Miami-Dade walks away from $160 million deal to replace the South Dade Government Center

A $160 million real estate deal for a new South Dade Government Center died this week after the administration of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava notified the owner of the Assurant office complex near Cutler Bay that it was backing out of the planned sale.

“It is with much consternation that I write to confirm that Miami-Dade County is not prepared to move forward with the acquisition of the Assurant property at this time,” Dawn Soper, director of the county’s Real Estate Division, wrote Tuesday to a commercial broker representing the owner of the 80-acre campus, American Bankers Life Assurance, an insurance company that operates as Assurant. Soper’s note was a response to a letter that Assurant had sent to Miami-Dade, asking for an update after the county seemed to be hesitating on a deal it had once eagerly pursued.

The collapse of the deal comes weeks ahead of Levine Cava presenting a 2025 budget proposal she has said will reflect an increasingly challenging financial picture for Miami-Dade without the federal COVID dollars that closed revenue gaps in recent years. Earlier this month, she said the Assurant property would be good for Miami-Dade but that the deal was undergoing a fresh review after she had recommended the $160 million purchase late last year.

“That’s a very attractive piece of property,” she said in a June 5 interview, though she added that the Assurant deal had to be evaluated “individually as well as in the totality” of the county’s needs and resources.

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The administration’s plan was to relocate county offices into the Assurant building and likely use some of the vacant land there to build affordable housing. With the new South Dade complex, the county could then vacate the existing South Dade Government Center located 2 miles away, freeing that property for redevelopment into a mix of residential and retail in an area that includes a county performing arts center and the Southland Mall.

The letter from the county’s real estate division offered no explanation for Miami-Dade pulling out of the Assurant purchase but made a point to praise the property as “unmatched in opportunity” and providing “the critical mass to make a large-scale difference in the community.”

Six months ago, the Assurant deal looked all but done. On Dec. 12, Levine Cava asked for Miami-Dade commissioners to approve the sale, along with a $205 million deal to purchase a property in western Miami-Dade for a new county center there.

The administration pulled both requests hours before the commission meeting after a Miami Herald article noted the purchase prices were well above the market values in county appraisals and that the deals were expedited to skip the normal hearing process.

Levine Cava said then that her staff would renegotiate both deals, but only one survived. Earlier this month, Miami-Dade commissioners approved purchasing the old FPL center at 9250 W. Flagler St. for $182 million, 11% less than the original price but still above the $110 million “as-is” value calculated by county appraisers.

On the other property, Assurant was unwilling to come down from the negotiated $160 million price, which was 30% higher than the $123 million county appraisers said it was worth ahead of the planned December vote.

In the Tuesday letter to the county, an Assurant lawyer noted that Miami-Dade had secured new appraisals that factored in the housing potential on the property made possible by Florida’s enactment of the Live Local Act last year. Those appraisals bumped the valuation from last year’s $123 million to $170 million, according to Jay Rosenblum, Assurant’s chief legal officer.

He said Assurant was ready to close at the original $160 million price, but the county administration wasn’t willing to bring the deal back to commissioners for approval. In the letter, Rosenblum said Assurant was ready to walk away if Miami-Dade continued to stall. The letter suggested Assurant was confident of the county purchase: Anticipating that the county would close the deal in March, Rosenblum said the company has already rented new office space for more than 1,000 employees.

“Assurant has been negotiating with County officials in good faith for almost a year, and we have tried to be flexible in meeting the County’s demands and targeted timelines,” he wrote. “Financial and real estate market pressures require that we reconsider our next steps if the County is unable to provide a timeline for near-term action.”

There was no immediate comment from the administration about why the deal fell through. When asked about the aborted deal, an Assurant representative provided the Herald with a copy of both letters and said in a statement on Thursday: “We received tremendous interest in the initial bidding process and have continued to receive inquiries. We are no longer in negotiation with Miami-Dade County and will be re-opening the bidding process immediately.”

The letter from Soper was the county’s response to Rosenblum, confirming it was time for the two sides to part ways.

“Please accept my appreciation on behalf of all here at Miami-Dade County and, despite the circumstances, our best wishes to the Assurant team,” she wrote.