As the state of Florida prepares to hand over more than $67 million worth of downtown Miami real estate to President Donald Trump for a future presidential library and hotel, former Miami-Dade College President Eduardo J. Padrón calls the move “unimaginable” and a loss for Miami’s future.
Padrón, president emeritus of Miami Dade College and the namesake for one of its campuses, said the land that’s been transferred to the state was meant for an expansion of the college’s Wolfson campus to accommodate its growing student population.
“It’s very difficult to understand this because the public has not had a chance to even have a say on this,” Padrón told WLRN. “Its just frankly unimaginable that this decision was made without any real discussion of the consequences of what that will do to the college.”
READ MORE: DeSantis proposes land for Trump presidential library in downtown Miami
Miami Dade College’s Board of Trustees voted this week to transfer a downtown lot next to Miami’s iconic Freedom Tower to the state — in a special meeting with an advance notice that merely noted trustees would discuss: “potential real estate transactions.”
Trustee Roberto Alonso said the board received a request from Gov. Ron DeSantis' office on Tuesday, Sept. 16 asking the college to convey the property to the state, without any additional detail.
"The State, through the Governor's office made request for us to convey it so that it can be used for the good of the public," Alonso told WLRN.
The very same day as the trustees vote, Republican Gov. DeSantis announced that the Florida Cabinet would vote on gifting the plot of land for the future Trump Presidential Library.
NBC News reported that the president and his family hope to turn the site into a library with an attached hotel — the first presidential library to become a hotel development.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote on social media platform X that on Sept. 30, the state cabinet would vote on gifting the land to the Presidential Library Foundation.
“The parcel is currently utilized as an employee parking lot for Miami-Dade College’s Wolfson Campus,” DeSantis said in a statement. “If approved by the Board, the site would provide additional economic development opportunities across South Florida and become the first Presidential library established in the state, providing generations of Americans the ability to honor the service and legacy of America’s 45th and 47th President, Donald J. Trump.”
Uthmeier and Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia each have posted online that they look forward to gifting the plot of land to Trump. Each was appointed to their positions by DeSantis after former Attorney General Ashley Moody was appointed to the U.S. Senate, and former CFO Jimmy Patronis was elected to Congress.
“I’m REALLY looking forward to this being one of my first votes as a cabinet member,” Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia wrote on X, just after the Board of Trustees vote.
Padrón, who served as Miami Dade college president from 1995 to 2019, said he was traveling when he heard the news of the college's land transfer to the state. He wasn't aware that ceding the land was even on the table, and it came as a surprise.
"I was in New York when I heard the news and I had no idea. It's very hard to understand," he said.
The downtown Miami land
The parcel of land the college gave up is currently a parking lot used by downtown visitors and staff. It sits in a prime location on Biscayne Boulevard, the main thoroughfare of the city center.
The lot lies across from the Kaseya Center, a major venue for Miami Heat basketball games and large music concerts. On the other side of the street sits the iconic Freedom Tower, where hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees were processed in the 1960s, a property owned by the college.
Days before the Board of Trustees vote, Miami Dade College unveiled the renovated building.
Numerous downtown attractions like Bayfront Park, Bayside Marketplace, the Perez Art Museum and the Frost Science Museum are within walking distance, making it one of the few undeveloped tracts of land in the city center.
The college purchased the land in 2004 under Padrón's leadership.
Padrón told the Miami Herald at the time that the purchase was necessary to expand the college.
“We’re facing a huge problem downtown,” he said in 2004. “We are landlocked, basically. Part of the problem is that downtown is the hot place, and there no longer is any land left.”
The college bought the land for $24.8 million. Today, the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser estimates the market value of the complete parcel at more than $67 million. But the true market value of the property is not known without putting it up for sale and subjecting it to bids.
“It’s worse now," Padrón told WLRN Thursday, referring to Miami’s real estate market in downtown. “There was a lot of sacrifice in order to gain that piece of land for the expansion of the college, and there’s a lot of history to it.”
The former president, who currently holds no position with the college, said there had been plans to develop the lot into a conference center so the college would no longer have to rent conference space. Another idea was to build something for New World School of the Arts, a Miami Dade College partner. He added that it doesn’t matter to him who the land is named after, he merely laments that it won’t be used to accommodate the college.
Alonso argued the college did not have a masterplan for the space that he has seen, and there is no need to expand Wolfson campus beyond its current footprint. Plus, he said, a presidential library will benefit the college as a place of learning and an economic engine.
"The college and our community have so much to gain from a presidential library," Alonso said. "This is going to complete that cultural center for downtown Miami that it was lacking."
Padrón said he hopes the public will scrutinize the deal before the Florida Cabinet votes to potentially give away the land next week, because of the lot’s significance to the college’s history.
“It will be a very sad day for me and for the former trustees who worked very hard to get this accomplished,” he said.
Miami Dade College’s Wolfson campus saw 19,500 students enroll in the fall of 2003 around the time the college purchased the lot next to the Freedom Tower. Today, more than 27,000 students are enrolled at Wolfson. A total of nearly 59,000 people are enrolled as Miami Dade College students as of 2024 across eight campuses and via online programs.
