2018-05-02 TPO FPC SMART Presentation on Special Assessments

1. SMART Plan
Special Assessment Option
Fiscal Priorities Committee
May 2, 2018

2. Summary of Special Assessments
• Authorized and accessed by Local Governments
• Normally approved by local government board
for public purpose uses under “Home Rule
Authority”
• Public purpose must benefit those properties
being accessed
• Normally collected as part of the annual
property tax and then distributed for the
authorized uses

3. County Assessment Districts
• Miami-Dade County routinely approves special
assessment districts for public purposes based on
requests from entities like homeowner’s association
or developer (for new development projects).
• As of April 2018, there were 1070 special
assessment districts covering almost 390,000
properties for items such as:
 Street Lighting (majority of special assessment districts)
 Security Guard (20 districts)
 Multi-Purpose Maintenance (47 districts)
 Capital Improvements (2 districts)

4. Metromover Assessment District
• County Ordinance 86-44, created an Assessment
District for Metromover – Omni and Brickell
Extensions
• Designed to yield $23 million toward local share for
Metromover capital costs in 1986
• Total Project cost was $154 million at the time of the
Federal Grant Agreement in 1989 – Special
Assessment share at $23 million was 15% of the
project capital cost
• Funds advanced via bond financing backed by the
Assessment District

5. Metromover Assessment District
• Term of Assessment District was 15-Years
• Expected Assessment District annual revenue was
$3.8M to $4.4M per year
• Expected annual rate per square foot of property
being accessed was 18 cents to 20 cents
• City of Miami and the State made up the amount
above the Assessment District to reach 25% Local
Share to match 75% Federal Share

6. Metromover Assessment District
• Business Community expressed support for the
Special Assessment:
 Brickell Area Association (Brickell Extension)
 Biscayne Blvd Association (Omni Extension)
 Independent Feasibility Analysis Supports Economic
Benefit to the property owners of Metromover exceeds
the amount of the annual assessment

7. Wave Special Assessment
• Special Assessment in Downtown Fort Lauderdale to
support Wave Project
• Designed to achieve about $21 million for Wave
Project capital costs
• Financed advanced via Florida State Infrastructure
Bank Loan and cash
• Began in 2014 for a term of 25 years
• About 11% of the current Wave Project budget of
$195 million

8. Special Assessment Hybrid
• City of Orlando funded the “Gateway Interchange on
I-4” with a Hybrid Approach:
 Special Assessment was instituted for a select
“development” area around the new interchange
 Special Assessment reduced or eliminated by “tax
increment” (TIF) generated by the new development as
the property values increased (a portion of the
increment)
 Special Assessment was eliminated by the TIF in less than
five years after it was accessed
 Helps ensure debt can be issued timely

9. Special Assessment
• Must be developed and accessed by local
government
• Consider for highly urban areas – examples in
SMART Plan Corridors:
 Downtown segments of Beach Corridor
 Select urbanized segments of other Corridors – could be
station area focused
 Must have majority support of those being accessed to be
effective
 Normally for capital cost, but could be more flexible if
needed if needed for Operations and Maintenance

10. Sample Amount for Assessments
• As an example the CITT study of 2016 shows 38.1
million of square feet for properties in a possible
Metromover expansion area for the area south of
Miami River, East of I-95 and north SW 15th Road
• Using a similar approach to prior Metrorail
Assessment District:
 10 cents per square foot - $3.81M per year
 15 cents per square foot - $5.72M per year
 20 cents per square foot - $7.62M per year

11. Sample Downtown Office Rents
(Loopnet.com 4/29/2018)
• Southeast Financial Center - $29 -$44/sq ft
• Wells Fargo Center - $43 - $48/sq ft
• 999 Brickell - $35 sq ft
• 800 Brickell - $39.50 - $42.50/sq ft
• 150 W. Flagler (Museum Tower) - $39/sq ft
• 111 SW 3rd (McCormick Place) - $21 - $37/ sq ft
• 1395 Brickell - $55 - $60/sq ft

12. www.miamidadetpo.org