Nearly a year after Miami Dade College’s Board of Trustees conveyed a 2.63-acre parking lot next to the Freedom Tower to the state for the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library, public outrage has resurfaced.
A coalition of local artists and residents known as Save The Freedom Tower gathered on Oct. 2 on Biscayne Boulevard near Wolfson Campus to rally against the land transfer.
People who attended the rally included Richard Lamondin, who’s running for Florida State Senate seat in District 38, and local historian Marvin Dunn, who has mounted a legal battle against conveying the parking lot to the state.
Demonstrators argued that the presidential library will overshadow the Freedom Tower’s significance. The coalition, they say, is an apolitical movement aimed at raising awareness about the project.
“We would like that land to actually serve the purpose it was intended for, to serve the college and serve the community,” said Raul H. Vidaurre, a local activist who co-founded Save The Freedom Tower coalition with Daniel “Krave” Fila, a Miami artist and owner of El Fresco gallery.
The land dispute began last year on Sept. 23 when MDC’s Board of Trustees held an impromptu meeting—without public comment or a discussion of the state’s plans for the land—where the board unanimously voted in favor of conveying the land to the State of Florida for the construction of the library.
Dunn filed a complaint accusing the BOT of violating the Florida Sunshine Law and Miami-Dade County eleventh circuit court judge Mavel Ruiz blocked the land transfer on Oct. 14. Nearly two months later, the BOT held a second meeting.
During that meeting, MDC President Madeline Pumariega said: “I fully recognize and understand how some may feel hurt by a presidential library coming to Miami…we listened and we heard, but we do believe that in the long term, the economic value and opportunity for our community and for our college being the first in the country to be considered for a presidential library is something that is historic.”
Valued at $67 million, the property was transferred from the college to Florida’s Internal Improvement Trust Fund—which is managed by Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet—for $10, according to the Property Appraiser of Miami-Dade County.
The Miami Herald reported that developers estimate that the parking lot’s commercial value is between $200 and $300 million.
In March, Eric Trump, the president’s son and trustee of the Trump Library Foundation, made a social media post with a rendering of a skyscraper towering over downtown Miami with Trump’s name in bold letters. It also featured replicas of the White House Rose Garden, the Oval Office, an Air Force One plane, a golden escalator and the new ballroom.
“This concept could be an office, but it’s most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath,” President Trump later told reporters.
In a second lawsuit, Dunn and other Miami residents sued Trump, MDC and Florida officials, alleging the agreement violates the Domestic Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from giving a financial benefit to a president while they are in office.
“I feel confident that the federal court is going to make the right decision,” Dunn said.
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