Don’t Let Out-of-State Private Equity Steal Our Public Waterfront

A 2017 Deal in a 2026 Economy

The agreement behind this referendum is based on outdated 2017 terms as if the last decade never happened. Meanwhile, our cost of living including rent, gas, groceries, and insurance has climbed, year over year. Miamians pay 2026 prices every single day.

Under this deal, an out-of-state, private-equity-backed developer would get to pay 2017 below-market rents to exploit our public waterfront while Miami taxpayers quietly make up the difference.

If we’re all paying more than we did in 2017, the company operating our marina should be too.

Out-of-State. Private Equity. Not Rooted Here.

The company behind the Yes vote isn’t from Miami. It’s an out-of-state operation backed by private equity — the same kind of investor that’s buying up our homes, driving up rents, and squeezing working families across South Florida for profit.

If this referendum passes, a family business that has served this community for nearly 50 years gets pushed out, and so does Gramps Getaway, the local restaurant on property that generations of Miami families have made their own. In their place: a corporation free to bring in whatever chain restaurant is most profitable, with no obligation to keep anything that made this waterfront feel like Miami.

When the profits are tallied, this company answers to shareholders somewhere else, not to the people who live, work, and raise their families here. A Miami institution on Miami’s waterfront should be stewarded by people with roots here, not handed to a corporation that sees a 50-year family business, and the local restaurant beside it, as line items to be replaced.

Vote No, and keep our waterfront, and the small businesses that make it ours, in the hands of the community that actually built it.

Out-of-Control Development — Without Guaranteed Access

A Yes vote opens the door to new, out-of-control development on Virginia Key, one of the last great stretches of public waterfront we have left, with no guarantee of public access. This isn’t a hypothetical: the Marine Stadium Marina, a public marina the City of Miami runs today, would be handed over and privatized under this same deal. What’s public now would answer to a private, out-of-state operator instead.

It’s already happening across our waterways. National news reported this June that soaring marina costs and demand from bigger, more expensive vessels are squeezing out everyday boaters across Biscayne Bay, calling it gentrification that’s spread from land to water. Miami’s public waterfront shouldn’t be next.

Guaranteed waterfront access, affordable slips, and community space aren’t extras.

For most Miami voters, they’re the whole point of a public marina. This deal puts all of it at risk.