A Miami-Dade County Commission committee deferred a proposed 99-year lease to redevelop the shuttered Miami Seaquarium on Virginia Key on Tuesday. Commissioners and residents said the 249-page package was posted less than 24 hours before the meeting, and the panel did not set a date to take it up again.
The developer, Terra Group, faces a Dec. 30 deadline to close with creditors, according to a lobbyist who addressed the committee. Under the plan, Terra affiliate Resilient Aquarium LLC would control the county-owned site for nearly a century and commit at least $100 million to redevelopment and $10 million to public amenities.
The project would include an aquarium without marine mammals, a marina on Biscayne Bay and a public waterfront path. It would also preserve the Flipper House and convert Buckminster Fuller’s Golden Dome into an events venue. The county would receive at least $1.1 million in annual rent once the project is completed, with proceeds going to a county parks fund.
Committee Chair René García said a motion to approve would not pass, and he said he would ask Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez to bring the lease before the full board, possibly at a special meeting before the deadline. The Commission’s last full meeting of the year is Nov. 17.
Critics, including a member of the county’s Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board, said the lease does not enforce its environmental goals or animal welfare standards. Terra CEO David Martin said the company worked with the administration for a year and that the plan has been revised to address concerns.
The Seaquarium deal also faces a lawsuit filed in October by environmental advocates who argue that the county charter requires voter approval for development in protected waters.
“
