FXE Futbol, LLC files lawsuit against Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beckham United

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http://magiccity.soccer/2019/04/16/fxe-futbol-llc-files-lawsuit-against-fort-lauderdale-miami-beckham-united/

FXE Futbol, LLC files lawsuit against Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beckham United

FXE Futbol, LLC, the group that challenged Inter Miami CF for the right to redevelop Lockhart Stadium, has sued the City of Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beckham United, LLC (the holding organization behind Inter Miami). Image via Broward Clerk of Courts.

What would the Miami MLS saga be without yet another lawsuit? This time, FXE Futbol is getting in on the action.

FXE Futbol, LLC, the group that challenged Inter Miami CF for the right to redevelop Lockhart Stadium, has sued the City of Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beckham United, LLC (the holding organization behind Inter Miami). The lawsuit was first reported by the Miami Herald.

While the complaint discusses topics we have seen before, there is one wild twist that is being alleged. Perhaps the battle for Lockhart stadium isn’t quite over.

At first glance the complaint, filed by attorney David J. Winker, requests that the court review the Public-Private Partnership Process with regards to the Lockhart site and the city’s decision to award the project to Inter Miami.

“This is an action challenging the validity and effect of the frantic and, ultimately, statutorily inadequate, Public-Private Partnership Process undertaken pursuant to Fla. Stat. Sec. 255.065 by Defendant CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE”

FXE Futbol is seeking a writ of mandamus and civil action against not only the City of Fort Lauderdale but Miami Beckham United, citing damages of over $15,000. While this has been par for the course, this is the first time a competitor has filed a claim seeking to reverse the decision by a local government.

Asbestos questions

Where the petition really begins to get interesting is on line item 13. According to FXE Futbol, Inter Miami was spreading falsehoods regarding the level of asbestos present at Lockhart in its current state. FXE Futbol has outlined that Inter Miami was advising the city council that there was “a tremendous amount of asbestos present at the stadium” and therefore revitalization or renovation was not actually possible.

The complaint discusses how procedural violations were made by the City of Fort Lauderdale throughout the process, which is much like what we have seen argued and alleged against Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami. Due to this being the first complaint being filed by a competing interest, FXE Futbol is seeking monetary damages in the amount of “lost profits”.

With March 2020 coming closer with each passing day, Inter Miami cannot afford another lengthy court battle that stalls the process of acquiring permits, clearance, and the demolition of Lockhart stadium. With the timeline already being questioned by the public, if this judgement is granted in favor of the plaintiffs we could see a real snag in Inter Miami’s plans to open in 2020.

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https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article229187609.html

Beckham partner has a friend in Miami-Dade’s mayor and a lobbyist in the mayor’s son

While his son works as a city lobbyist for the Miami Freedom Park project, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez played golf with one of the venture’s partners, offered to fly to Japan to meet with another and volunteered to pitch a third on establishing a Miami headquarters.

“Let’s have a meeting with Mike Finney from the Beacon Council,” Gimenez wrote to David Beckham’s lead local partner, Jorge Mas, in a March 7 text message. “When are you available? You’ll really like Mike.”

The county mayor was answering a Mas question about who should “spearhead” a presentation to Marcelo Claure, the Beckham partner and former Sprint CEO who is now heading up a $5 billion Latin American investment fund for Sprint’s owner, Softbank.

Gimenez and Mas are both trying to get SoftBank’s Latin America fund to open headquarters in Miami, and the texts show new details about the mayor’s role.

The texts do not show Gimenez trying to bring SoftBank to the office complex that Claure, Mas and Beckham’s other Miami partners are trying to build next to the stadium at Melreese.

But Mas has highlighted the Freedom Park’s ability to land the kind of tech-heavy tenants that a company like SoftBank, with stakes in Uber and a commitment to artificial-intelligence investments, would bring. With Claure an original Beckham partner in his Miami stadium hunt, SoftBank would also be a natural target for Miami Freedom Park.

“We are actively pursuing potential tenants with global reputation and the ability to heighten Miami’s standing as an international tech hub,” Mas wrote in a recent Miami Herald opinion piece. In a statement released Monday, Mas struck a similar theme with SoftBank.

“The potential of the SoftBank Latin America fund establishing its headquarters in Miami would be transformational to our economy and tech community,” Mas said. “Many of our local business, governmental and educational leaders have worked closely together to showcase the great potential of our city as a tech hub of the future.”

Claure, Mas and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son are partners with David Beckham in a venture negotiating to develop a Major League Soccer stadium, mall and office park on the city’s Melreese golf course.

Last summer, the group hired C.J. Gimenez as a city-level lobbyist for talks with Miami administrators and elected officials. In November, Miami voters approved waiving city bidding rules to let Miami negotiate a deal exclusively with Mas and the other Beckham partners.

In a statement, a Gimenez spokeswoman said C.J. Gimenez’s lobbying role for Mas in the city of Miami should not prevent the county mayor from pursuing SoftBank.

“There is no conflict,” Myriam Marquez, Gimenez’s communications director, said in a response to written questions. “C.J. Gimenez does not lobby the county and does not represent SoftBank.”

As mayor, Gimenez has retained authority over the county’s role in the Beckham venture, including trying to find a county park that Mas and partners could use for a training facility for its MLS squad. After those talks fell apart, Mas negotiated a deal to build the training facility and a stadium in Fort Lauderdale instead. Gimenez also helped resolve a 2018 dispute with county lawyers over a pending land deal for a stadium site in Overtown the Beckham group wanted for its 25,000-seat stadium.

The texts obtained by the Miami Herald through a records request to the county also reveal more details about Gimenez’s efforts to bring SoftBank to Miami-Dade at a time when the funds’ top executives are pursuing public land for the city’s newest office development.

“Great read,” Mas wrote on Feb. 23 when sending a Fast Company profile of Son and his artificial-intelligence investments with the headline “The most powerful person in Silicon Valley.” Mas continued about his fellow investor in the Miami commercial complex and stadium: “...let’s strategize on having him committed to our city.”

Gimenez replied: “How can we meet him? I’m totally into the future of IA. We have to win that race.”

Mas wrote back that he was trying to get Son to come to Miami for a visit. “Good,” Gimenez wrote. “I’ll go to Japan, too.”

Hours later, that Saturday exchange switched to planning a meet-up for the next day. “Are you game for some golf tomorrow,” Gimenez wrote Mas. “7 a.m. tee time. Biltmore.” Mas replied: “I’ll be there.”

The three months of texts between Mas and the county mayor highlight the close relationship between the two Cuban-Americans who grew up in Miami. “Alcalde,” Mas texted Gimenez on March 12, “hope you are having a good day...call me when you have a couple of minutes..un abrazo... Jorge.”

There’s plenty of golf talk in the texts. Mas wrote in a March 7 exchange with Gimenez about the Claure presentation that “my putt just broke right again.” Gimenez responded to the reference to a prior golf outing and a problematic Biltmore hole: “By the way, the following week I eagled 18.” Mas told him: “You own that hole!!”

The texts flesh out what was apparent from Gimenez’s public calendar: The mayor met multiple times with Mas and had all but confirmed the two were in talks about SoftBank’s coming to Miami. When asked about a Mas meeting in March, Gimenez told the Miami Herald he was trying to recruit some “major funds” to Miami-Dade and that the Miami Freedom complex “may be the place” for them.

With the Beckham group still needing the city commission’s approval to secure its stadium agreement, any sort of big SoftBank deal would have to involve another office destination for at least several years. The Miami stadium plans are so far behind that the Beckham group recently announced plans to play their debut 2020 season, and the one after that, in a stadium on the grounds of the planned Fort Lauderdale training facility.

For the Beckham soccer deal, Gimenez is pointing to past rulings by the Ethics Commission that he says allow him to talk about county business with his son’s city clients.

Last year, he recused himself from decisions related to a halfway house son Julio Gimenez was helping pitch to the county’s Corrections Department. In 2017, the mayor recused himself from talks involving a steel plant Julio and partners want to build on county land in Homestead.

After being involved in closed-door talks in 2014 with the Trump Organization about managing a county golf course, Gimenez in 2015 publicly recused himself from the decision after the negotiations became public. He cited C.J. Gimenez’s role as a lobbyist for Donald Trump in Doral, home to a large Trump resort. The Crandon Park deal fizzled months before Trump, a Gimenez campaign donor, launched his 2016 presidential campaign

For a new Amazon warehouse, private-jet terminals and other new business operations, Miami-Dade has granted millions of dollars to cover development costs like sewer hook-ups and roads. Gimenez’s office said the mayor has not discussed potential economic-incentives for the Freedom Park project.

“There has been no discussion of economic development incentives for the proposed Miami Freedom Park, which is a project in the City of Miami,” the mayor’s office said in response to written questions. “As it does with all potential companies that want to move to Miami-Dade County, Beacon Council has met with SoftBank but we have no specifics.”

A Beacon Council representative was not available for comment Monday. The mayor’s office said Gimenez and Beacon Council representatives met with Mas and Claure on the afternoon of March 15 at the Coral Gables headquarters of MasTec, the global infrastructure firm run by Mas and his brother, Jose, the company’s CEO and another Beckham partner.

Claure, who launched the cellphone company Brightstar in Miami in 1997, already has a downtown office overlooking Biscayne Bay and a home in Miami Beach. SoftBank recently announced the Latin America fund he oversees plans a Miami presence, but it’s not known how significant that office will be. On April 9, the company announced two fund executives would be working out of Miami.

Disclosure documents filed by Mas list him as the sole owner of the corporate entity that would actually lease the Melreese land and be in control of the property that would produce one of Miami’s largest shopping centers and office complexes. Beckham, Claure, Son and the Mases are listed as owners of the entity that would run the MLS stadium.

An attorney for Mas’ corporation, Miami Freedom Park LLC, told the Herald in January that the other investors in the soccer team, including Beckham, Claure, Son and Jose’s brother Jorge Mas, have an interest in Miami Freedom Park, and that Mas is contractually bound to include fellow investors in the deal.

Documents filed by the partnership show the stadium only producing about 11 cents for every dollar of revenue produced by the proposed commercial park, with the mall, offices and a hotel accounting for much of the business activity there. The forecasts released last summer showed Miami Freedom Park generating more than $400 million a year, and paying Miami at least $3.5 million in annual rent plus another $44 million in taxes to the city, county and state.

The Mas brothers shifted Beckham’s partners to Melreese shortly after signing on as the venture’s first local investors in the fall of 2017. That was after Jorge Mas tried but failed to buy the Miami Marlins, a would-be deal that brought him behind closed doors with a longtime Gimenez foe, former Marlins president David Samson.

Samson and owner Jeffrey Loria ended up signing a $1.2 billion deal with a partnership that included Derek Jeter. The time Mas spent with Samson apparently did not endear him to the former Marlins executive.

“What a piece of _____” Mas texted to Gimenez on Dec. 18 with a Deadspin article describing Samson’s taunting a party of sports fans with the Marlins sales price. The headline quoted Samson’s infamous gibe to the rowdy crowd: “$1.2 billion. F--- you.”

“This is unbelievable!!” Mas wrote.

Gimenez, who opposed the tax-funded Marlins Park deal before becoming mayor, wrote back with an equally sanitized reply: “Not unbelievable. He has always been and always will be a piece of ----.”

Samson was running the Boston Marathon Monday. Reached by phone on Mile 14, he said his response should be recorded as “a grunt of not caring.”

Partners of the Miami MSL team - Jorge Mas, left, Marcelo Claure, David Beckham, Jose Mas, MSL Commissioner Don Garber, Jose Mas, and Simon Fuller, share the stage with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, right, after the announcement of the new Miami MSL team on Mon., Jan. 29, 2018 inside the Knight Concert Hall at The Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, Florida.

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Windermere Prep's Gunnar Studenhofft represents Cayman Islands on national soccer team | Observer Preps

The week before the tourney, Studenhofft and his team got in some friendly matches against IMG Academy and the Tampa Bay Rowdies (of the USL), before going on to their CONCACAF group.

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https://rbnn.us/2019/04/16/ex-nyrb-ii-report-week-6/

Ex-NYRB II Report Week 6

David Najem – Came on as a substitute in the 61st minute in Tampa Bay Rowdies 1-1 draw with Louisville City FC.

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https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article229272099.html

Competing soccer group sues Fort Lauderdale, Beckham’s team over Lockhart Stadium deal

A few weeks after David Beckham and his partners won a key approval to advance plans to redevelop Fort Lauderdale’s Lockhart Stadium into a training facility for Inter Miami, the group that lost a competing bid for the site has sued the city and team over the project.

FXE Futbol, which had submitted a proposal calling for the renovation of Lockhart to host a Division 2 soccer team, filed suit Monday morning in Broward County court alleging the city of Fort Lauderdale violated state laws in the process of evaluating and ranking the two bids. The suit accuses Fort Lauderdale’s government of skipping required steps in reviewing the Beckham proposal, including getting an outside opinion from an architect or engineer and commissioning an “independent analysis” of each deal’s cost-effectiveness.

On April 2, Fort Lauderdale commissioners ranked Beckham’s Inter Miami ahead of FXE Futbol and approved an interim agreement with Inter Miami that allows the Beckham group to demolish Lockhart during negotiations of a final contract. Inter Miami’s plans include a training facility for the planned Major League Soccer team and an 18,000-seat stadiu

FXE Futbol’s complaint also accuses Inter Miami representatives of overstating the extent of Lockhart’s asbestos problem while persuading city commissioners to give approval for demolition before a final agreement is signed. FXE Futbol’s proposal includes renovating the existing structure.

“We can no longer stand on the sidelines while our due process is being violated,” reads a statement by John F. Reynal, FXE’s managing partner. “Not only do we believe the ranking was carried out without the proper statutory review, but the subsequent signing of the interim agreement to demolish Lockhart would render our proposal impossible to deliver.”

See a graphic rendering of the new stadium David Beckham's Inter Miami soccer team will play in. By Associated Press

FXE Futbol is being represented by Miami attorney David Winker, who has challenged the Beckham group’s activities in Miami on multiple occasions — from lawsuits to ethics complaints related to lobbying disclosures that revealed the ownership structure of the corporation behind the team’s effort to develop a $1 billion commercial complex and stadium on Melreese golf course called Miami Freedom Park. Voters endorsed a framework of the deal in November; city administrators are negotiating terms of a 99-year lease.

Beckham has been working to field an MLS team in Miami-Dade County for more than five years. By contrast, he secured permission to begin preparing the Lockhart Stadium site in nine weeks.

Fort Lauderdale City Attorney Alain E. Boileau told the Miami Herald the lawsuit had no grounds. “The suit is without any legal merit and will be defended vigorously,” he said.

An attorney for Inter Miami echoed Boileau in a statement Monday.

“We have reviewed the complaint and are very confident that, when the facts are properly applied to the applicable law, it will be determined that this lawsuit has no merit,” said John Shubin. “We look forward to working with the city of Fort Lauderdale to bring Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami team, its training facility and youth academy to the community in 2020.”

Read the complaint below:

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https://miami.cbslocal.com/2019/04/16/fxe-futbol-suing-david-beckhams-inter-miami-cf-ft-lauderdale-over-lockhart-decision/

FXE Futbol Suing David Beckham’s Inter Miami CF, Ft. Lauderdale Over Lockhart Decision

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A soccer organization that challenged David Beckham group’s Inter Miami CF for use of the land at Lockhart Stadium and lost has sued the team and the city.

In the lawsuit filed Monday by FXE Futbol, they allege the city violated state laws in the process of evaluating and ranking the two bids. They also claim that Inter Miami CF representatives gave “false statements regarding the presences of a ‘tremendous amount’ of asbestos at historic Lockhart Stadium, when there is in fact almost no asbestos present at the Stadium. These false statements subverted the selection process,,,”

Last month, Ft. Lauderdale commissioners ranked the Beckham group’s plan better than FXE Futbol and approved an interim agreement that allows for the demolition of the Lockhart while a final deal is worked out. Inter Miami CF said they will build a new 18,000 seat Lockhart Stadium with private funding and their MLS team will play at Lockhart for two seasons until their Miami stadium is ready.

The team promised a permanent training facility at Lockhart stadium, corporate offices, another pro team at the stadium and lots of fields for public use.

FXE Futbol’s plan was to renovate of Lockhart to host a Division 2 soccer team. They also promised retail space, Top Golf and lots of public access.

At the time, FXE Managing Director John Paul Reynal said they worked 2 years on their bid and felt like Beckham’s group undercut them. Plus he believed city commissioners ignored the advice of their staff by rushing through this decision.

After their presentation to the city, Mayor Dean Trantalis said there was a big problem with FXE Futbol’s bid in that they did not have a commitment from their league and therefore even if their plan was approved, there was no way to determine if they’d ever have a team playing there.

Fort Lauderdale City Attorney Alain E. Boileau told the Miami Herald the FXE Futbol lawsuit had no legal merit and the city’s decision “will be defended vigorously.”

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https://www.law.com/dailybusinessreview/2019/04/16/miami-beckham-united-fort-lauderdale-sued-over-stadium-deal/

Miami Beckham United, Fort Lauderdale Sued Over Stadium Deal

A group in talks with city officials for more than a year is challenging a plan with retired soccer star David Beckham that would demolish Lockhart Stadium.

A soccer club that lost its bid to redevelop Fort Lauderdale’s Lockhart Stadium to David Beckham’s plan for a soccer training facility is suing to stop the project.

FXE Futbol LLC has sued Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beckham United LLC alleging an agreement between the city and Beckham’s soccer group illegally green-lights the demolition of Lockhart Stadium.

FXE Futbol, led by managing director John Reynal, envisioned a sports and entertainment complex on the 65-acre site near the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport with a $35 million renovation of Lockhart.

Miami Beckham United’s proposal calls for demolition of the stadium and construction of a multi-purpose venue and a youth soccer academy. It also calls for a public park, dog park and up to a 32,000-square-foot building for classrooms, lockers, medical offices and dining facilities.

“We can no longer stand on the sidelines while our due process is being violated,” Reynal said in a statement. “Not only do we believe the ranking was carried out without the proper statutory review, but the subsequent signing of the interim agreement to demolish Lockhart would render our proposal impossible to deliver.”

Beckham’s Inter Miami Major League Soccer team is set to start playing next year. It’s in talks with Miami to build a 25,000-seat stadium and 1 million square feet of unrelated development on the city-owned Melreese golf course east of Miami International Airport. Last November, the group got voter approval to begin negotiations with the city on a long-term lease.

In the meantime, Miami Beckham United submitted an unsolicited proposal Jan. 28 to Fort Lauderdale to demolish Lockhart and build training facilities, the youth academy and a new stadium. The plan is for Inter Miami to initially play there until its Miami stadium is finished.

Under state law, the unsolicited submission meant Fort Lauderdale had to open the door to others to turn in offers to develop the city-owned site at 1350 NW 55th St.

FXE Futbol had been working with the city for more than a year on a proposal to redevelop the public property but suddenly had until March 1 to turn in its proposal, said David Winker, who filed the lawsuit Monday in Broward Circuit Court.

The City Commission ranked Miami Beckham United’s proposal ahead of FXE’s. The commission on April 2 unanimously approved an interim agreement with Miami Beckham.

Both the city of Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beckham United on Tuesday called Winker’s lawsuit meritless and maintained they reached their deal in line with applicable law.

“The city’s process and protocols in the analysis of both projects and the ultimate ranking of Inter Miami’s and FXE Futbol’s unsolicited proposals, as well as the scope of the interim agreement with Inter Miami, fully comport with Florida Statutes and the city charter,” City Attorney Alain Boileau said in an emailed statement.

Miami Beckham’s attorney, Shubin & Bass founding partner John Shubi, added the group is “very confident that, when the facts are properly applied to the applicable law, it will be determined that this lawsuit has no merit.”

FXE also argued Miami Beckham and its lobbyist falsely insisted at public meetings that FXE’s renovation plan wouldn’t work because the stadium has “a tremendous amount of asbestos.”

The complaint also alleges the city broke state law on public-private partnerships by not doing an “independent analysis” of the unsolicited proposals.

Winker argues in the city charter calls for competitive bidding for leasing the Lockhart site.

The lawsuit asks for a writ of mandamus, seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and alleges city charter violations, tortious interference and injurious falsehood.

Winker has filed several lawsuits over the soccer deal, including two pending in Miami-Dade Circuit Court over the Melreese plan. An ethics complaint he filed with the Miami-Dade County Ethics Commission alleging improper lobbyist registration was dismissed in March.

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https://www.prosoccerusa.com/mls/expansion/miami/usl-championship-club-files-lawsuit-against-inter-miami-over-lockhart-stadium-site/

USL Championship club files lawsuit against Inter Miami over Lockhart Stadium site

Inter Miami’s launch continues to be an unstable one after a lawsuit against the future Major League Soccer franchise was filed in Broward County court Monday.

David Beckham’s ownership group has been battling another emerging professional soccer club in an attempt to lockdown Lockhart Stadium for its inaugural season. Future USL Championship franchise, FXE Futbol, and Inter Miami submitted competing proposals to renovate and utilize Fort Lauderdale’s historic Lockhart Stadium, but the future Division 2 side is claiming its proposal wasn’t given fair consideration and that Inter Miami received preferential treatment throughout the process.

FXE Futbol is suing Beckham’s ownership group and the city of Fort Lauderdale, according to the Miami Herald, alleging state laws were violated with regard to ranking and evaluating competing bids for Lockhart Stadium between Inter Miami and FXE Futbol.

FXE Futbol placed a bid for the stadium after Inter Miami and Inter Miami made an official announcement of its intended plans days before it was approved by the city.

The complaint from FXE Futbol states that after the club filed a competing proposal to renovate Lockhart Stadium, Inter Miami “repeatedly, and on numerous occasions, falsely” told Fort Lauderdale city officials that the USL club’s proposal was not valid or viable because there was a “tremendous amount” of asbestos in the stadium. The lawsuit claims there is “almost no asbestos in the stadium.”

The city of Fort Lauderdale held a meeting April 2 to discuss entering an interim agreement with Inter Miami, which would allow the demolition of Lockhart Stadium while both sides settled on terms. The alleged falsehood regarding FXE Futbol’s proposal was repeated by a lobbyist for Inter Miami, and the interim agreement was approved.

FXE Futbol
@FXE_Futbol
FXE Futbol has filed a lawsuit against @FTLCityNews and Miami Beckham United (a.k.a. @InterMiamiCF) to obtain a temporary injunction to prevent the demolition of historic #LockhartStadium #SaveLockhart @grantstern
9:33 AM - Apr 16, 2019
FXE Futbol’s inaugural season, like Miami’s, is slated for 2020. The club released renderings of what the proposed Lockhart Park site would look like after it was developed. FXE Futbol’s goal to renovate Lockhart Stadium is featured prominently on the team’s website:

“FXE Futbol is aiming to develop the 65-acre site known as Lockhart Stadium with the intention of making it Fort Lauderdale’s premier community sports and entertainment destination.”

Inter Miami and MLS are also in a legal battle with Italian Football Club Internazionale Milano — or Inter Milan — over a trademark dispute regarding the use of the term “Inter” in the team’s name.

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https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-ne-lockhart-stadium-beckham-lawsuit-20190416-story.html

David Beckham soccer plan faces new hurdle as rival sues to stop demolition of Lockhart Stadium

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https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2019/04/16/fxe-futbol-sues-beckham-mls-group-fort-lauderdale.html

FXE Futbol sues Beckham MLS Group, Fort Lauderdale over stadium deal

The lawsuit threatens to delay the team's plan to hold its inaugural game in Fort Lauderdale next year.

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https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2019/4/16/18410560/inter-miami-need-to-change-its-name-robert-lewandowski-chicago-fire-portland-timbers-thorns

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Tagging along with Bill McGuire, Don Garber at Allianz Field’s MLS debut

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