Fontainebleau Miami Beach casino hopes dashed after bill withdrawn
The specter of a casino arriving at The Fontainebleau Miami Beach could be dead in the water following the withdrawal of a key bill that, if signed, would have paved the way for the expansion of brick-and-mortar establishments in South Florida without the consent of voters.
News filtered through earlier this week that Senate Bill 1054 was on life support, and Miami Beach officials have since ditched such plans.
Well-heeled businessmen Armando Codina, a local real estate developer, and billionaire Norman Braman flew to the state capitol in Tallohassee to voice their disapproval over the casino legislation.
The respective legislation would have brought into question an amendment to Florida’s constitution approved by voters in 2018 that allows them to decide on gaming expansion.
Supposedly, SB1054 didn’t have a clear path to passage, according to Katie Betta, a Senate spokeswoman, which in turn, seemed to decide its fate.
As far as Fontainebleau Miami Beach owner Jeffrey Soffer is concerned, he has been dealt another poor hand in his dream to provide a casino to the iconic venue.
Indeed, Soffer, who has made more than $300,000 in donations to the Republican Party of Florida and political action committees in recent months, hasn’t concealed his desire to open a casino.
Only in December last year, Soffer unveiled his long-delayed Fontainebleau Las Vegas establishment, a 67-story hotel-casino to the tune of $2.8 billion.
But with Fontainebleau Miami Beach, Soffer has been hit by roadblocks time and time again, and his proposed casino project has looked doomed from the outset.
More intriguingly, the removal of the bill came just a day after Citadel founder Ken Griffin denounced the notion of gaming expansion in South Florida in a colorful op-ed piece published by The Herald, in which he claimed that new casino hotels could have an adverse effect on residential real estate pieces.
For now anyway, a South Florida casino seems to be off the cards, but it remains to be seen whether Soffer will concede defeat and walk away.
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