A South Florida activist said Wednesday he wants the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office to launch an investigation into the recent transfer of valuable downtown Miami land — that was owned by Miami Dade College — to the state for construction of a future Donald Trump presidential library and a hotel.
In a formal complaint, Dr. Marvin Dunn, a prominent local historian leading public opposition to the land transfer, accused the MDC’s Board of Trustees with a “blatant violation of Florida’s Sunshine Law” by failing to disclose its plans without notifying the public.
In his letter to Miami Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Dunn is urging her “to investigate this matter immediately… and to take swift action to safeguard the rights of the public against unlawful and clandestine transfers of public land.”
Dunn is also exploring further legal action. He told WLRN that he may file a class-action lawsuit against Miami Dade College and top state officials to prevent the land transfer.
Dunn has been leading the way in advocating against the land transfer, holding a protest on Monday on the lot neighboring the iconic Freedom Tower, which has been a site of recent protests against Trump's crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
“The thing about this that really hurts me and outrages me is that they’re taking land from our kids and giving it to someone for commercial, economic development,” said Dunn. “Taking land from our kids, that hurts me. And I think it hurts Miami-Dade County.”
READ MORE: Activists protest, threaten legal action to halt land transfer for Trump Presidential Library
Miami Dade College originally purchased the land in 2004 for $24.8 million.
Miami Dade College’s Board of Trustees voted Sept. 23 to transfer the 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 the 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 voted, DeSantis announced that the Florida Cabinet would vote on gifting the plot of land for the future Trump Presidential Library.
DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet top Florida officials voted Tuesday to give the parcel appraised at more than $66 million to the foundation that's planning the president's post-administration archives, arguing that the property owned by the state-run Miami Dade College would provide a "greater benefit to the public" and "increase economic development activities" as Trump's library.
The property is flanked by glitzy condos in an iconic stretch of palm tree-lined Biscayne Boulevard, overlooking the waterfront park and across the street from the basketball arena that's home to the Miami Heat. Miami Dade College has used it as an employee parking lot.
Under the state constitution, the gifting of certain state properties requires approval by a collective decision-making body composed of the attorney general, the chief financial officer and the commissioner of agriculture as well as the governor.
Tuesday's conveyance gives the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc., control over a developer's dream property. The foundation is led by three trustees: Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump's husband Michael Boulos, and Trump attorney James Kiley.
The site is adjacent to Freedom Tower, the historic Spanish Revival building that housed one of Miami's first newspapers before serving as a resource center for hundreds of thousands of Cubans who fled communism and sought asylum in the United States.
Now operated as a museum by the college, it's considered a symbol of the city's vibrant immigrant heritage.
Said Dunn: “It's not a Trump thing. No president should be given this land… We need to respect that history.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
