Save The Olympia Theater (Gusman Center) Stop The $10 Giveaway!

image of Save The Olympia Theater (Gusman Center) Stop The $10 Giveaway!

🚨 ACTION ALERT: STOP THE $10 GIVEAWAY OF MIAMI’S ICONIC OLYMPIA THEATER 🚨

The City of Miami is attempting to GIVE AWAY the historic Olympia Theater (Gusman Center for the Performing Arts) — one of our most treasured cultural landmarks — for just $10 to a charter school, SLAM Academy, and its private, for-profit management company, Academica.

This deal includes:

The entire Olympia Theater
The adjacent 10-story tower
And millions of dollars in Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs) — valued between $15–18 million
A resolution by the Flagler District BID that requests SLAM donate $750,000 to $1,000,000 annually as terms ...

🚨 ACTION ALERT: STOP THE $10 GIVEAWAY OF MIAMI’S ICONIC OLYMPIA THEATER 🚨

The City of Miami is attempting to GIVE AWAY the historic Olympia Theater (Gusman Center for the Performing Arts) — one of our most treasured cultural landmarks — for just $10 to a charter school, SLAM Academy, and its private, for-profit management company, Academica.

This deal includes:

The entire Olympia Theater
The adjacent 10-story tower
And millions of dollars in Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs) — valued between $15–18 million
A resolution by the Flagler District BID that requests SLAM donate $750,000 to $1,000,000 annually as terms of their support for this giveaway.

This is being done without competitive bidding, without an independent appraisal, and in clear violation of the City’s own procurement procedures. There is an alternate proposal that would enable the City to retain ownership of the Olympia, receive $1,000,000 annually in leasing fees, be available 365 days a year for public programming, and revitalize the downtown Flagler District.

This rushed agenda item is a last-minute move to lock in a deal with long-term consequences for the public.

➡️ We must act NOW to stop this potentially illegal giveaway of public property.
Send an email to the City Commissioners today. Demand they follow the law and put the public interest first.

📬 You can email all five Commissioners to urge them to stop the giveaway. It only takes a few seconds.

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Email the Miami Commissioners to Save the Olympia Theater

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Your emails put direct pressure on City of Miami Commissioners to stop the potentially illegal, no-bid giveaway of the Olympia Theater and demand a transparent, competitive process. By flooding their inboxes, you show the public is watching—and won’t allow our historic cultural landmarks to be handed over behind closed doors.

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Dear City Commissioners,

I am writing to strongly oppose the proposed giveaway of the historic Olympia Theater (Gusman Center) to SLAM Charter School and its for-profit operator, Academica.

This no-bid deal is an outrageous misuse of public assets and a betrayal of Maurice Gusman’s original gift to the City. You are proposing to transfer:

A priceless historic landmark,
A 10-story tower,
And millions in Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs)
All for just $10.

Even more troubling, this rushed deal has unfolded in the shadows—without public transparency, without a formal, fair Request for Proposals, and without a clear accounting of who truly stands to benefit. While the contract names the nonprofit SLAM Foundation, all signs point to the private, for-profit company Academica as the real beneficiary of this backroom arrangement.

The City Attorney’s justification for waiving the bidding process is legally questionable at best. SLAM is not a governmental agency or instrumentality. Academica is a private, for-profit corporation. This violates your own procurement code, and it puts the entire transaction at legal risk.

Why hasn’t the City:
Released an appraisal of the property?
Used the $15 million from the Miami Forever Bond earmarked for the Theater’s restoration?
Opened a fair and transparent public bid to retain public ownership and world-class programming?
If SLAM and Academica can afford to give the Flagler District BID $1 million a year as a condition of support, then the City should retain ownership and collect that revenue in lease fees to fund arts programming for the entire community.

The Olympia Theater belongs to the public. It should not be given away to a charter school and its for-profit management company.  You can always find space for a school. But when you lose a landmark, it’s gone forever.

Stop the Steal. Vote NO.

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