How Miami taxpayers could be left holding a $400m bill for luxury real estate

A three-way tug-of-war erupted in recent months over ownership of a property on Fisher Island – one of the wealthiest zip codes in the United States – that sits in Biscayne Bay opposite the skyline of downtown Miami . When TransMontaigne Partners, a Denver-based global energy company, put the parcel on the market in May 2024, interest ran high because that land represented the last remaining piece of real estate available for development on the island. The eventual winner of the bidding war was a Chicago-based developer called the HRP Group, which purchased the property for $180m in late September last year. The developer then announced ambitious plans to build condominium towers on the property at an estimated cost of $2bn. After a series of events that unfolded over the past eight months, most of which occurred quietly and behind closed doors, the HRP Group reportedly struck an agreement in principle to sell the property to Miami-Dade county for $400m. The developer stands to reap a windfall $220m in profit without ever breaking ground on the site – and the county’s taxpayers will have no choice but to foot the bill. There was always one catch to the purchase of the property located at 1 Fisher Island Drive. The site is host to a Depression-era fuel depot that services Miami’s cruise line industry, and its squat, unsightly fuel tanks have a way of ruining the otherwise spectacular views of some Fisher Island swells. …