The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners recognized the importance of joint development as early as 1978, six years before the opening of Metrorail. In order to promote joint development, the Commission adopted Ordinance # 78-74 (codified as Chapter 33C of the County Code) entitled “Fixed-Guideway Rapid Transit System – Development Zone.”

The Commission also adopted a joint-use policy and provided a general policy framework for the implementation of joint-development projects in the County’s Comprehensive Development Master Plan. During the planning stage for construction of the Metrorail system, the County, in conjunction with various municipalities, conducted a series of studies called Station Area Design and Development (SADD) which inventoried existing uses around station areas and established guidelines for future development. See a list of all joint development projects.

In December 1982, Miami-Dade Transit (MDT) entered into its first joint-development lease at the Dadeland South Metrorail station. The project, known as Datran, consisted of a four-phase mixed-use project which evolved into three class A office buildings (over 550,000 sq. ft. total), a 305-room Marriott Hotel, and a shared-used parking garage containing 1,000 spaces for Metrorail riders.

During the early 1990s, MDT, with the full support of the Board of County Commissioners and the county manager  began establishing an aggressive, professional, and credible joint-development program. In 1994, MDT closed on its second joint-development project at Dadeland North Station, and in 1998, subsequent to a Request For Proposals (RFP), MDT entered into a third lease for the South Miami Station.

MDT implemented its most aggressive joint-development effort in late 1998. On November 12, 1998, MDT held a development workshop attended by then-Federal Transit Administrator Gordon Linton, local and national developers, and many other interested parties from the transit and development industries. Immediately following the workshop, MDT released RFP # 202 which offered nine Metrorail stations for joint development. Developers submitted 10 proposals for five stations. The proposals ranged from residential to mixed-use projects, including retail, hotels, office space, and affordable housing. 

To date, leases have been awarded for three of the stations included in RFP # 202. In addition, County commissioners awarded leases to a community development corporation for the Martin Luther King Jr. Station (subsequent to receipt of an unsolicited proposal) and to the Water and Sewer Department (another County department) at the Douglas Road Station. MDT will issue RFPs for at least three additional stations, an event eagerly anticipated by the local development industry.

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