Virginia Key’s marinas, for up to 75 years: Miami voters decide, and Suntex is paying for the Yes

Miami voters decide on the Nov. 3 ballot, and from today in early voting, whether the city should lease the two public marinas on Virginia Key for as long as 75 years. The question, City of Miami 3 on the county’s sample ballot, reads: “Shall City lease approximately 27.62 acres on Virginia Key to Virginia Key, LLC for: 45-year initial term with two 15-year renewals; Minimum annual guaranteed rent to City of $2,200,000 (with escalations) totaling approximately $203,980,000 over the initial term plus 6% of gross revenues; Approximately $80,000,000 privately funded investment to redevelop existing Rickenbacker and Marine Stadium marinas in an environmentally sensitive manner, including boat storage, restaurants, retail, and public parking?” (City of Miami, R-26-0255; Miami-Dade sample ballot). WLRN and Florida YIMBY report the same terms (WLRN; Florida YIMBY). Early voting runs Monday, Oct. 19, through Sunday, Nov. 1, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at sites including the Historic Garage, 3250 S. Miami Ave. (Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections).

The bidder is “a 50-50 partnership from the Connecticut-based RCI Group and Texas-based Suntex Marinas,” which runs the Miami Beach Marina, WLRN reports, and Florida YIMBY also describes Virginia Key, LLC as a joint venture of RCI Group and Suntex Marinas (WLRN; Florida YIMBY). The commission awarded the 2017 bid to Virginia Key, LLC on June 11, but only “subject to approval by a majority of the votes cast by the electorate at a referendum election”; without a Yes, there is no lease (City of Miami, R-26-0254). The 45-year term with two 15-year extensions “could last until 2101,” Political Cortadito reports (Political Cortadito).

The money on both sides is the two marina companies. Help Save Virginia Key PC, the Yes committee, reported $1,500,000 from July 1 to Sept. 30, all from Suntex Marina Investors LLC of Dallas in five checks, and $850,000 more from Suntex from Oct. 1 to 9, $2,350,000 in all (City of Miami campaign finance reports). Preserve and Protect Miami, the No committee, reported $850,100 through Sept. 30, $850,000 of it from Rickenbacker Marina Corp of 3301 Rickenbacker Causeway, and $250,000 more from Rickenbacker Marina Corp on Oct. 6, $1,100,100 in all (City of Miami campaign finance reports). Political Cortadito, through Sept. 30, put Suntex at “approximately $1.5 million” and the No committee, “financed by incumbent marina operator Aabad Melwani,” at $850,100 (Political Cortadito). WLRN identifies Melwani as president of Rickenbacker Marina (WLRN).

Your stake: if you live in the City of Miami, this is the city’s waterfront and its rent. The lease would pay the city at least $2.2 million a year, rising with escalations to about $203.98 million over the first 45 years, plus 6% of gross revenues, on terms set from a bid the city first awarded in 2017 (City of Miami, R-26-0255; WLRN). Suntex’s $2.35 million into the Yes campaign is about 1.07 times one year of that minimum rent (our arithmetic on the city filings and the resolution).

The money

The campaign is spending as fast as it raises. Through Oct. 9, Help Save Virginia Key PC had spent $2,034,192.16 and Preserve and Protect Miami $1,096,064.87, $3,130,257.03 together against $3,450,100 raised (City of Miami campaign finance reports; our arithmetic). Through Sept. 30 the two had spent $2,100,147.14 (our arithmetic on the Q03 reports). In the first nine days of October the Yes committee paid Artisan Media Group $243,235 for English and Spanish TV and Spanish radio on Oct. 8 and $77,436 for English and Spanish TV on Oct. 1, and Bucelo Law Group $82,000 for legal consulting on Oct. 5; the No committee spent $247,174.98, largely with EDGE Communications and MDW Communications (City of Miami campaign finance reports, S01). These are campaign payments, not profits.

The terms were set a decade ago. “These terms were negotiated a full decade ago,” WLRN reports, and property values in Miami “have more than doubled since 2016” (WLRN). The developers say the city commissioned two independent appraisals and that both support the proposed rent, finding it meets fair-market-value requirements (Political Cortadito). Commissioner Miguel Gabela: “I think this is a bad deal for the city, something that’s ten years old.” Mayor Eileen Higgins: “Obviously we’d like to have a better marina deal” (WLRN). At a meeting “this past June,” after “frustrated discussion, commissioners reluctantly but unanimously voted to place the item on the ballot,” WLRN reports; the record shows the 5-0 vote on June 11 (WLRN; City of Miami, R-26-0255).

How it works

This lease exists only if voters approve it: the commission’s award is “subject to approval by a majority of the votes cast by the electorate at a referendum election” (City of Miami, R-26-0254). The bid has been in court most of the decade since it was made. The city issued the bid request on Feb. 17, 2017; the city manager approved Virginia Key, LLC on June 15, 2017; the commission rejected all proposals in 2020; on Feb. 10, 2023 the circuit court ordered the city to award the bid to Virginia Key, LLC “pending approval by the public”; and the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed on July 31, 2024 (City of Miami, R-26-0255 recitals). Judge Alan Fine had found the city acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in failing to put the item before voters (WLRN). Florida YIMBY reported Aug. 20 that Judge Lisa Walsh rejected a challenge to the referendum brought by Rickenbacker Marina, Biscayne Marine Partners and a third plaintiff, and Political Cortadito reports she noted the city’s two appraisals (Florida YIMBY; Political Cortadito).

What could still stop it

Each side’s money comes from the company that wins or loses the marinas. The Yes side, in Virginia Key LLC’s statement to WLRN: “This referendum should have happened years ago,” and the incumbent operator “has weaponized the courts to preserve the status quo” (WLRN). After the August ruling, Suntex’s David Filler said, “The courts have spoken again and reaffirmed that the City of Miami voters deserve to decide the future,” and RCI Group president Robert W. Christoph Jr. said, “Today, the residents of Miami won” (Florida YIMBY). The No side: Melwani says the project “displaces a number of small businesses” (WLRN), and told Telemundo 51 the deal is a “mal negocio para los contribuyentes,” a bad deal for taxpayers, and a “riesgo ambiental,” an environmental risk, while acknowledging that “si gana el SÍ, perdería su negocio,” if Yes wins, he would lose his business (Telemundo 51). In 2021 Miami voters rejected, by 52%, a measure that would have waived competitive bidding to give Melwani’s company a 45-year lease (WLRN). We found no officer record tying Melwani personally to Rickenbacker Marina Corp beyond WLRN’s description, and the lease is not approved: it takes a majority of the votes cast (City of Miami, R-26-0254).

Why it matters across Florida

Florida cities lease public waterfront to private operators for decades at a time, and the rent is usually set long before the vote. Here a Texas marina company is spending more than a year’s minimum rent to win a Miami lease priced in 2017, and the incumbent is spending to keep it; anyone in a Florida city weighing a long public-land lease can read the numbers as a test of how stale a bid can get before it reaches voters (City of Miami; WLRN; our arithmetic).

What to watch

Early voting, Oct. 19 to Nov. 1, and the Nov. 3 vote (Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections). The committees’ next city reports, and whether either side tops its spending to date (City of Miami campaign finance reports). Any new court challenge before the vote. If Yes wins, the lease signing and the first rent payment; if No wins, what the city does with the marinas (City of Miami).

Correction

Correction, Oct 26, 2026: An earlier version of this story described the leased site as about 27.62 acres of city land. Of the 27.62 acres, about 10 are upland and about 17 are submerged bay bottom (Coconut Grove Spotlight, Oct. 22, 2026; City of Miami, R-26-0254 Exhibit A).