Vision Statement

The Marina Park project proposes to place before the voters of Miami Beach an opportunity to renegotiate improved financial terms for the Miami Beach Marina lease and to re-imagine and re-develop the existing 40+ year old Marina upland site into a vibrant new piece of the South of Fifth Neighborhood.

The Marina operator, in a joint venture with Marina Park LLC, headed by Miami Beach resident David Martin, proposes to invest $35 Million in capital improvements to the Miami Beach Marina which will enable much-needed upgrades to address sea level rise, harden the marina to withstand storm events, enhance the overall appearance and infrastructure of the Marina, and maintain its competitiveness as a world–class leisure yachting destination. The proposed improvements to the Marina upland site include over 2 acres of upgraded, publically accessible open space, including a new Bayfront one acre at grade Marina Park, integrated neighborhood-oriented retail, enhanced sustainability and resiliency features, and a 60-unit residential development component.

The current Concept Design was conceived to provide a new neighborhood amenity along the Marina Baywalk, expanding upon the existing network of great public spaces wrapping the southern tip of Miami Beach, while rejuvenating the Marina’s identity. The southern half of the site is given over to an expansive, passive community park facing the bay with spectacular open vista of the Marina, Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline beyond. The north end of the site envisions a major transformation of the current asphalt driveway into an imaginatively designed park-plaza used for public drop-offs and marina activity, with a lushly landscaped Gateway Entrance to the “new” Miami Beach Marina. Between the two great public spaces rises a unique slender tower design that tapers at the base to create a vibrant public neighborhood-oriented retail amenity that will interface with the Marina and the new Marina Park and then tapers back to a thin-profile residential tower, bringing sunlight down to the public space, preserving vital air and light corridors and allowing views from the surrounding neighborhood to go unobstructed toward the horizon.

If approved by the voters in a city-wide referendum, Marina Park will generate the following tangible fiscal benefits for the City of Miami Beach and its residents: 1) $50 Million in Marina and Upland Capital Investments over 30 years, 2) $55 Million Payment to the City for Upland Development Rights, 3) $147 Million Increased Financial Return to the City (in just the first 30 years of the lease), 4) $9 Million in Annual Taxes (including $3 Million to CMB), 5) Create 2,372 Total Jobs (2,111 non-recurring jobs/261 recurring jobs), and 6) Deliver in Excess of $260 Million Short Term Economic and Fiscal Benefits.

The residents of Miami Beach have a choice to do nothing and allow the current marina to run its course over the next 32 years with no obligations to invest in any capital improvements, or we can embrace placing before the voters of Miami Beach a new vision of the Miami Beach Marina that is consistent with the surrounding South of Fifth neighborhood that has developed around it during the past four decades and a new Marina Lesage with substantially better financial terms for the City. Marina Park offers a vision for the future of the Miami Beach Marina. We invite you to come learn more about this vision for the future of this vital City asset and community amenity.