Shutts & Bowen LLP has announced that the City of Miami has selected the law firm to act as its outside real estate counsel on a proposed transaction for the development of a soccer stadium and mixed-use project to be located on 73 acres of city land.
The proposed stadium complex would be named Freedom Park and would be the future home of David Beckham’s Major League Soccer (MLS) team, Inter Miami CF.
Shutts partners Angela de Cespedes and Marc Sarnoff led the Shutts legal team for the project, assisted by Florentino “Tino” Gonzalez, a partner and co-chair of the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group, and Alexander I. Tachmes, a partner of the Real Estate
Practice Group who has extensive experience handling complex public-private transactions and has lectured widely on the topic.
Sixteen other Florida-based, national and international law firms also bid for the city’s outside counsel contract, and Shutts has assembled a legal team to negotiate real estate issues and conduct legal review of contract documents regarding the development, construction, and long term leasing of the city-owned property.
On June 5, David Beckham’s Miami Freedom Park LLC, which includes Jorge Mas and other partners, filed a draft lease agreement with the City of Miami to enter into a long-term lease for the International Links Melreese Country Club.
The agreement outlined the proposed plans for the Freedom Park project, consisting of the development of 73 acres of the club’s public golf course, including a 25,000-seat Major League Soccer stadium, restaurant, retail and entertainment space, 58-acre public park, hotel, tech hub, office park and commercial campus.
“Shutts is honored to have been selected by the City of Miami to lend our experience to this negotiation,” de Cespedes said.
“Since our firm’s founding in 1910, Shutts & Bowen has represented hundreds of clients in many of Miami’s most significant transactions and we will draw on that experience to protect the city’s interests,” Sarnoff added.
