Despite legal challenge, Florida college votes again to transfer land for Trump presidential library
The board of trustees of the South Florida college, which is giving up valuable land for Donald Trump’s future presidential library, voted Tuesday to transfer the land.
Miami Dade College’s board of trustees faces a lawsuit filed by a local activist and a trial scheduled for August over allegations it violated the state’s open government law when it first voted to donate the package. The lawsuit says the board failed to provide sufficient notice for its Sept. 23 special meeting, when it voted to deed the nearly 3-acre (1.2-hectare) property in downtown Miami. A judge has temporarily blocked the college from officially transferring the land while the trial proceeds.
The site is a developer’s dream and is valued at more than $67 million, according to a 2025 appraisal by the Miami-Dade County property appraiser. One real estate expert bet that the parcel — one of the last undeveloped lots on an iconic stretch of palm-lined Biscayne Boulevard — could sell for hundreds of millions of dollars more.
On Tuesday, the board held another meeting on its campus in Hialeah, a Miami suburb with a majority Cuban-American and Republican leaning. Dozens of students, faculty, alumni and local officials packed the meeting to give their opinions on the land transfer, an opportunity some felt was denied when the board of trustees initially voted on the issue.
An agenda released before the September meeting simply stated that the board would consider turning over the property to a state fund overseen by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet, but provided no details on which property was being considered or why. Unlike the majority of other board meetings, neither the September vote nor Tuesday’s resumption were broadcast live.
A week after the initial vote, DeSantis and other top GOP officials voted to transfer the land again, putting the property under the control of the Trump family when they deeded it to Trump’s library foundation. This foundation is led by three directors: Eric Trump, the husband of Tiffany Trump; Michel Boulos; and Presidential Counsel James Kiley.
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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues.
