Hialeah Heights government-center plan dropped as City Hall renovation advances

For years, leaders in Hialeah promised residents of Hialeah Heights, the city’s newest and fastest-growing area, a long-awaited government center that would bring police, fire rescue and other essential services closer to home.

Instead, the city is moving forward with a $43.6 million renovation and expansion of City Hall, removing the western annex facility from its capital-improvement agenda.

The Hialeah City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the City Hall project, which will expand and modernize the Building Division by using a surplus of building-permit fees. The decision effectively replaces earlier plans for a roughly $43.6 million Hialeah Heights government center intended to serve the growing northwestern area.

Annexed in 2004, Hialeah Heights has grown to more than 16,000 residents. Yet many core municipal services have not followed. The neighborhood — located between Interstate 75 and Northwest 107th Avenue, from Northwest 138th Street to Northwest 170th Street— still lacks a permanent fire station, police substation and public parks.

READ MORE: Hialeah Heights is the most prosperous part of city — but it lacks police, paramedics and parks

Residents rely on a temporary fire rescue trailer installed in 2021 during then-Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo’s administration. Plans for permanent facilities have been delayed for years, largely due to the need to remediate city-owned land before construction can begin.

More than five years later, the trailer continues to serve as Station 9. During a recent Miami Herald visit, conditions inside the unit raised concerns, with visible wear and maintenance issues, including damaged flooring and structural deterioration that firefighters said had persisted for more than a year, raising safety concerns.

Two weeks after the Herald’s visit, Mayor Bryan Calvo told the Herald the issues had been addressed and repairs had been completed.

Shift away from phased annex project

Previous capital-improvement plans envisioned a Hialeah Heights government complex that would include police, fire, building-licensing offices, a library and other services. The plan was to begin with environmental remediation followed by design and construction over several years.

Under the current budget, $8 million had been allocated in fiscal year 2026 for the environmental remediation. But that funding is now in question.

The project was also scheduled to receive $3 million in 2027 and $32.6 million between 2028 and 2029 to fund construction.

“I don’t know why they allocated the money there,” Calvo said. He became the mayor in January.

Tuesday’s resolution eliminates that phased funding entirely. The Hialeah Heights project has been removed from both current and future capital-improvement plans, and no replacement facility has been announced.

City Hall expansion moves forward

The approved City Hall expansion will add at least 30,000 square feet of space and consolidate permitting, inspections, and code-enforcement operations. The overall project totals roughly 90,000 square feet, including 60,000 square feet of renovations and the 30,000-square-foot addition.

Project documents show the city has hired DEKOR Miami under a contract of up to $414,600 to provide workplace strategy, furniture and equipment consulting, project coordination and permitting support.

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Councilwoman Monica Perez questioned why the city did not use a competitive-bidding process to determine which company would be best for the project.

Calvo responded that the city needed to move quickly and is using an existing pool of prequalified vendors.

“We just use one of our vendors. We have a pool of vendors that we can utilize in order to make these processes more efficient …,” Calvo said. “We’re going to have the construction contracts, which will be the large amount of money, and that will obviously go to bid through the normal process.”

Perez asked whether the city had previously worked with the selected firm.

Calvo did not specify whether the vendor had been used in the past, but said the city maintains a list of vendors available as needed for these types of services. He said the city recently had a process to selected vendors. “We have a list of vendors. Some of them we’ve used in the past, some we haven’t, but it’s a pool of vendors that are available as needed for these kinds of services.”

During construction, the city plans to purchase and renovate space at the Palm Centre complex from the Hialeah Housing Authority to temporarily house the Building Division.

State law cited in funding decision

City officials have pointed to an upcoming change in state law under Senate Bill 1614, which takes effect on July 1, as a key factor in accelerating the funding decision. The law restricts the use of excess revenue from building-permit fees, eliminating their use for the construction of buildings or other structures, and limiting that money primarily to code-enforcement functions such as permitting operations, inspections, technology upgrades and training.

Calvo told the Herald that once he signs the resolution, the city will have committed building-permit funds to preserve them for the City Hall project.

However, the City Hall renovation itself is not expected to begin immediately. According to public records, construction is scheduled to start in 2028 and conclude in 2029.

The project-funding structure mirrors the same phased approach previously outlined for the Hialeah Heights government center, with allocations tied to planning, design and construction phases. Documents show funding includes approximately $8 million for environmental remediation of the existing City Hall building, which records indicate is “outdated” and “was constructed with materials containing asbestos”. An additional $3 million is allocated for design and planning, followed by $32.6 million for construction between 2028 and 2029.

When asked why the city prioritized the City Hall renovation and expansion over the long-planned Hialeah Heights government center, Calvo said the annex project would take considerably longer because the city-owned site requires environmental remediation before construction can begin.

He added that it could take “up to five years” before residents see any permanent station built in the annex, if the city receives funding from the state.

Community frustration

For residents like longtime activist Eduardo Santiesteban, who previously advocated for improved connectivity and infrastructure in the annex, the decision represents another broken promise.

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“Hialeah municipal government doesn’t care about the families who live in this area,” Santiesteban said. “How much longer will it take to build a fire station and a police station? Every administration since the annex was developed has made promises, but they never fulfilled them.”

While the City Hall expansion will centralize administrative operations and modernize permitting services, it marks a clear departure from earlier plans to extend public-safety and civic infrastructure into Hialeah Heights.

Earlier city documents estimated that a combined police and fire facility in the annex would cost about $10 million, with an additional $1 million for a library. Officials previously said such investments were necessary to meet demand from rapid residential and commercial growth.

The result is a shift in priorities: from expanding neighborhood-based services in Hialeah Heights to consolidating administrative operations at City Hall.

“Our community pays more municipal taxes than any other community in Hialeah,” Santiesteban said. “Yet it’s the most underserved. Why?”