Developer pitches 70-story tower on the steps of Miami’s abandoned 1928 courthouse

After a real estate auction failed to draw any bidders for Miami-Dade’s historic courthouse, a developer says he can preserve the building by constructing a sleek 70-story apartment tower so close to the original structure it will stand atop the courthouse steps.

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Russell Galbut’s proposal pitches the narrow residential tower as a way to revitalize Flagler Street with an influx of new residents and street-level restaurants and shops, as well as generate the tax dollars needed to preserve a courthouse so old Al Capone once stood trial there. His proposal to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava rests on a novel tax break: to let the bulk of the county property taxes produced from the new tower be spent maintaining the historically protected courthouse for decades to come.

“You’re connecting to a building that’s economically viable in order to preserve the historic building forever,” Galbut told the Miami Herald, which acquired his Sept. 4 proposal from Miami-Dade through a records request. The 1928 courthouse, Galbut said, “has no economic viability by itself. Who would buy it to keep it like that?”

Miami-Dade has already rejected a similar proposal by Galbut as a bad deal, but that was before a high-profile auction of the courthouse failed to attract any bids after three months. The first auction on the website govdeals.com was set to end in late July, but after nobody bid, the county extended it until late August. No bids came in again, leading to a second extension and then a third. The auction was scheduled to end Oct. 2, but it was recently extended through Oct. 25.

But even an auction bid wouldn’t guarantee a buyer for the courthouse. The Levine Cava administration would still need to negotiate a purchase deal with a winner, and then get that approved by the County Commission. By submitting his proposal, Galbut hopes to bypass the auction process and negotiate his own deal with Levine Cava.

Galbut does have competition. As part of the Herald’s records request, the county turned over a competing courthouse proposal by another Miami developer, Moishe Mana. His Sept. 18 proposal offered a much simpler deal: to pay $5 million for the courthouse property. In its auction, Miami-Dade had set a minimum bid of $35 million.

Both Galbut and Mana are prominent developers in Miami and reliable sources of campaign contributions for elected officials. The Mana proposal, submitted through Fortuna Group Enterprises, does not mention any additional construction on the courthouse site. Instead, it describes using “substantial private investment” to convert the existing courthouse into a mix of art galleries, design studios, fashion showrooms, and spaces for lectures and cultural programming.

“Purchaser envisions a place where artists, fashion designers, educators, entrepreneurs, and the public can exhibit, create, collaborate and connect with new audiences and markets,” read the proposal signed by Mana. He was not immediately available for comment Monday.

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The Galbut proposal, submitted through GFO Acquisitions, describes reinventing the existing courthouse too, with restaurants and cafés on the ground floor, and the upper floors converted to a mix of hotel rooms, office space, and a speakeasy bar where the county jail once stood at the top of the tower. Galbut also promises to once again illuminate the pyramid at the peak of the tower — reflecting the longstanding nickname of the building, “Cielito Lindo.”

Galbut said even with renting out space in the abandoned 28-story courthouse tower, maintenance and preservation costs would exceed revenue. That’s where the 70-story new tower comes in, generating not only profits for the developer but also a stream of tax dollars that could support the old tower — money that would otherwise go to fund county police, jails, parks and transit. Galbut proposes that the property-tax dollars his company would pay to Miami-Dade on the new tower instead be applied solely to maintaining the existing courthouse.

The other property taxes on the new tower — owed to the city of Miami, the school board and state agencies — would be paid as normal and not covered by the deal. Galbut would also owe full county taxes on the existing land and historic structure, and pay $35 million to purchase the property from Miami-Dade.

Galbut said it’s a model used in cities across the world to preserve aging buildings that can’t stand on their own financially, and where the local government was not willing to absorb the preservation costs year after year.

He said the new tower would be about 70 feet wide, stretching from Northwest First Street to the back entrance of the existing courthouse. The facade of that northern entrance area — along with the courthouse steps — would be removed for construction, then replaced as part of the new enclosed ground floor of a complex that would include the existing courthouse and the new tower.

Pedestrians would walk through to visit restaurants and shops in the old courthouse, and apartment residents would enter from the same area. The idea is to inject new residents and activity to a part of downtown that mostly goes quiet after 5 p.m.

“This is the impetus for getting Flagler Street going,” he said. “This is economic vitality.”

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