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Monty’s lease extension

monty's

City of Miami Proposal

The second proposal reads like this:

Shall Miami’s Charter be amended to extend Aligned Bayshore Marina, LLC’s (“Monty’s”) Lease, requiring Commission to waive competitive bidding, under these terms:

  • 32-year lease extension plus two 10-year options;
  • Monty’s to pay the City $10,000,000.00 in additional rent or an additional 1.75% of gross revenues, whichever is greater, but no less than $1,500,000.00 per year beginning in 2019; and
  • Monty’s contributes $7,500,000.00 in property improvements and a minimum of $4,000,000.00 for future improvements?

This one is pretty easy to understand if you take out all the real estate jargon.

Coconut Grove stalwart Monty’s Raw Bar sits on a pretty prime piece of neighborhood real estate: right on the water, between Dinner Key Marina and Coral Reef Yacht Club. It’s been there for more than four decades. But the property has seen better days – especially since Hurricane Irma swept through – and can use a facelift.

Aligned Bayshore Marina, the company currently leasing the property from the City of Miami (which owns it), still has 18 years left on the lease (until 2035). But for the company to make the upgrades, it wants a guarantee that it’ll be able to hold on to the property long enough to make it worth the investment – 52 years from 2035, to be exact. The company has agreed to pay higher rent and drop a ton of cash on improvements in exchange.

If you vote yes, no other establishment will be able to bid for the property until that 52-year lease extension is up.

If you vote no, Monty’s will stay for the next 18 years, but it’s unlikely to make major improvements.

The City of Miami could end up taking the property back if Monty’s extension is declined, which paves the way for it to be public space or leased to someone else. What happens to the property if Monty’s doesn’t get an extension is the great unknown. It could mean that the city loses out on a lot of extra cash from Monty’s, but no one knows what kind of incentives might be offered in a future deal, either.