Díaz de la Portilla’s plan to revive Allapattah gets resurrected — by his political rival

When Miguel Angel Gabela ran for a seat on the Miami City Commission last year, his supporters cast him as the foil to incumbent Alex Díaz de la Portilla, who just weeks before the election was arrested on corruption charges and accused in a lawsuit of orchestrating a ”shake down” scheme.

“It’s a new day for [the] city of Miami,” Gabela said at his victory party last fall.

But 10 months later, Gabela is now pushing to keep a part of his predecessor’s legacy alive. The new District 1 commissioner hopes to bring back one of the final pieces of legislation that Díaz de la Portilla championed before his suspension last September: a proposal to expand a downtown redevelopment agency west into Allapattah, increasing its size by nearly 600% and rerouting downtown property tax dollars to transform a lower-income neighborhood in Gabela’s district into a place to “live, work, create, entertain and play,” according to city records.

The plan originated in the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, or Omni CRA, when Díaz de la Portilla was chairman, up until last year. It passed a City Commission vote in July 2023 when Díaz de la Portilla was still in office but has not yet gone before Miami-Dade County commissioners, whose approval is required.

Since taking office, Gabela said he has witnessed a surge in the homeless population in Allapattah — a development so concerning that it led him to revisit a plan that his political rival championed. Gabela, however, has distanced himself from the expansion plan’s origins, referring to the concept in a recent interview as “my proposal.”

“This has nothing to do with [Díaz de la Portilla]. … This has to do with the homeless situation that was thrust upon Allapattah,” Gabela said.

His predecessor, however, sees it differently.

“For the benefit of my community, I am glad he continues to try to follow my lead,” Díaz de la Portilla said in a text message. “At the end of day, imitation is the best form of flattery.”

The issue is ultimately a debate over how property tax revenue should be allocated, because the Omni agency captures tax dollars from within its geographic boundaries, keeping that money in the area rather than it going to the city’s general fund.

By pushing for the expansion, Gabela has jeopardized the relationship with one of his closest allies on the dais: District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo, the current Omni CRA chairman. Gabela and Pardo both ran on anti-corruption platforms last fall, successfully unseating two incumbents. And when they first sat together at the dais as newly minted city commissioners, their alliance was clear.

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But the dynamic has changed in recent months.

Since June , Pardo has tried to pass an “extension of life” for the Omni CRA, which would guarantee its funding until 2047. Without the extension, the agency will shut down in 2030.

Since then, Gabela has sought to leverage his vote, saying he would support the extension of life only if commissioners agree to expand the Omni CRA into Allapattah. On the five-person City Commission, Gabela would need two allies to make that happen.

The commission has entertained his idea, twice deferring the extension of life vote . It’s now slated to come back before the City Commission on Thursday.

“I feel like we have the football on the one-yard line,” Pardo said in an interview this summer. “Like, how are we not going to get it past the goal line? It’s frustrating.”

The issue has also made strange bedfellows of Gabela and Commissioner Joe Carollo, who almost got into a brawl at City Hall in January after a vote to fire the city attorney escalated tensions. But now Carollo — having forged a rivalry with Pardo this year over downtown issues like controversial outdoor gym equipment and a subsequent referendum on the matter — has extended Gabela an olive branch.

Speaking at a city budget meeting on Saturday, Carollo said: “Commissioners change, but Allapattah stays the same.” He then addressed Gabela directly.

“Commissioner, this is why I am going to support any effort that you want to do in Allapattah economically … because I feel that your heart’s in the right place. You deserve that opportunity to do that,” Carollo said. “I’ve heard what you’ve been doing there. That’s what a commissioner should do. … You’re doing what the people elected you to do. You’re right. The biggest dump area of the city of Miami for the homeless has become Allapattah.”

Gabela told the Miami Herald in an interview that by pushing for the Allapattah expansion, he is putting his District 1 residents first — and if that causes a “rift” with Pardo, “so be it.”

“When my friend is wrong, my friend is wrong,” Gabela said. “When my enemy is right, my enemy is right.”

A ‘man who actually cares about our community’

Created in 1987, the Omni CRA collects property tax revenue from within its boundaries and reinvests it in that same area, a neighborhood between Wynwood and Overtown, to reduce “slum and blight.” Its recent projects include restoring the historic Citizens Bank building and Dorsey Library and creating hundreds of units of affordable and workforce housing, with its latest annual budget at over $73 million.

The proposed expansion would significantly change the makeup of the current Omni CRA, which comprises a 468-acre area in Pardo’s District 2.

Gabela has argued that, after decades of existence, the Omni CRA has completed its mission of reviving the area. He said the area, which includes luxury high-rises along the Biscayne Boulevard corridor, is now “prime real estate.”

But Isiaa Jones, the agency’s executive director, has challenged that narrative, saying homelessness remains an issue there and that several portions of the Omni area are still considered “blighted” and in need of redevelopment.

Jones said multiple projects in the pipeline depend on funding from the extension of life approval. That includes the Underdeck project , as well as a collaboration with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to relocate iPrep Academy to a city-owned plot of land , doubling the school’s capacity and creating new workforce housing.

Pardo agreed. “We can’t do any of these things without the extension,” he said.

The proposed Allapattah expansion plan created under Díaz de la Portilla’s chairmanship would dramatically change the Omni CRA as it exists today, increasing its size by nearly 600% to over 3,200 acres, including 2,730 acres in Allapattah and about three dozen acres on Watson Island to the east. (Gabela has since said he’s willing to remove the Watson Island component.)

According to a 2023 study completed by the Omni CRA while Díaz de la Portilla was chairman, the expansion proposal includes a swath of new “priority projects” to revitalize the Allapattah area, including redeveloping a 19-acre, city-owned General Services Administration site; making streetscape improvements across the city’s major roadways, including Seventh Avenue, which Gabela said is a major area of concern; and creating a small business incentive program.

The study says the 17th Avenue corridor, for example, has “great ‘bones’ to create a great walkable culturally diverse destination.”

“Imagine a lively street with live music typically playing Latino/ Caribbean sounds for dancing and enjoyment while you have a typical Caribbean dish and a drink,” the study says.

Pardo said he is in support of revitalizing Allapattah — just not through an expansion of the Omni CRA. His office has been researching ways to allocate funding to the area to quickly address the issues Gabela has brought to the forefront relating to homelessness and infrastructure.

With Gabela in office, some District 1 residents say they now feel listened to — a welcome change compared to years under past commissioners, according to Mileyka Burgos-Flores, CEO and founder of The Allapattah Collaborative CDC , a nonprofit that promotes economic growth in the area while preserving its cultural identity.

“We have an opportunity with this man who actually cares about our community,” Burgos-Flores said Monday.

She agreed with Gabela’s concerns about homelessness in the neighborhood and said substantial funding is needed as soon as possible to finance revitalization and economic development in Allapattah. However, she said the exact funding mechanism is less important than the end result, whether it be achieved through an expansion of the current Omni CRA, the creation of a new agency or something else.

“To me, it’s very simple: How can I have shovels in the ground in January 2025?” Burgos-Flores said. “I don’t care if it’s through a CRA, if it’s through mom and pop or John or Mary, if MacKenzie Scott comes and gives me a gazillion dollars. I just want to get it done.”

A ‘fatal flaw’

The Miami City Commission approved the proposal to expand the Omni CRA into Allapattah in July of 2023 when Díaz de la Portilla was at the helm of the downtown redevelopment agency. But about two months after its passage at the city level, Díaz de la Portilla was arrested on corruption charges related to his chairmanship of the Omni CRA. (Díaz de la Portilla has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.)

Now, nearly a year after his arrest, it’s unclear how — or if — the proposal he championed can even move forward or if officials would need to go back to the drawing board.

During the budget hearing on Saturday, the City Commission learned of a potential roadblock: A sliver of the proposed Allapattah area overlaps with the neighboring Overtown CRA, according to Jones, the Omni CRA’s director.

Jones said that creates a major issue in allocating tax dollars. Pardo referred to the overlap as a “fatal flaw” of the legislation.

City Attorney George Wysong said Saturday that, to modify the boundaries, a new study would need to be conducted, effectively redoing the work the Omni CRA did in 2023.

“The study has to match the territory,” Wysong said.

Gabela told the Herald on Tuesday that he was seeking more clarity from the city attorney on the matter.

Independent Allapattah CRA

As an alternative to the proposed expansion, the Omni CRA has been advocating for the creation of a new CRA in Allapattah, completely independent of the current Omni CRA.

According to Jones, that would be more beneficial to the area because a new neighborhood agency could last for decades, as opposed to the current Omni CRA, which must shut down by 2047 under Florida law. Her office conducted a preliminary analysis that showed that an independent Allapattah agency could generate over $1.2 billion in tax revenue in its 40-year lifetime. Jones, an attorney who previously worked in the City Attorney’s Office, has said she would be willing to assist a new Allapattah agency for the first few months or years until it gets on its feet.

Pardo supports that move. He said that, in order to jumpstart a new CRA, the City Commission could direct staff to find $10 million in seed funding for the fledgling agency.

“We believe a rising tide lifts all boats,” Pardo said at a July City Commission meeting. “We’re very committed to helping affordable housing in Allapattah. We’re very committed to lending expertise and sharing as much as we can to get a CRA in Allapattah done before the end of the year.”

Speaking to the Herald later, Pardo said: “It’s almost irresponsible not to do a new CRA.”

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who has said that reducing homelessness is a key issue during his tenure, said through a spokesperson that he “has always been supportive of revitalizing the underserved areas of Allapattah and agrees it deserves a Community Redevelopment Agency.” The mayor did not specify whether he favors an independent Allapattah agency over expanding the current Omni CRA.

But Gabela is against creating an independent agency because he said it would take years for the property tax revenue to accrue into a sizable amount. Gabela has said that expanding the current Omni CRA would allow him to immediately tap into millions of dollars in capital — and that the funding is needed urgently.

“We keep putting Band-Aids on the situation,” Gabela said. “But nobody has a quick fix. … Do I wait for 10 years? Do our people wait for 20 years?”