Details about this story

• Source: Miami Herald
• Date: June 24, 2007
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Jason Grotto
• Topics: Real Estate
• Data Types: Local Data , Paper Trail
• Description/Excerpt: There, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country, developer Dennis Stackhouse promised to build a massive biopharmaceutical park, where multinational drug companies and prestigious universities would develop cutting-edge medical advances and Miami's public hospital would provide free healthcare to 150,000 poor people a year. More than 1,500 high-paying jobs would follow, along with hundreds of millions in investments and tax revenue -- enough to make it the most dramatic economic development project ever seen in Miami-Dade. This ''is exactly the kind of job-producing investment that we have needed in Liberty City for decades,'' said U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a champion of Liberty City and one of the park's most vocal supporters. Since then, county leaders have invested millions in Stackhouse's biotech project, using public money set aside to help the poor. Here is what taxpayers received in return: empty lots, dormant earthmovers and piles of dirt and gravel with no sign of the buildings, the biotech companies or the high-tech jobs promised to Liberty City. Instead, Stackhouse diverted more than $500,000 from the park through double billings and dubious expenses while paying a bevy of political insiders to rally support for the troubled project, a seven-month Miami Herald investigation found.
• Methodology: See explainer