Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is eyeing a parking lot next to Miami’s Freedom Tower for a Donald Trump presidential library.
The state’s top elected official plans to submit an item to the Florida Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund to convey the 2.6-acre parcel at 500-540 Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami for the project, which would be the first presidential library in Florida, a press release states. The board would vote on the item at its Sept. 30 meeting.
“No state has better delivered the President’s agenda than the Free State of Florida,” DeSantis said in a statement. “And we would be honored to house his presidential library here in his home state.”
Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, maintains his primary residence at his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
The improvement trust fund’s trustees are DeSantis, Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. The board is responsible for the acquisition, management, protection and disposition of state lands.
The parking lot is currently utilized by employees of Miami-Dade College’s Wolfson Campus. On Tuesday morning, the college’s board of trustees voted to transfer the property to the state, the Miami Herald reported. The college also owns Freedom Tower, which recently reopened after a $25 million renovation.
Freedom Tower is arguably the most iconic building in downtown Miami. Built in 1925, the 17-story Spanish Renaissance Revival high-rise was the first home of the defunct Miami News. In the 1960s and 1970s, the building served as the Cuban Refugee Center, assisting hundreds of thousands of Cuban immigrants. In 2005, Freedom Tower was donated to Miami-Dade College, which converted the building into a museum.
DeSantis has been seeking to patch up a strained relationship with Trump following the 2024 Republican presidential primary when the governor was among several candidates hoping to unseat the billionaire developer as the GOP’s leader. Trump’s campaign ran bruising attacks against DeSantis, who withdrew his presidential candidacy in January of last year after his campaign concluded he had no path to victory, published reports state.
Recently, DeSantis and his administration sought to boost the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown by converting a former air strip in the Everglades into a detention facility they dubbed Alligator Alcatraz. A U.S. appeals court recently blocked a lower court ruling ordering that the facility be closed.
