A Florida judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the planned transfer of prime land in downtown Miami for President Donald Trump’s future presidential library.
The move by Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz came after a Miami activist claimed that officials at a local college violated Florida’s open government law when they gifted a large parcel of real estate to the state, which then voted to transfer it to the institution for the planned project. library.
“This is not an easy decision,” Maville said Tuesday as she explained her ruling from the bench, finding that the college did not provide reasonable notice to the public before voting last month.
“This is not an issue, at least for this court, that has political roots,” she added.
The nearly 3-acre (1.2-hectare) property is a developer’s dream and is valued at more than $67 million, according to a 2025 appraisal conducted by a Miami-Dade County property appraiser. One real estate expert bet that the parcel — one of the last undeveloped parcels on a landmark stretch of palm-lined Biscayne Boulevard — could sell for hundreds of millions of dollars more.
Marvin Dunn, an activist and historian of local black history, filed a lawsuit this month in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court against the board of trustees of Miami-Dade College, the state-run school that owns the property. He claimed the council violated Florida’s government in the Sunshine Act by not giving adequate notice of its special meeting on Sept. 23, when it voted to abandon the land.
The agenda released before the meeting simply stated that the board would consider transferring the property to a state fund overseen by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida government, but did not provide any details about which piece of property was being considered or why. Unlike every other meeting the board has held this year, the 8 a.m. meeting on Sept. 23 was not broadcast live.
A week later, DeSantis and other senior GOP officials voted to transfer ownership of the land again, effectively putting the property under the control of the Trump family when they turned it over to the Trump Library Foundation. This foundation is led by three trustees: Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump’s husband, Michael Boles, and the president’s attorney, James Kelly.
Jesus Suarez, the college’s lawyer, said the MDC did what was required by law and questioned Dunn’s political motives for bringing the case.
“There is no requirement under Florida law that there be a specification in the notice, because those trustees can walk into that room and talk to each other about whatever they want,” Suarez said.
Dunn’s lawyers contend that no one who wasn’t already involved in the deal could have known what the board would do.
“People have a right to know what they’re going to decide to do when a deal is so important and so extraordinary that it deprives the students and the college of this land,” said plaintiff’s attorney Richard Brodsky, speaking to The Associated Press before the judge’s decision.
Javier Lee Soto, general counsel for Miami-Dade College, testified that it is still in the process of finalizing the transfer of ownership of the land. He estimated that a delay caused by a court order could cost the college up to $300,000.
Other locations in Florida have previously been mooted as library locations, including properties associated with Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and Florida International University in suburban Miami. DeSantis signed a bill this year that prohibits local governments from blocking the development of a presidential library, aiming to overrule potential opposition in liberal-leaning counties or municipalities.
___ Kate Payne is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America It is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.