Port to court: Miami-Dade approves eminent domain move in Fisher Island fuel yard fight

A 30-day negotiation window opens before Miami-Dade can formally file — but the developer at odds with the county says it's ready for a battle.

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Miami-Dade is going to court to seize a fuel yard it passed on buying.

In an 11-1 vote, the County Commission authorized Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to pursue eminent domain against the privately owned fuel depot on Fisher Island that supplies PortMiami.

The move targets a roughly 10-acre fuel tank farm that Chicago-based developer HRP Group purchased last year for about $180 million and later offered to sell to Miami-Dade for $400 million.

Levine Cava and the Commission balked at the offer this month, calling the price unreasonable for the depot, which has served the port for more than a century.

Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who cast the sole “no” vote, warned against running headfirst into a potentially costly property-seizure fight.

“This is a decision that will impact this county for the next 50 years,” she said. “It should not be made lightly.”

Commissioner Oliver Gilbert, who is running for Congress, sponsored the authorizing resolution. He told reporters after Tuesday’s vote that it’s “insane” to expect to buy a property and flip it only months later at a more than 100% markup, the Miami Herald reported.

Cruise industry executives from MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean appeared at County Hall in support of the measure, characterizing it as vital to the port’s future.

Under Florida’s eminent domain law, Miami-Dade must now observe a 30-day negotiation window before it can formally file a petition for the property.

Deputy Mayor Roy Coley said the county wants to settle on terms Levine Cava would accept, but stopped short of saying whether Fisher Island residents — who are suing both the county and HRP — would be part of those talks.

If no agreement is reached, a jury will set the price.

HRP blamed the county for the issue, saying in a statement cited by NBC Miami that “years and, frankly, decades of failure to plan for PortMiami infrastructure” led to the current impasse. The company said it intends to contest the taking and see its planned residential projects through.

HRP’s local partners in the venture include “condo king” Jorge Perez’s Related Group and developer Russell Galbut, a former Board Chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.

Tuesday’s vote follows months of political turbulence that early this month resulted in the ouster — announced as resignations — of two senior officials, Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Morales and Port Director Hydi Webb, as criticism mounted over how the county managed negotiations.

Miami-Dade had repeatedly let opportunities to acquire the property to slip by, including after a special Commission meeting last September.

Should the legal battle stretch past next May, when HRP’s contractual obligation to keep the fuel flowing expires, the county has discussed emergency alternatives, among them deploying a barge to keep ships supplied.