The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which oversees gambling in the state, recently issued a summer jai alai permit to West Flagler Associates for a proposed facility to be built on a 7-acre area on Biscayne Boulevard in north Miami. The company is owned by the Havenick family, who operate Magic City Casino in Miami and Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Racing & Poker in Bonita Springs.
A summer jai alai permit allows a facility to open a card room and offer simulcast betting, at a minimum. Under the state statue cited in the decision, the summer jai alai permit allows gambling on jai alai games on the site between May 1 and November 30 of each year, noting gambling “shall never be permitted to be operated during the jai alai winter season.”
Family spokesman and West Flagler Vice President of Political Affairs Izzy Havenick said the new property would create 300-350 jobs and include jai alai, poker, dining and entertainment. “We’re very happy, and looking forward to employing people and creating someplace new in downtown Miami,” Havenick said.
The new casino doesn’t have a name or a site plan yet. Havenick stated, “We stopped planning because we didn’t know what would happen” after West Flagler appealed the denial of its permit application, nearly one year ago. The 1st District Court of Appeal reversed that decision and ordered it to be reinstated.
Also in Miami, Malaysian-based Genting Group’s subsidiary Resorts World Miami will build a mixed-use development including the reconstruction of the Omni bus terminal, upgrades to the Adrienne Arsht Center Metromover station, a 300-room hotel, residential apartments and 5,000 square feet of retail space, said Miami-Dade County Transportation spokesperson Karla Damian. Construction of the $22 million in upgrades to the existing transportation infrastructure will begin later this year and take six months to be complete. The project was unanimously approved by Miami-Dade County commissioners in April 2017.
In a memo, Miami-Dade County Deputy Mayor Alina Hudak wrote the project will promote maximum patronage of the transit system, provide functional and aesthetic integration of the Adrienne Arsht Metromover station and Omni bus terminal into the overall project and improve or redesign the Metromover station by replacing stairs, elevators, escalators, surveillance systems and flooring, and enhancing site illumination and pedestrian accessibility.
Hudak said the project will create 1,871 construction jobs, with 171 direct and 100 indirect jobs upon completion, and generate an estimated $54.85 million over the initial 90-year lease term. Genting Group will pay the county transportation department $100,000 in minimum annual rent during construction, a $10 million one-time payment when the project is finished and the higher of either 50 percent of gross retail revenue or $300,000 per year.
Genting Group also owns the Omni across the street from the project, plus the former Miami Herald site where it had wanted to build a gambling resort.
