David Beckham has the green light to build a stadium for Inter Miami CF.
Construction on Miami Freedom Park has been cleared to begin after city commissioners approved a zoning plan on Tuesday night.
In April, Miami commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of a no-bid, 99-year lease for roughly 130 acres next to the Miami International Airport to be used for Major League Soccer. The city still needs to sign the lease documents.
Beckham and co-owners Jorge and Jose Mas are funding the entirety of the $1 billion project and will pay property taxes and a reported $4.3 million in annual rent.
- The plan will start with an environmental cleanup of land under the site of the project – the Melreese Country Club.
- The project will include a 25,000-seat soccer stadium, a new 58-acre public park, office space, a hotel, and a retail village.
“Just to start vertical construction on the stadium, we are going to have to spend $120 million,” Jorge Mas said in April.
Project’s Plans
Miami has to give the operator of the Melreese golf course at least two months’ notice before canceling its lease.
Jorge Mas previously stated that the owners’ long-term plan for the stadium includes a professional women’s soccer team, along with boys’ and girls’ soccer programs.
“A new park, an MLS stadium, and thousands of new jobs coming soon … The Future of Fútbol is in Miami,” mayor Francis Suarez tweeted.
