of construction firm MasTec, told reporters on a call last week that Inter Miami finalized a lease for the site in February.

“We applied for permits, we anticipate getting the go ahead to start doing all of the remediation, utilities, etc. any day now. That’s imminent,” he said, according to a Miami Herald report. “I would anticipate starting hopefully in the next two weeks. We’re going to be fast tracking everything, targeting having the stadium ready at some point in the summer or early fall of 2025.”

Under the terms of the ground lease, Inter Miami will pay at least $4.3M in annual rent or 6% of Miami Freedom Park’s gross revenue if that value surpasses the base lease rate. The commission also stipulated that Inter Miami would first build the stadium and adjacent 58-acre park before beginning construction on the planned hotel, offices and retail village. 

The team has also committed to an extensive environmental cleanup on the site. The former golf course was built atop a layer of toxic ash from an old municipal incinerator. 

Inter Miami currently plays at the 18,000-seat DRV PNK Stadium in Broward County, where the team debuted in 2020 after failing to find a suitable location in Miami. Mas said last week the club is working to add 3,000 seats to address the huge demand to see Messi play.

But Inter Miami is fighting with the city of Fort Lauderdale over building permit fees and the planned development of a park on a site that the team is using for overflow parking. 

Fort Lauderdale commissioners opted in May not to renew an agreement that gave Inter Miami access to Lockhart Park for parking. The decision was made during an impromptu discussion of the topic that hadn't been disclosed on the commission agenda.  

Commissioner John Herbst said at the time the team hadn’t fulfilled its agreement to build a portion of a park on the field in exchange for access to 40 acres at a price of $1 per year. A city spokesperson also alleged that the team owed the city more than $1.3M in unpaid building permit fees. 

Inter Miami fired back in a letter to the city saying that the team “will not be blackmailed, bullied or intimidated by Commissioner Herbst.” 

“This decision was made by the city without giving Inter Miami due process; there was no notice or opportunity to be heard, a basic tenet of our open and democratic process,” Pablo Alvarez, vice president and general counsel for the Inter Miami soccer team, wrote in the letter. 

Inter Miami has until July 18 to build the park, but the team has yet to break ground. Fort Lauderdale city commissioners are considering building the park without the soccer team.

“If I’m Miami right now, I’m scared to death if I look at how they’ve treated the City of Fort Lauderdale,” Herbst told the South Florida Sun Sentinel this month. “I’m hoping I wrote a much better contract in Miami than the guys in Fort Lauderdale did.”

CORRECTION, JUNE 28, 5:15 P.M. ET: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated who ran the International Links Melreese Country Club. It was on land owned by the City of Miami and was operated by the De Lucca family.

UPDATE, JUNE 28, 9 P.M. ET: The story has been updated to reflect that Mayor Daniella Levine Cava's office declined to comment.