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Aug 1, 2008 9:51 pm US/Eastern
Developer: Put Home Plate On Miami Arena Site
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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The Marlins have to leave their home at Dolphin Stadium after the 2010 season, and time is running out to build a replacement. A developer is offering a compromise.
AP
It was the first home of the Miami Heat, The Florida Panthers, and the hopes for a revitalized Overtown area. All of those have moved out now, and within weeks, the Miami Arena is scheduled to meet the wrecking ball. It's the end of the arena, but CBS4 has learned it's not the end of hopes for sports crowds on the edge of Overtown.
Developer Glenn Straub says he still holds hopes that the Florida Marlins could locate home plate of a new Marlins stadium right in the middle of the land where the Heat once trod the boards.
"We can be ready for 2011 if somebody gets going right now," Straub told CBS4's David Sutta in a wide-ranging conversation Friday.
Straub has been the owner of what has become Miami's biggest pink elephant since buying the facility, built for more than $50 million in 1988, from the city for $28 million at a 2004 auction.
That gave Straub a piece of Miami history at about $50 cents on the dollar, but now he says he wants to sell it back to the city as the site of a new Marlins stadium.
It's just 5 acres in size, but Straub thinks that's plenty of room.
"The renderings are already done," he told CBS4's Sutta.
The Marlins, Miami-Dade county and the City of Miami want to put the new ballpark on the patch of dirt left by the demolition of the Orange Bowl, at the edge of Little Havana.
A lawsuit has tied that plan up in the courts, and with the Marlins facing a 2011 deadline for having a new home, the clock is ticking.
Straub sees his land, and his plan, as a clean break. The Palm Beach County developer said not only will he sell the city the land, he stands ready to finance a large part of the construction cost.
"The only thing I can tell you is that we have the money and cash and we can prove it and finance it ourselves," he said.
Like virtually every part of the Marlins' saga to find a home of their own, there is a catch. Straub said he'd want the Orange Bowl site, a potentially very valuable piece of land, in return. He hopes to build a soccer stadium and a horse center on the site.
He thinks the city, the county, and the team need to take a hard look at his offer.
"Everyday they wait," he said. "It's gone up probably another $100 million dollars over the last few years, and they are still discussing things."
Even though he has his own proposal, Straub said he still backs the city's plan for a stadium at the Orange Bowl. He just wants the powers that be to know if that deal is called out at the plate, he has their back.
"If they want to do it, fine," he said. "If they don't we we're going to continue to keep looking at the deals that are coming in on the table."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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