Broward won't try to buy Spirit Airlines' ex-headquarters

Broward County is abandoning its effort to acquire the headquarters left behind when Spirit Airlines shut down last month. Commissioners didn’t even take a vote on the issue after it became clear during a meeting Tuesday morning that if they did purchase the six-story, 180,000-square-foot office building, they could not guarantee they would be able to use it. Kimco Realty Corp., which owns and operates Dania Pointe, where the Spirit building is located, has the authority to grant variances for zoning changes that would be required to run a government center at the site instead of an airline headquarters, said County Commissioner Lamar Fisher. And Kimco has not and will not commit to granting such a variance, Fisher said. A phone call to Kimco on Tuesday afternoon was not immediately returned. The case for purchasing the property was already losing momentum before Fisher raised Kimco’s position at the County Commission meeting held Tuesday solely to consider authorizing a $100 million bid. Bob Swindell, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, told commissioners there are three corporations looking to bid on the same property, and the county does not want to be seen as competing with them instead of luring them to South Florida. “Our top priority is bringing high-paying jobs to Broward,” said Swindell, whose organization is the county’s official public/private partnership for economic development. “You’re competing with these businesses because it’s such an attractive location. … I don’t think it’s a good look for us to compete with businesses that are going after the same building. I don’t know that we could win.” Dania Beach Mayor Joyce Davis said a county purchase of the property would bite into the city’s tax base at a time when the state is looking to eliminate homesteaded property taxes. “Municipalities are already facing unprecedented fiscal uncertainty,” she said. The plan to buy the Spirit property came to life even more quickly than it died. After the discount airline went out of business in May, Commissioner Michael Udine openly wondered if the county should relocate its administration offices to the soon-to-be-abandoned site. The county is already working on a move projected to cost more than $630 million. (County Mayor Mark Bogen estimates the ultimate cost will be upward of $750 million.) The current county administration building was constructed in the 1940s as a department store on the corner of South Andrews Avenue and Southwest Second Street. It was retrofitted in 1980 to serve as the county headquarters. In June 2023 the county bought the Robert Hayes Gore State Office Building at 201 W. Broward Blvd., two blocks north of the current offices, for $65.5 million in the hopes of demolishing it and building a new headquarters. That has taken longer and cost more than anticipated. When Spirit shut down, Udine saw the airline’s headquarters as a chance to save both time and money. The building already exists and would need minimal renovation. Officials were looking at saving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. The county had until June 24 to register its interest in the property with the bankruptcy court. Commissioners who supported the purchase were hoping to authorize County Administrator Monica Cepero to bid up to $100 million on the property at the July 23 auction. But when it became clear that support on the commission was weak and Kimco did not grant the assurances needed to make the headquarters move, Udine withdrew his proposal to buy the property. Both Udine and Bogen said the overall effort to buy the property represented a commitment to save taxpayer dollars. Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.