Miami would offer the Free Trade Area of the Americas a local headquarters at no cost, with the city funding at least half of the construction budget and almost all of the building's operating expenses, according to information released Monday.
City leaders have agreed to pay for half of the $12 million to $16 million needed to build the FTAA secretariat, with the rest of the money coming from state and federal funds and the private sector.
But if those other funding sources fall short, Miami has agreed to increase its share of the costs.
Miami's financial pledges were revealed in a legal notice published Monday asking other cities to match the offer. Organizers of the local secretariat effort, saying they are negotiating with Miami over possible sites, gave other municipalities until Dec. 19 to submit competing proposals.
''If anybody has a piece of property out there they'd like to throw in the mix, let us know,'' said Jorge Arrizurieta, executive director of Florida FTAA, the group state officials formed to pursue a South Florida secretariat.
The contest is open to any South Florida municipality, but local leaders of the FTAA effort say they expect to submit a Miami site to the 34 Western Hemisphere nations negotiating the proposed treaty.
The notice in The Daily Business Review offers the first significant glimpse at what Miami thinks it will cost to host the headquarters of what would be the world's largest free-trade zone. The city considers the FTAA secretariat crucial to its image as the trading hub of Latin America, and local backers claim landing the facility would generate thousands of spinoff jobs.
Nine other cities -- including five in the United States -- are vying for the headquarters, and South Florida plans to pick a site by February or March, Arrizurieta said.
A decision from FTAA officials is expected to come next summer or fall.
Arrizurieta expects other cities to offer a no-cost headquarters. Panama City has said it might donate building space near the Panama Canal, and Atlanta boasts of strong corporate backing for its well-funded bid.
A Miami secretariat would be a modest office building of about two or three stories housing between 150 and 200 employees, according to the notice and interviews with commercial brokers.
It should also be close to hotels, restaurants and such professional services as accountants and lawyers, the notice said, and within easy access of meeting facilities.
Arrizurieta said the criteria were based on requirements negotiated by FTAA officials during last month's FTAA talks in Miami.
Florida FTAA has so far focused on publicly owned sites within Miami, a source familiar with the process said. Among the candidates so far are the Coconut Grove Convention Center, Watson Island, the Miami Arena and a lot behind the AmericanAirlines Arena.
But at least one privately owned site has apparently joined the mix. The old Omni Mall complex, now an empty shell save for an art school, is a candidate, said Seth Gordon, who represents its owner, the New York-based Argent Ventures.
Along with half of the construction tab, Miami has agreed to pay for nearly all of the 50,000-to-60,000-squarefoot building's expenses, from electric bills to janitors' salaries, according to the notice and Arrizurieta.
Arrizurieta and a city spokeswoman were unable to provide cost estimates Monday evening, though the commercial brokers interviewed estimated the costs would be less than $1 million a year.
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