An 800-acre, billion-dollar film production studio could become a reality in South Florida in the next five years if New York entrepreneur Donald Trump's dream materializes.
Trump's vision of a Universal Studios South undertaking is being reviewed by the Miami-Dade Commission. It will take at least six months before a formal initial vote on the project goes before the commission.
The project is tentatively called Trump Studio City and would be twice the size of Universal Studios in Los Angeles, according to various media reports. Speculated studio sizes would be 25,000 square feet to 250,000 square feet.
In a previously unannounced and unscheduled move, Commissioner Joe Martinez presented Trump's plans at a regular public commission meeting June 5, 2012. Martinez is running against Mayor Carlos Gimenez in the August election.
Gimenez said he couldn't comment on the plan because it was not on the regular meeting agenda. This was the first he had heard of it, he said.
Still, the commission voted unanimously for Miami-Dade to begin a feasibility study on the project. Of primary concern to the commission is how much of the land in question near the Homestead Air Reserve Base is contaminated and not fit to build on.
Homestead Base officials told The Miami Herald they were unaware of Trump's proposal. Smaller studios recently built in Miami have not had sustained success.
For Martinez, Trump's plan is his second pitch to fellow commissioners for a similar project. He pitched the idea of a Homestead film studio for the first time in 2001.
He told CBS 4 News in Miami, "Back then, I thought it was such a great idea that I thought I would just propose it to my colleagues and it would pass and people would flock here. I've learned. I've matured. And I knew I had to get someone with a name."
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