House budget chiefs have dramatically escalated their push to fund a new roadway linked to the sprawling Miami Freedom Park soccer complex, more than tripling the money they’re proposing for the project.
Budget conference documents released Friday evening show the House moved from $1.5 million for the undertaking on Northwest 37th Avenue and 17th Street to $5 million in its latest bump offer.
The Senate, meanwhile, still hasn’t budged from zero — an oddity, considering the upper chamber first proposed the $5 million figure through a January appropriation request by Panama City Republican Sen. Jay Trumbull.
The project would construct a new road and pedestrian sidewalks linking 37th Avenue to a new public park and city administration building under development at Miami Freedom Park, the 130-acre mixed-use development near Miami International Airport, which will house Inter Miami CF’s new soccer stadium.
The roadway would create a T-intersection at the park’s main entrance and a four-way intersection at 37th Avenue and 17th Street, improving transit access, reducing congestion and adding a pedestrian-safe entry to the park, Trumbull’s request said.
Construction is estimated to run from September 2026 through February 2027.
The House appropriations request, sponsored by Sarasota Republican Rep. James Buchanan, sought $3 million.
Miami-Dade County’s in-house lobbyist, Jess McCarty, worked on both requests. No outside lobbying firm was retained.
The broader Miami Freedom Park development has been coming online in phases. Nu Stadium, the 26,700-seat soccer-specific home of Inter Miami CF — co-owned by David Beckham, Jorge Mas and Jose Mas — opened April 4, about two and a half years after construction began on the site of the former Melreese Golf Course.
The privately funded stadium, estimated to cost $350 million, anchors a 131-acre mixed-use development that will also include retail, restaurants, hotels and office space to be delivered in subsequent phases through 2030.
The 58-acre public park that the proposed roadway would connect to — which will include a mile-long wellness loop, bike paths, youth athletic fields and green space — is part of the same complex.
So is a new, eight-story Miami City Hall that broke ground in January and is expected to be completed in late 2027. It will replace the city’s current administrative offices at the Miami Riverside Center, which officials declared functionally obsolete in 2015, in Coconut Grove.
