Downtown Miami’s century-old historic courthouse, a relic of a past era and the place where Al Capone was tried, is for sale — again.
After an online auction for the 28-story building closed at 5 p.m. Friday with zero bids, Miami-Dade County chose to push back the bidding deadline to Sept. 18, according to GovDeals.com, the web platform where the property is posted for sale. The auction was launched on July 1 with a floor asking price of $35.4 million, and was originally scheduled to close by July’s end but was extended several times. In the extension to Sept. 18, the minimum asking price was unchanged.
The minimum asking price amounts to $134 per square foot.
The outcome marks a blow to Miami-Dade County’s yearslong efforts to offload the building, a landmark that costs the county to own and maintain. The county has tried to sell it several times in years past.
Designed by A. Ten Eyck Brown in the Neoclassical style, the courthouse was completed in 1928, marking the tallest building in Florida at the time. It spans 265,000 square feet and sits on a 1.7-acre site at 73 West Flagler Street.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, with additional listings of interior fixtures in 2020, county records show.
Its historic designation has widely been seen as limiting the county’s ability to sell it due to a ban on demolition and restrictions on interior redevelopment, with mandates for preserving the first-floor lobby, second-level atrium and the sixth-floor courtroom where Capone was tried.
“It’s a very difficult project because of the limitations. It’s small floors, low ceilings, only a few floors you can use. It’s not possible,” said Moishe Mana, who is widely considered downtown Miami’s largest landlord. We were looking at what we can do with it, but not at a $35 million cost.”
In the latest bid to offload the building, the county highlighted the redevelopment potential, including pointing out in a presentation that the site allows for up to 500 units per acre under the rapid transit zoning. The presentation suggested hotel, cultural, educational or event space uses.
The courthouse hosted high-profile trials over the years, including Capone’s perjury trial in 1930. But since the early 2000s, it earned a reputation for disrepair, including leaks and cramped spaces that couldn’t fit Miami-Dade’s judiciary.
Last year, the judiciary moved into the newly built 23-story Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center at 20 Northwest First Avenue. The project tallied up to $267 million, with county administrators hoping this cost would be offset some by the $35.4 million floor price set for the auction.
In the meantime, the historic courthouse has remained a costly asset for the county, which spent $32 million on upkeep in recent years, including for structural repairs and preservation of the façade and terracotta.
Known for its marquee features such as the ziggurat-style roof and Roman columns on its south and north entrances, the building’s interior landmark features include original benches, black-and-white checkered marble floors, ceiling mosaics and etched brass elevator doors.
After Miami-Dade sought buyers in 2024, with the county at the time estimating the building’s value at $53 million, one candidate made an offer: developer Russell Galbut’s GFO Investments. For years, the Miami-based firm had its eye on the property, first proposing in 2017 to build the county a new courthouse and convert the historic one into shops and offices.
Galbut’s proposal last year called for buying the building from the county and converting it into hospitality, retail and offices, preserving its historical architecture. He also wanted to demolish the north portion and replace it with a 65-story, 800-unit tower with condos and apartments. But his proposal also called for a tax rebate from the county as a maintenance fee in order to redevelop the asset, the Miami Herald reported. County officials rejected this offer and voted to hold the auction.
