Hedge fund veteran Jay Newman sues Miami Beach and Five Park's developers over a bridge never finished

A tower's owners sued over the bridge they were promised

Jay Newman and the owners' association of Five Park, Miami Beach's tallest condo tower, sued the city and the tower's developers Oct. 13 over an unfinished public footbridge. The case tests whether a developer's promise to a city still binds once the building is done, a question for anyone buying into a new tower. Five Park was built by Terra, the Coconut Grove developer run by chief executive David Martin, and GFO Investments, the family office of developer Russell Galbut, The Real Deal reports. The association is the condo owners' governing body for the tower's shared facilities. Condos there sell for about $4 million, the Miami Herald reported. Residents told commissioners the bridge was a big reason they bought. The owners want a judge to order the bridge built, and no court has ruled.

The story so far: Miami Beach closed a stretch of 6th Street so the developers could put most of their building in one tower, city records show. In return, under their development agreement, a written deal with the city, they built a public park. A later change to that deal had them build the city a footbridge over the MacArthur Causeway, the road from downtown Miami to South Beach. A further change capped the city's cost at about $9.6 million of a roughly $12.5 million budget. The developers owe the rest. The tower was finished in 2024, but the bridge was not.

Why it matters: The Miami Herald now calls it a $30 million bridge and says about $2 million in public money is already spent. The city attorney said a higher cost alone would not appear to let the developers out of the deal, the real estate news site The Real Deal reported. The city attorney also said the agreement lets them walk away if they cannot get a building permit.

What's new: The owners went to federal court in Miami on Oct. 13 and named the city as a defendant too.

What's next: The docket shows no hearing date yet, and a summons was returned served Oct. 22.

Who's who

Newman spent decades as a portfolio manager at Elliott Management, Paul Singer's hedge fund, and spent 15 years fighting Argentina over its defaulted debt, NYU School of Law says. He retired in 2016 and wrote a novel, "Undermoney." He sued as trustee of his revocable trust.

Five Park was built by Terra, the Coconut Grove developer run by chief executive David Martin, and GFO Investments, the family office of developer Russell Galbut, The Real Deal reports. Reports also name Galbut's Crescent Heights as a partner. The developer entity in the suit is TCH 500 Alton, LLC. Steven Meiner is the mayor of Miami Beach.

What the suit asks

The suit, filed by the Five Park Shared Facilities Master Association and Newman, has 11 counts, the Miami Beach Journal reports. It asks a judge to order the developer to build the Fifth Street bridge and to make the city enforce the agreement that requires it.

Bloomberg reported that the suit alleges fraud and violations of federal land sales law and seeks damages over the missing bridge, The Real Deal says. We have not read the complaint; it is not on the public court archive we checked. Those are allegations.

The federal docket in Miami shows the case was filed Oct. 13. Lawyers filed two notices of appearance Oct. 20, and a summons was returned served Oct. 22. A second docket opened the same day shows only a clerk's correction, so it is the same suit refiled, not a second one.

The city traded a street for a park and a bridge

In exchange for the city closing 6th Street between West Avenue and Alton Road, the developers agreed to deliver public benefits, city records show. Closing the street let them combine their building rights and put most of the floor space in one tower. The benefits included a 3-acre public park, built at their cost and given to the city.

A later amendment had the developers design and build a pedestrian bridge for the city across the MacArthur Causeway and West Avenue along 5th Street. That land is city and state transportation right of way.

The next amendment, in the city's first-reading text, set the bridge budget at $12,462,888. The city's share was capped at $9,610,000, and the developers would pay everything above it. Miami Today reported the same split when the commission approved it unanimously on first reading. The same text cut the most homes allowed on the site from 410 to 330.

Newman, on his own Substack, gives the same budget and split. The bridge is partly funded by a bond Miami Beach voters approved in 2018, Florida YIMBY reported.

The cost grew, and the work stopped

Florida YIMBY reported a groundbreaking in February 2025 for the 158-foot enclosed bridge, designed by French artist Daniel Buren. It was expected to be finished by summer or fall 2026. In January 2024, Martin told the Herald that foundation work on the bridge's north end had begun.

The Miami Herald now calls it a $30 million bridge and says roughly $2 million in public money has been spent. The $12.5 million budget is from the amendment's text; the $30 million is the Herald's figure.

The developers point to buried Florida Power & Light equipment; Political Cortadito reported that their Aug. 21 letter to the city described it. City Manager Eric Carpenter said moving the utilities could cost tens of millions of dollars, The Real Deal reported. He said FPL is not obligated to help, and the state transportation department, not the city, controls the right of way.

The city attorney said a higher cost alone would not appear to let the developers out of the deal, The Real Deal reported. The city attorney also said the agreement lets the developers walk away if they cannot get a building permit.

In September, commissioners voted 7-0 for an independent engineering review. "If we find that they can do it, we've got to force their hand," Mayor Meiner said.

What the owners were sold

Five Park, at 500 Alton Road, has 227 units on 48 floors and is the city's tallest building, The Real Deal reports. Residents told commissioners the bridge was a major selling point, and condos there now sell for about $4 million, the Herald reported.

Commissioner Laura Dominguez plans a law requiring public benefits to be substantially finished before a building can get its certificate of occupancy, the Herald reported.

Newman's trust has a separate suit in Miami-Dade circuit court over short-term guest suites the tower promised, The Real Deal reports. The developers denied wrongdoing in that case and said the suites will be made available.

Their side

Michael Thomas, a lawyer for the developer, said they disagree with the allegations, which he said give a one-sided account, The Real Deal reported. Crescent Heights was not immediately available for comment, and the City of Miami Beach declined to comment.

Martin said in September: "We share the community's disappointment that the bridge cannot be built as originally planned." He said engineers found that "building the bridge as planned would present too great a risk to the public, workers, and the city's power grid." He also said, "Protecting the workers who would build this bridge, safeguarding the public, and preventing damage to essential infrastructure must come first."

Sources we read

CourtListener docket for case 1:26-cv-27173 and the correction docket 1:26-cv-27158, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. City of Miami Beach first-reading resolution on the bridge amendment. Miami Beach Journal, Oct. 16. The Real Deal, Sept. 10, Oct. 19 and Jan. 28. Miami Herald via Yahoo News, Sept. 21, and via AOL, Jan. 26, 2024. Miami Today, republished by Terra. Florida YIMBY, Feb. 28, 2025. Political Cortadito, Sept. 19. NYU School of Law. Jay Newman's Substack, Undermoney.