'Order of taking' hearing re-set for Alamo property
By Bari Auerbach

The old saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," could describe diligent attempts being made by the City of Sunny Isles Beach to acquire a one-acre property at 18080 Collins Avenue to enhance public amenities on the west side of Collins Avenue neighboring the new Government Center currently under construction.

The parcel in question, commonly referred to as the "Alamo property" or "National Car Rental site" is owned by R.K. Associates. After the city did not receive a response from Raanan Katz, owner of R.K. Shopping Centers, regarding an offer for the property within a 90 day specified timeframe, the Commission decided to proceed with plans to acquire the property via condemnation and begin eminent domain proceedings. Eminent domain entails a court making a determination regarding a purchase price the city will pay for taking properties through condemnation.

Prior to pursuing the condemnation option, the city was considering an agreement calling for Katz to donate the property to the city, thus enabling him to receive millions by subsequently selling applicable transfers of development rights (TDR's). In essence, Katz could sell the development rights attached to his property on the west side of Collins to an entity owning property elsewhere in the city such as the east side of Collins where oceanfront land is substantially more valuable (upon approval of the City Commission).

The city originally tried to buy the land last year - but the former owner of the property, Mitsubishi Motors, did not want to sell at the time. Subsequently, eminent domain proceedings initiated by the city stalled when Mitsubishi sold to R.K. Associates, owned by Katz. According to a Miami Herald article, "R.K. paid $1.9 million for the land, approximately $300,000 more than its appraised value."

At the June 3 City Commission meeting, city attorneys explained why a resolution re-appeared on the agenda establishing the necessity to acquire the property in question by purchase or condemnation.
"We began the order of taking hearing in April," said attorney Norman Malinski. "It was delayed until last week and then the judge concluded there was a 'technical deficiency' in the petition because a site plan [and not a] survey was attached.so the judge said we had to start all over again and that's why this resolution is in front of [the Commission] again.

"We withdrew the petition rather than have the judge dismiss it.We're now looking to have an official stamped survey attached to the petition in the next day or two (from June 3). The good thing is the ultimate date we have for the order of taking hearing is the week of July 19th - that date was set by the court some time ago and is still far enough away so if the resolution is approved today and we get the survey and file the petition by Monday or Tuesday we won't have lost any time."

Malinski also noted, "The offer of a new selling price to the [land] owner will be done in the next day or two.Our appraisal was about $1.6 million and now it's at about $2.1 million because of the astonishing land value growth here.

"I talked with the lawyer for the owner, and told him if we make the offer and [even if] there is reason to discuss settling, we should still keep our order of taking hearing date for the week of July 19th - but 'we can talk.' If [they] want to go back to the valuation of the property at $8 million with TDR's, then I was going to send [the owner's lawyer] a short brief showing a national survey of the law on valuation.There is no support for an appraisal valuing property based on the value of TDR's. The standard language of the courts is the availability for purchase of TDR's is too speculative for appraisals to rely on. If that is persuasive enough for [the owner's lawyer to consider] a 'real' settlement we can discuss it - if not, we can put the survey in the petition and we'll be back on track."

During the June 3 meeting, Arnold Shevlin spoke on behalf of RK Associates. He claimed that because of the "technical deficiency" found by the judge due to the petition not having a survey attached to it, in order to re-file litigation, the city would have to pay in full for RK Associates' attorneys fees to date (approximately $75,000) "out of taxpayers' money."

In response to Shevlin's contention regarding attorney's fees, Malinski said, "There has always been a constitutional obligation [for the city] to pay the attorneys fees from the day the offer was made - whether it's paid next week because we're re-filing or in six months from now.The lawyer for the owner has also always known that we have offered to pay the appraisal fees both to the owner and to Alamo because we know we're going to pay them sooner or later."

Shevlin went on to say, "We have not been a hostile owner saying, 'Don't take our property.' All we've said is, 'Make us a fair and reasonable offer.' In all the discussions and depositions taken, the city has testified if the property was taken, the city would retain the TDR's - and the TDR's would eventually be sold. So [the attorney representing the city] is telling you the TDR's don't have any value, but yet, in the event the property was taken by the city - the city would be selling the TDR's at fair market value.So there is a little 'unfair proceeding' going on in terms of the value of our property.

"We're willing to sell the city the property for fair market value - but we prefer to keep it. One of the offers we made is we'd be happy to take the parcel on which Tony Roma's currently occupies and move Tony Roma's to one of our shopping centers and pay for their improvements. Then [the city] can build what you need to on the Tony Roma's parcel.that gives you approximately the same square footage that you'd get by taking our property. We'd spend our own money to put Tony Roma's in our shopping center and you'd have the land."
Mayor Norman Edelcup interjected, "There is still ample time between now and the 19th of July to negotiate." Malinski added, "When somebody throws out a proposal saying lets not talk about $8 million but maybe a land swap it's always worth a look."

For the record, City Manager Christopher Russo noted there had never been any previous discussions with him regarding comments made by Shevlin about the Tony Roma's property.


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