By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
A company called 2150 NE 7 Ave LLC bought a Dania Beach car lot for $21 million in December and now, four months later, is planning to flip about half of it – 4.5 acres – to Broward County for $15.75 million.
That seemingly lop-sided deal was on the Broward County Commission’s agenda for approval today until a reporter started asking questions Monday.
Agenda item #26-377 contains no explanation as to why the county needs the land. The proposed purchase price exceeds the average value of two independent appraisals by more than 10 percent. And the Broward Property Appraiser’s Office lists the just value of the full 9.69 acres the company bought in December is just $10.8 million – a fact not mentioned in the agenda item.
Even seller Scott Daiagi, the lone corporate officer of the newly formed 2150 NE 7 Ave LLC that uses the site’s address as its name, doesn’t know why the county wants the property.
“They approached me,” he said. “It’s not my business to ask.”
Turns out that when you ask you’re told that the idea of buying the property for a total of $17 million, including closing costs, originated in the administration of Port Everglades.
Atop the food chain there since his hiring in July 2024 is Port Director Joseph Morris. But Morris wasn’t available. Instead, port spokeswoman Joy Oglesby said the property is needed for “multiple uses” and had no information about the pricing.
The property is inside the western boundary of Port Everglades, south of I-595 and east of US 1 and the airport – land that until December was owned for decades by Hertz Car Rental.
HERE’S THE DEAL
County records show that the day of the $21 million purchase, Daiagi’s company leased half of the property on the south side back to Hertz until Dec. 31, 2044. The county has an agreement to buy the northern half. (The purchase agreement was supposed to be posted online, but instead the link to it has only a “placeholder” note.)
That’s the deal the director of the county’s Public Works and Environmental Sciences department will pitch to commissioners at a now future date, possibly next week.
The agenda items says Leonard Vialpando wants them to approve both the purchase and the transfer of $17 million from the Port Everglades Capital Fund to pay for it.
Daiagi is an amiable, wealthy investor and entrepreneur with many companies. He is president of Discount Truck Parking USA, which lists its business address as 2550 Miami Road, a block south of the entrance to Port Everglades on East State Road 84.
Discount Truck Parking is a low-tech business. Its website lists seven sites in Broward, Palm Beach and Orlando that offer gated parking services with 24/7 security for “trucks, trailers, bobtails, car haulers, box trucks, small trailers, food trucks, and RVs.”
Port Everglades is an important economic engine for the county that operates as a self-supporting enterprise fund. Local property taxes don’t fund it, nor are its revenues tapped to reduce the tax burden on local residents.
According to Broward County’s financial statements for fiscal year 2024, the most recent available, the port’s operating revenues totaled $215.5 million – an 18.1 percent increase from the previous year.
The same year, cruise-related activity, including both cruise and parking revenue, accounted for 42 percent of operating revenues. Petroleum further accounted for 20 percent of revenue and containerized cargo accounted for 18.9 percent of revenue.
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