PRESS ARTICLES

Date
Title

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1991
Arts Center Saga: How Dade County got the Sears Tower

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REPRINTED FROM THE MIAMI HERALD

June 19, the day Sears, Roebuck announced it would donate its property near downtown Miami for Dade's long-envisioned performing arts center, was an anniversary of sorts, silently noted by a party of one.

It had been a year to the day since Sheila Anderson, a real estate agent and volunteer with the county's Performing Arts Center Trust, had written Sears' chairman of the board to inquire about the property.

He never wrote back.

But one of his assistants called, and in one casual conversation, set into motion a series of events that would end up making the county the recipient of 3.56 acres worth $7.8 million and putting the performing arts center closer to reality than any other single event of the last 20 years.

Anderson, who had been entrusted by Parker Thomson, the Trust chairman, to make the approach, had asked only whether Sears would consider donating its landmark tower, Miami's first art deco structure, built in 1929 at Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 13th Street. She hadn't asked for the surrounding acreage or the remainder of the 162,000-square-foot building. The tower could be turned into an experimental black-box theater, an "educational component" of the complex that, to this point, had been planned immediately east of Sears, on property owned by Knight-Ridder Inc, parent company of The Miami Herald.

Anderson went about her task quietly, reporting only to Thomson, who kept the matter to himself. Had Thomson brought it up before any members of the 32-member Trust, the information would have been "in the sunshine," open to all and subject to interference. Anderson wasn't a member of the Trust; she could operate alone, violating no sunshine laws.

After almost two decades of listening to Dade leaders bicker over where a complex should be located and how it would be financed, Thomson had decided if this proposition were to work, it would have to be handled in silence.

On August 15, he and Anderson flew to Sears' Chicago headquarters. For 1 1/2 hours, they outlined the performing arts center idea: a complex that would include an opera/ballet theater, a symphony hall, offices for cultural leaders from arts organizations large and small and, ideally, a 500- to 600-seat drama/dance performance space plus a 150- to 300-seat black box theater.

But, they reassured those listening - a corporate lawyer and four real estate "directors" - they were only inquiring about donation of the tower, nothing more.

Show us a vision

Show us what you envision, Sears said. It would help to see an artist's rendering of how the building could be utilized.

Anderson contacted William Cox, architect for several recent Boca Raton projects. He offered to donate his time and devise the drawings.

On Nov. 30, Cox's work - depicting Sears with awnings out front and "Miami Arts Center" emblazoned on the tower - went to Chicago. A call came to Anderson; Sears liked what it saw. But, throughout December, things were quiet. Then, after the first of the year, another call. Don't get impatient, Sears said; we haven't forgotten.

"In the press, you think this has taken forever, " Anderson says. "In real estate, we know better; things take time."

Towards the end of February, Chuck Nadel, one of two dozen real estate "directors" for Sears, became Santa Claus to Dade. What would happen if the retail giant donated the entire parcel, he asked Anderson. She says Nadel didn't have to outline the reasons for Sears' offer, as a real estate veteran she knew "the numbers".

Increasing burden

The store had been vacant since 1983; Sears had been paying more than $229,000 a year in real estate taxes. In July, 1989, when the site had first been mentioned as a potential for the arts complex, the price was $13.5 million. There were no takers. A donation would bring tax benefits, good will in the community, and rid Sears of a property that was becoming increasingly rundown.

By April, official documents began to arrive in Dade. There was a letter of intent, an outline of how a title review and an environmental audit could be handled. Suddenly Anderson and Thomson couldn't keep matters to themselves. "Somebody had to sign the papers," Anderson said.

Together, they went to Metro-Dade Commissioner Joe Gersten, chairman of the commission's finance committee, who had engineered with Thomson, the commissioner's unanimous vote last November that approved a financing formula of $169.7 million for the arts complex. Gersten thought the documents looked fine, but sent the duo on to County Attorney Robert Ginsberg for approval.

Slow grind resumes

With Ginsburg's and Gersten's blessings, Thomson, in his capacity as Trust chairman, signed the papers, and returned them to Chicago. The matter was still only a "letter of intent". The full, 32-member Trust, had met in March, but there were no plans to reconvene the panel.

In Chicago, things returned to a slow grind. The documents needed five executives' signatures, and most of them spent 90 percent of their time traveling. Clearly it was going to take a while before there could be a public announcement.

Says Anderson, "I just told everybody that I didn't want to wait beyond June 19, " the "anniversary" only she and Thomson knew about.

By May, the Sears' signatures had come together, and Thomson quietly began to share his "secret." On May 20, he and Gersten met with James Batten, Knight-Ridder chairman. On June 3, he met with Knight-Ridder's real estate adviser, Phillip Blumberg.

The company was delighted, Batten and Blumberg said. It had never been happy that the Trust wanted more than 3.45 acres Knight-Ridder had been willing to give the project via long-term lease.

"What we wanted was a catalyst for economic development in the area," Blumberg said. "This is it."

Initial contract arrives

Now, preliminary ideas call for the symphony hall to be built on Knight-Ridder land east of Biscayne Boulevard, and the opera/ballet theater on Sears' property, with an enclosed walkway over Biscayne Boulevard to connect the two.

An initial contract from Sears finally reached the county attorney's office last week, but Tom Goldstein, the lawyer handling the proposition while Ginsburg is on vacation, said it had to be redone. The donation was made out to the Trust instead of Dade County, he said. "You need a legal entity that can take title to the property."

The next step is for the County Commission to accept the offer officially, pending property inspections and engineering studies. Goldstein's goal is to have matters in order for a July 9 vote.