Former soccer star David Beckham and his group of investors have been in negotiations in south Florida to build a soccer stadium for a Major League Soccer (MLS) team. Up until recently the negotiations have been limited to the city of Miami, but recently he and his group pitched a second stadium in Fort Lauderdale and the city decided to move forward with negotiations with Beckham’s group’s plan over a rival proposal.
The Miami location would be the home stadium for the soccer team, and the Fort Lauderdale stadium would be the practice facility as well as the home to the management offices for the team. Both stadiums would be major real estate transactions, but the Miami location is much larger. The negotiations surround turning a golf course into a mix of office, retail, entertainment, the stadium itself and would also include 60 acres of park space for the city. In contrast, part of what won over Fort Lauderdale was the lack of commercial building that would take place. That site would be limited to the stadium and team offices as well as park space for the city.
Both of these commercial real estate transactions will be major transactions and a lot will be involved in both sites, but especially the Miami location. As the negotiations center around a golf course, most likely the zoning will need to be change and as there will be multiple types of commercial real estate, the building process will take multiple years. These types of real estate transactions are very complicated due to all the variables and need to be carefully developed to reduce potential problems after the building process begins.
While the two proposals that David Beckham’s group is proposing in south Florida are very large, these types of commercial real estate transactions and developments occur often. With there being so many variables and aspects involved in the proposals and negotiations, approvals from the cities and then the building process it is important every step is handled correctly. Experienced attorneys understand the complexities of these cases and may be able to guide one through it.