North Beach CRA spent about $685,000 of a $6 million budget last year, city records show

The North Beach Community Redevelopment Agency spent $685,265 of its $6,035,000 budget in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to a year-end memo on the Miami Beach City Commission’s Nov. 18 agenda. The city wants to move nearly all of what’s left, $5,485,000, into this year’s budget.

The figures are preliminary. The memo, from City Manager Eric Carpenter’s office, lists $593,493 spent on projects and services out of $1,494,000 budgeted, about 40%, and $71,939 on administration.

Where the money didn’t go

The second budget amendment for last year, item R7 B, shrinks each project line to roughly what was used:

• Small business development, which also pays for the five-year plan now being written: cut from $297,000 to $36,000.
• Beautification, the line for facade and home-improvement grants in the agency’s budget: from $301,000 to $40,000.
• Arts and culture: from $242,000 to $8,000.
• Code compliance: from $182,000 to $95,000. Community policing: from $290,000 to $217,000. Cleanliness: from $182,000 to $168,000.

The $930,000 cut from those lines moves into the agency’s set-aside for future projects. The exhibit’s revised project total, $564,000, is below the $593,493 the memo lists as spent through Sept. 30; the documents don’t explain the difference.

A budget near $10 million

The second item, R7 C, carries the money into the 2027 budget, which the commission adopted Sept. 23. With the carryover, the agency’s budget for this year would grow from $4,465,000 to $9,950,000. The memo says the carried money is for plan projects budgeted last year that “have not been completed and are still ongoing.”

Most of it lands in two reserve lines: $2,430,000 for affordable and workforce housing and $4,902,800 for future projects. The exhibit carries $2 million of last year’s $2.23 million housing set-aside forward as housing money; the remainder moves into the future-projects line. Only $37,200, an encumbrance for small business development, carries into a project line.

This is the second year in a row the agency has carried most of its money forward. It spent about $569,000 in fiscal 2025 and carried $2.95 million into 2026, as Red Sidewalks reported. The agency has said its grants pay out only after work is finished, which can make spending lag the budget (its answers).

Shade sails cut to half the plaza

A separate item on the same agenda, R7 K, would scale back one of the two projects the agency’s October presentation listed among its “investments so far.” The commission approved up to $100,000 in CRA money in July 2025 for shade sails at Normandy Fountain Plaza, using posts built during the plaza’s 2022 renovation. The vendor, ShadeFla Inc., later found the existing columns weren’t enough and quoted $198,784.03 with five new poles, according to the city’s memo.

The city now recommends only Phase 1: two new poles and two sails over the north section of the plaza for $99,945.96. Phase 2, three more poles and sails for the south section, would cost $137,627.19 and has no funding. The item, sponsored by Commissioner Tanya K. Bhatt, was not reached at the Sept. 10 and Oct. 14 meetings.

What’s next

Both items are set for a 1:30 p.m. public hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at a joint meeting of the City Commission and the agency’s board. Residents can speak at the hearing. The agency’s advisory committee met Tuesday evening at Normandy Shores Golf Club on the five-year plan for spending this money; Red Sidewalks will report on that meeting next.