Miami to get $1 billion 20th Century Fox/Sony Music park

[ECG]

Miami-Dade is considering a $930 million Miami Wilds park and shopping center that would be built by 20th Century Fox and Sony Music in a stretch of rare pine rocklands. By designating the 70 acres as a slum, it could create a special taxing district to help the project's development.

The developers of a nearly $1 billion amusement park in south Florida plan to really slum it for the location.
Officials with Miami-Dade County seek to designate a piece of the 480-acre stretch of rare environmental land as a "slum" so the builders 20th Century Fox and Sony Music can build its $930 million "Miami Wilds" amusement park at the site, reports the Miami Herald.
The area consists of pine rocklands and is the largest non-protected area of the habitat in the state, the newspaper reports.

But the measure would help make the land a special taxing district and to raise $130 million to assist the developers for its 70-acre project, the newspaper reports.
he park would be themed after the wildlife in the region and officials hope give Miami an economic engine like Disney World is to the central part of the state.
Several factors including poor maintenance of the area, congested roads and environmental restrictions qualifies the area as a slum, a report states. The county will consider the measure next month, the newspaper reports.

But environmentalists and others who oppose the plans for the park, a shopping center and 35,000 square-foot theater have scheduled a rally next month.
"To call these pine rocklands slums and blighted areas seems absolutely absurd," Roger L. Hammer, a former county naturalist, told the newspaper. "Sure, they look blighted and overgrown, but that's only because nobody managed them."
Federal officials have also said the project could harm neighboring environmental areas, the newspaper reported.

Here's a map of the former U.S. Navy blimp base (pictured above) that is to be developed into the park.

Image from linked Miami Herald report.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...d-slum-build-amusement-park-article-1.2057938

 

[BBH]

Would it become part of the zoo then? I'm confused as to how this would play out. Key word there being would. Because blah, cautious optimism, blah, not holding my breath.