a development team led by art dealer Gary Nader filed an official protest Friday challenging a recommendation that Miami Dade College’s board of trustees partner with condo king Related Group on a project to build a cultural center and residential towers downtown, perhaps foreshadowing a long legal battle over the project.Hmmmm. The headline to this story may have been a smidgen misleading. This case, which may have begun as a protest, made its way to court where an injunction was sought. Evidently, there was no continuing automatic or other administrative stay in place.
Nader’s attorneys notified the college three weeks ago of their plans to protest a college committee’s decision to score Related Group the highest among three competitors, including Nader. But unexpectedly, Friday’s challenge came after weeks of legal wrangling over the price of a required protest bond and public records related to an internal college investigation.
Last month, Nader + Museu LLP fended off the college’s arguments that the development team would need to post a $2.3 million bond in order to file a bid protest. A Miami-Dade judge allowed Nader’s team to move forward, at least temporarily, with the posting of a $100,000 injunction bond. Then on Thursday, Judge Monica Gordo rejected the college’s request to dissolve the emergency injunction
It is common practice, when seeking injunctive relief, for a court to require posting of a bond to compensate a defendant for delay damages IF the plaintiff does not prevail on its underlying claim for damages or relief. Characterizing such a bond as a "protest bond" is perhaps misleading.
But the mere thought of a $2.3 million, let alone a $100,000 bond requirement to lodge a bid protest certainly woke me up this morning.
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