A prime piece of real estate being handed to Donald Trump’s library foundation could double up as a hotel monetized by the president.
Florida powerbrokers, including Trump-supporting governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier, are set to gift Trump a 2.63-acre Biscayne Bay plot on the Miami-Dade waterfront.
The plot is in the shadow of Miami’s Freedom Tower, a historic landmark that played a crucial role in helping refugees from Cuba enter the U.S..
The New York Times reported that the terms will require only “components” of an actual library to be built within five years. The rest of the land, the outlet says, can be commercial—as a hotel, condos, restaurants, or whatever the Trumps fancy.
That means it could become yet another Florida-based private hospitality hub owned by the property developer president.
A New Yorker probe estimates that, by the end of his second term, Trump and his family will have pocketed more than $3.4 billion—primarily from deals and investments that almost certainly wouldn’t exist without his presidency.
That “thirst for cash,” the magazine noted, raises sharper conflict-of-interest questions when public assets help enable private profits.
In June, it was reported that Team Trump had scouted multiple sites in South Florida. This month, having decided on the Freedom Tower spot, it emerged that he was exploring the option of bolting a hotel onto the complex.
DeSantis argues the project is a civic boon. And in a shameless attempt to suck-up to Trump, Uthmeier even posted a video on X touting the vote and the location in a parking lot next to Miami’s Freedom Tower—“the Ellis Island of the South.”
“Surviving two assassination attempts, securing the border, and rebuilding our nation’s military are just a few stories this great library will tell,” he said.
Critics counter that the Freedom Tower’s immigrant-as-refuge symbolism sits awkwardly beside a Trump monument—and that state land shouldn’t underwrite a family business model.
News of the plans has led to public protests outside Freedom Tower, which became the Cuban Assistance Center in 1962 to assist Cubans fleeing the 1959 communist revolution.
One thing, though, is certain—the Miami plot is a developer’s dream. On the waterfront, transit-adjacent, and zoned for serious height, it is valued by the county at more than $67 million, but would likely fetch far more on the market.
An urban-planning consultant told The Times that the “highest and best use” could be towers up to 100 stories and thousands of condo units—with the library requirement, by contrast, just a slice of the site.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Trump Organization and the White House for comment.
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