NMB Snyder Tennis Courts Future in Balance

Faster than a wicked serve, the North Miami Beach Judge Arthur I. Snyder Tennis Center and adjoining Daniel D. Diefenbach Bicentennial Park are in play.

The 10-acre complex – with 18 courts at 16851 West Dixie Hwy., together with the adjoining Diefenbach preserve named for the city’s former city manager and mayor – is at the center of an explosive trend toward redevelopment along and around West Dixie Highway between the Ancient Spanish Monastery and 172nd Street.

Big money could be on the table, as commercial real estate brokers place the fair market value for the land at $7-10 million an acre. At the same time, some elected officials in the city and many residents are reluctant to sacrifice any green space or public use land, no matter how strategic the location. This is a potential issue in the upcoming Nov. 8 municipal election.

The city slammed its big serves in late July and early August with selectively emailed announcements and invitations to a “P3 Opportunity” and a “private” pre-launch Aug. 25 event as a developers’ charrette to “reimagine” the property.

There was no public notice, invitation or participation, meaning there was no public discussion of change-of-use of what is a city landmark – and no mention of it in the agenda for a 4 p.m. Aug. 16 meeting of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), established under state charter to use tax monies from developments to relieve slum and blight.

Some members of the governing body of the adjoining Ancient Spanish Monastery and its resident St. Bernard de Clairvaux Episcopal Church confirmed that they had collectively been kept in the dark about the city’s intentions for the tennis center property directly adjoining the monastery.

Left unspecified was exactly what concept city management had in mind, the fate of the tennis courts and the monastery entrance.

On the very morning of the Aug. 16 meeting, the South Florida Business Journal reported that Trinsic Group had broken ground on a nine-story apartment complex with a $99-million construction loan just north of the courts at 16955-17071 W Dixie Hwy. The paper reported the project will have 373 apartments, 17,000 square feet of retail space, a pool deck and 567 parking spaces.

By the following Saturday – just four days later – construction cranes and crews were working behind the fences surrounding a former shopping center and the professional building where the tennis center’s namesake Snyder, who died in 2004, once practiced law while serving terms as mayor of North Miami Beach and Aventura.

Later on, at a separate 6 p.m. Aug. 16 city commission meeting, commissioners approved the Estate Companies’ 28-story residential tower at 16375 Biscayne Blvd., just south of the 23-story Soleste NoMi tower it is developing, easily visible from West Dixie Highway, the tennis center and the monastery.

City Manager Arthur Sorey III recommended spending $94,000 of CRA money for Clarke Smart Solutions to do event planning and services for the private event. Several residents, and some commissioners, questioned the wisdom behind that.

Most speakers greeted the cost and very notion of the event with derision.

“I worked for Miami Beach 30 years and can’t recall any time the city paid to have developers look at their properties,” said Bruce Lamberto of Eastern Shores, who chairs the city’s public utility advisory commission. “There’s no reason for $94,000 in CRA money for this. This is $94,000 out the window with wings. It’s usually developers giving these galas and sponsoring them. People do not vote for this.”

“Why does this need a DJ, robots, acrobats, sponsorship and drone logos,” asked resident Irene Pilinger. “To top off this entire outrageous item, residents will have no price tag that can be determined … Residents will have little or no say over the future of the tennis center and destruction of park land.”

Janie Greenleaf, a vestry member of St. Bernard de Clairvaux and a founder of the Ancient Spanish Monastery Foundation, questioned the secretiveness of the process and wondered if any plan affected public access to the monastery and church.

Episcopal Father Greg Mansfield did not return the Biscayne Times’ calls, but in a written statement shared with BT said that “There is no intention whatsoever on the part of the Vestry (governing body), Rector (senior pastor), parish (congregation), the Bishop of The Diocese of Southeast Florida, or The Diocese of Southeast Florida (The Episcopal Church in Southeast Florida) to sell or encumber the property of the Ancient Spanish Monastery in any way.

“Any previous statements, speculations, or reports (both verbal or written) regarding the sale or encumberment of Ancient Spanish Monastery property have been made without the knowledge or authority of parish or diocesan leadership.

“The leadership of St. Bernard de Clairvaux Episcopal Church intends to participate fully in any and all future discussions regarding the development of the adjacent property.”

Greenleaf, when contacted by BT Aug. 20, relayed that Mansfield had just ordered her resig

nation from the boards and had her escorted from the vestry meeting with a bishop’s representative.

At the CRA meeting, after some commissioners talked the price down to $75,000, Commissioner Barbara Kramer spoke up.

“You’re putting the cart before the horse,” she said. “We’re divided. … We have elections in November … Why are you spending $75,000 when none of us here had a workshop on doing this?”

Sorey said that he had ordered a solicitation only and that a final decision was out of his power. He justified the expense to show developers and investors that North Miami Beach was not a “rinky-dink city.”

Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond said that the tennis center was underused and had been under discussion for seven years. Mayor Anthony DeFillipo said the intent was always to enhance the tennis courts as a destination and build a decent clubhouse, not change the use altogether.

“This is the last big chunk of property our city has that is green space,” he said. “We never talked about developing multifamily on this property … Part of this is a water basin and shouldn’t be touched. This is our ecosystem first. You are looking at the No.1 guy here who wants development in this city. You’re not going to see me give up one vote for development in a place where it doesn’t belong.”

Commissioner Daniella Jean broke the impasse, suggesting preserv

ation of what’s there while being “ progressive.”

“Take a deep breath and have a healthy discussion about what we see,” she said. “Ten and a half acres is a gem. Any city would be blessed to have that. We gave away the beaches back in the ’50s. How short-sighted were we?”

After an often-contentious discussion, the city commission, acting as the CRA commission, voted 5-1 on DeFillipo’s motion to move the Aug. 25 event from outside into the air-conditioned Julius Littman Performing Arts Center in the city hall complex, at a cost not to exceed $10,000. Term-limited Kramer voted no and Commissioner Fortuna Smukler was absent.

With a November election looming and development proceeding apace, the meeting ended with as many questions as answers.