MIAMI — A private bidder has emerged to offer up to $120 million to buy the beachfront tract where the doomed Champlain Towers South building once stood — a development that comes as an effort for a publicly funded purchase for a future memorial site seems to have fizzled.
The offer from a new, unnamed buyer was revealed Wednesday morning during the latest hearing on a slew of lawsuits over the June 24 collapse of the tower, which killed 98 people in one of the deadliest building failures in U.S. history.
The future of the seaside Collins Avenue property has been a major focus of litigation and Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman, who is overseeing dozens of lawsuits and has been pushing for the sale of the property to quickly compensate victims of the tragedy.
During the hearing. Hanzman authorized the negotiation of an agreement with the undisclosed bidder. A real estate broker working on the deal told the judge that he had a received a “letter of interest” from the bidder offering $110 million for the site.
“They’re willing to go to a $120 million,” said Michael Fay, who has been appointed to work on the real estate deal.
“That’s the best news I’ve heard so far today,” Hanzman said. “They’re a viable company that has the wherewithal to close on a transaction of this magnitude?”
“We do believe that to be true,” Fay said.
Fay did not disclose the name of the company. The bidder wouldn’t automatically get the property, which could be the home of a future condo development. But it would be the starting point for an auction in which other companies could bid for the land.
Hanzman authorized Fay to move as “quickly as possible” to get to a “short auction process.”
“I want to compensate these victims as soon as possible,” Hanzman said.
What will become of the property has become a sensitive topic for lawyers, survivors and relatives of those who perished there.
Some had hoped that the government could purchase the land, to turn it into a park or memorial, instead of a new residential or commercial development. But Manny Kadre, a lawyer who is serving as a liaison between the court and elected leaders, said Wednesday that it appears “very highly unlikely” that any government agency would buy the land.
Kadre said he and lobbyist Rodney Barreto have been meeting with Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, U.S. House Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava.
Kadre said he believes that the government could step in to help forgive mortgages, create a victims compensation fund or help with creating a memorial on the site, or nearby. Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber has already offered to dedicate space for a memorial at nearby North Beach Oceanside Park.
“The property being monetized by government is a very, very unlikely scenario,” Kadre said.
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