It makes little sense to be offering $10 million to help establish a new TV Studio in Miami, when the Dinner Key Expo Center has been a successful and profitable one for over seven years. It is shameful to be demolishing the 107,000 sq. ft. South Hall and 45,000 sq. ft. North Hall that have provided and excellent facility for the success of Burn Notice, Marley and Me, as well as countless other TV and Film productions.
The City of Miami has benefited with $250K – $500K annual leases, Miami-Dade County (MDC) has received thousands of dollars in permit fees, hundreds of filmmakers have been employed, thousands of companies have increased revenues, hundreds of houses have rented out their homes as locations, and the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau has benefited with tens of thousands of positive PR impressions throughout the world.
Dinner Key Expo Center became a profitable and successful accidental Film Studio. The former Skill Center location that the CRA bought from MDC may be useful as a storage facility, but not a Film Studio. It is near a railroad Line, under an overpass, under a flight path to Miami Intl Airport, has low ceiling and many vertical support columns. It might work as an office for Video Gamers or Animators if it is soundproofed.
Dinner Key Expo Center has been a most valued facility and should remain so. To lose it as a productive and profitable TV and Film Studio, will be a travesty. It would be a wise move for the City of Miami to not demolish both North and South Halls. At lease keep one hall, do an RFP. Get a quality film studio to invest and help keep the film industry here for the benefit of all.
Harry Emilio Gottlieb
Coconut Grove
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