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The Board of County Commissioners will convene yet once again to debate the contentious purchase of the La Quinta Inn located in Cutler Bay—a decision that has dragged on for over two years and continues to raise serious concerns. Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins and Cutler Bay’s Town Council have repeatedly questioned why the County and the Homeless Trust remain fixated on this specific site, despite glaring issues.
The La Quinta Inn property, plagued by significant environmental concerns, is appraised at $10 million by the County’s own evaluations. Yet, inexplicably, the County is poised to pay over $14 million—a $4 million overpayment of taxpayer dollars. Environmental consultants estimate that cleaning up the contamination will cost at least $1 million, pushing the total expenditure well over $15 million. Why is the County intent on proceeding with such a costly and problematic acquisition?
Homeless Trust Chairman Ron Book has dismissed these concerns, resorting to derogatory remarks about Cutler Bay residents. But the facts remain clear: the County is prepared to spend millions on a 107-room hotel with known environmental hazards, all while disregarding alternative sites that meet the Homeless Trust’s guidelines.
In my May 2024 column, I uncovered through public records that the contamination findings, which fall under the jurisdiction of the Miami-Dade County Division of Environmental Resources Management (DERM), are severe. Shockingly, as of late August, no follow-up testing has been conducted or even contracted by the County. This leaves us in the dark about additional contamination that could further jeopardize the lives of homeless seniors who may be housed there.
The Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners will discuss this issue on at its next meeting, under Item 6B1—a Discussion Item Regarding the Status of the Hotel Acquisition by the Homeless Trust. Despite the serious environmental concerns and the overpayment of $4 million above the property’s appraised value, the project may move forward. This raises critical questions: Why is this purchase being pushed through? Are there no other viable options? Couldn’t the $4 million overpayment be better spent on a safer, more suitable site?
The alarming reality is that the La Quinta Inn site is contaminated with carcinogens and chemicals that pose significant health risks. Yet, the Homeless Trust and DERM have failed to prioritize this issue. The Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) Addendum Report from October 2023 identified dangerous levels of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), yet no further testing has been conducted as of August 2024. The County remains unaware of the full extent of the contamination, both onsite and offsite.
DERM’s usual protocol includes evaluating chemical vapors like methane that could infiltrate enclosed structures. However, DERM has not addressed this critical exposure pathway at the hotel site. Without a thorough investigation, the suitability of the property for housing the homeless remains highly questionable.
The current data is insufficient to determine whether the building poses an acute health risk for residential use or even commercial purposes. The soil hasn’t been tested, and only one groundwater well has been sampled—an approach that DERM would never approve for any municipality, private developer, or business.
This inadequate investigation prevents the County from conducting a reliable financial analysis of the acquisition’s impact. If contamination is widespread, remediation costs could easily exceed $1 million, with offsite contamination potentially driving costs into the millions—costs that should legally fall to the seller.
Proceeding with the purchase based on such limited data is reckless, exposing the public to severe health risks and County taxpayers to significant financial liability. Despite hours of debate by the commission, the chemical contamination was barely mentioned.
Commissioner Cohen Higgins, in whose district this homeless shelter would be located, has consistently advocated for finding an alternative site and questioned the wisdom of using taxpayer dollars to purchase a contaminated and overpriced quinta. The smarter, safer course would be to abandon the purchase of this hotel site and seek alternatives that won’t endanger the lives and health of vulnerable homeless seniors.
The County must own up to this $15 million mistake before it’s too late.
