MIAMI -- At the moment, the Marlins' new stadium project is stuck in the middle of a parking jam.

 

It's basically a bottleneck involving two garages that the city of Miami has to wiggle through, but the holdup isn't slowing down the actual construction of the ballpark.

 

The city of Miami this week decided to delay moving forward to secure the bonds needed to finance two parking garages that will be next to the 37,000-seat retractable-roof stadium on the Orange Bowl grounds.

 

Initially, Miami leaders were prepared to sell bonds on Wall Street in New York next week. The new timeline has been moved back to February or March as local officials seek a more favorable climate.

 

City manager Pete Hernandez and new Miami mayor Tomas Regalado decided to hold off pursuing the bonds now for a couple of reasons. First, Miami's overall financing practices are under scrutiny, stemming from a number of issues not related to the new ballpark. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing the city's finances.

 

Also, by delaying, the city hopes to have a more competitive bid in a few months.

 

The hope is for the cloud to lift over the city's practices, along with some improvement in the economy, before local officials seek to secure the bonds on Wall Street.

 

For clarity, the holdup over the garages has no impact on the stadium itself. Construction remains on schedule.

 

"From the Marlins' standpoint, we are fully supportive of whatever process the city uses, because our priority is to protect both the project and to make sure that the garages are built as cost-effectively as possible, and with the least amount of risk possible," Samson said.

 

"Mayor Regalado and city manager Pete Hernandez are firmly in control of this process, and they understand the importance of the garages to the project. I am 100-percent supportive of their efforts and their decisions as to how best to accomplish the objectives of getting it done as cost-effectively and as risk-free as possible."

 

The hope is for the bond sales to get done early in 2010, so construction on the garages can begin.

 

"I would say that we want to get started with the shovel in the ground by April for the garages," Samson said. "I think that would make sense. That would give us 24 months to Opening Day [2012], just to be safe.

 

"There are stadium issues and coordination issues involved with the garages being so close to the ballpark. Literally, the garages are a few feet away in some places. There is time, so we're OK. The overall project continues to be on time and on budget."

 

The garages will be on the north and south sides of the ballpark, and will accommodate 4,000 spaces. Overall, there will be about 5,700 parking spaces on site, including the surface lots.

 

As the city deals with the parking lots issue, workers continue to move forward in the construction of the ballpark. All developments can be followed via the new ballpark webcam on www.marlins.com.

 

The major development for the building part of the stadium this week is all eight super columns are now fully constructed. The eight super columns and four tree columns will eventually support the roof.

 

Four super columns will be on the north and south sides of the building. There will be two tree columns each on the north and south sides. The super columns on the north side will stand 135 feet, and they will be slightly lower at 119 feet on the south end. "They are as high as they are going to get," Samson said.

http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091204&content_id=7755596&vkey=news_fla&fext=.jsp&c_id=fla

MIAMI -- First, Miami's overall financing practices are under scrutiny, stemming from a number of issues not related to the new ballpark. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing the city's finances.

 

 

 

What's up with this??

MIAMI -- First, Miami's overall financing practices are under scrutiny, stemming from a number of issues not related to the new ballpark. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing the city's finances.

 

 

 

What's up with this??

 

I know, that's what I was wondering.... Lol, I love my city.

I read today that the Securities and Exchange Commission will be looking into the financial transactions of the City of Miami. The new mayor, Regalado, had postponed the bonds sale to pay for the parking garages in order to get better prices. Well, with these new developments, I don't think the City will be getting favorable ratings and the bonds will most likely be much more difficult to sell at a low interest rates. What this means is that the City of Miami will have to pay higher interest to the buyer of the bonds in order to get the money the city will need to pay for the parking garages. It is too late to back away from their commitment of building the garages, so get ready to read a bunch of articles about how the garages will now cost a whole bunch more than they originally thought, etc, etc, etc .....

I read today that the Securities and Exchange Commission will be looking into the financial transactions of the City of Miami. The new mayor, Regalado, had postponed the bonds sale to pay for the parking garages in order to get better prices. Well, with these new developments, I don't think the City will be getting favorable ratings and the bonds will most likely be much more difficult to sell at a low interest rates. What this means is that the City of Miami will have to pay higher interest to the buyer of the bonds in order to get the money the city will need to pay for the parking garages. It is too late to back away from their commitment of building the garages, so get ready to read a bunch of articles about how the garages will now cost a whole bunch more than they originally thought, etc, etc, etc .....

 

 

I think we all understand that part. But what are "the number of issues not involved with the ballpark" they are talking about?

They are referring to the practice of moving moneys from one account to another to make the city's finances look as good as possible.