Council approves 50-year lease to Hialeah Education Academy; amends agreement to guarantee city gym access

The Hialeah City Council voted to approve a 50-year lease with City of Hialeah Education Academy (Coahuilla) for city-owned land at Slade Park and to amend the related use agreement to clarify the city’s continued access to a gymnasium and certain park improvements.

City Attorney Rafael Suarez Rivas and Coahuilla attorney Hugo Arzo told the council that state law and the city charter authorize municipalities to lease property and that the lease must be enacted by ordinance. Council members pressed for explicit language guaranteeing the city’s right to use the gym beyond the three-year term of the short-form use agreement. Coahuilla agreed to amend exhibit G of the lease so that “notwithstanding anything else in the terms of the use agreement ... use of the gymnasium on the premises will continue to be governed by city ordinances and regulations.”

The amendment was added at the request of council members who questioned whether the short-term use agreement — a separate document scheduled to expire after three years or upon issuance of certificates of occupancy for additional classroom facilities — would preserve the city’s right to use the gym in later years. Hugo Arzo said the commitment to city access was “baked into” the lease and would be a material breach if Coahuilla did not honor the ordinance that had been adopted earlier.

Council members also pressed for more detail on operational matters. Coahuilla representatives said the school will construct park improvements — including pickleball courts, a soccer pitch, and walkways — at their expense and that those improvements will become city property and be available for resident use. The parties described a schedule under which the city would have set hours for gym access during weekdays, evenings and weekends, and full time during school recess periods.

Several residents raised concerns at public comment about whether neighborhood residents would retain access to Slade Park facilities after the lease. Speakers asked that resident use be written explicitly into governing documents; council members and the Coahuilla team responded that the amended lease language and the city’s ordinance memorialize the city’s access commitments.

Council members voted to approve the lease as amended and scheduled second reading and final public hearing. The council also directed that the amended language be carried into exhibit G and the ordinance record so the use-rights would be explicit.

The ordinance creating the lease and the amended exhibit will return for second reading and public hearing on Oct. 28, 2025.

Ending: The council’s approval requires the executing of the lease and the amended use exhibit; both parties said they would finalize the revised exhibit language for the record before second reading.