A 10-acre parcel on Fisher Island — an affluent district located south of Miami Beach — has become the center of a bitter feud between some of Miami’s most powerful figures.
The issue at hand, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a marine terminal that supplies fuel to cargo and cruise ships at PortMiami, which residents of the island — known as the wealthiest ZIP code in Miami, and the second wealthiest nationwide — claim is an eyesore and an environmental hazard.
Developers and investors, including Related Group and HRP Group, bought the swath of land in 2025 and considered plans to remove the fuel depot and replace it with two luxury condo towers, whose home prices would reach $100 million. However, cruise lines feared the loss of fuel supply — which prompted Miami-Dade County to jump in, and which critics say happened too late.
Now, the country is attempting to buy the land, while other parties continue suing each other.
It all stems to 2024, when the fuel terminal operator TransMontaigne Partners put it up for sale. Come 2025, the joint venture of developers had reached an agreement to purchase the terminal for $180 million, where the condos would rise. Miami-Dade County, according to the Journal, had only learned about a potential purchase for the site through published media covering the news.
That made county officials begin seeking other ways to bring fuel to the area, such as transporting it on a barge from Fort Lauderdale, which ultimately proved too cumbersome. Then the county tried to replace HRP as the buyer. Then, at a county commission meeting last September, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava asked commissioners to grant her administration permission to buy the terminal — or grab it through eminent domain.
“To sit here now in an emergency meeting, say we’re going to take someone’s property … it’s a tough pill to swallow,” said Commissioner René García, according to the outlet.
Still, approval to take the land by eminent domain was granted one day after the sale to HRP closed for condo development.
Fisher Island’s Community Association and a country club sued the county in federal court early this year seeking to halt the eminent domain proceeding. They claim they had received rights to 4 of the 10 acres, partly in exchange for supporting the condo development, which they claimed would give them veto power over any property sale. (Miami-Dade, to dismiss the suit, argued in part the property rights the entities claimed were linked to conditions that hadn’t been met.)
More recently, this week, they sued HRP from selling the site to Miami-Dade, alleging it would spoil the earlier deal. The Journal reports they claim HRP has agreed in principle to sell the terminal to Miami-Dade for $200 million and another $200 million payable over 20 years — both of which declined the outlet’s request for comment.
Talks remain ongoing and there could soon be a resolution, which isn’t sitting well on Fisher Island.
The storage tanks for fuel, according to James Ferraro, the chairman of the Community Association, “have to go one way or the other.”
