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At the first city commission meeting of 2026, newly elected Mayor Eileen Higgins and District 3 Commissioner Rolando Escalona succeeded in handing control of the historic Tower Theater on Calle Ocho back to Miami Dade College (MDC).
In a resolution on the agenda for Thursday’s commission meeting, Escalona and Higgins propose that the city manager negotiate and execute a 20-year management agreement with MDC for the theater, with automatic renewals every five years.
MDC had operated the theater for more than 20 years before the city declined to renew its management contract with the college in 2022. Despite protests from Miami artists and filmmakers, the city commission voted in 2023 to hand operations to District 3, where the theater is located, under then-Commissioner Joe Carollo. Initially, Carollo wanted to hand control over the theater and its parking lot to the Bay of Pigs Veteran Association, Brigade 2506, to build a museum and affordable housing. That plan was scrapped after the group said it did not wish to operate the property.
But there was a role reversal of sorts during public comments at Thursday’s meeting. This time, it was the artists who protested handing the reins back over to Miami Dade College.
Little Havana business leaders largely spoke out in support of the resolution. But a collective of stage actors, many affiliated with local theater organization Ruta Teatral, opposed the move, arguing local artists should have a say in the theater’s fate.
“The management of the Tower must be financially secure, yes, but it must also be supported by strong artists and creative leadership,” said actor Saul Mauricio Mendoza, founder of Ruta Teatral. Though the Tower Theater is not listed on its site’s directory of affiliated theaters, many of the actors who spoke at the meeting said the theater has become a home base for their productions. They also stated that the sudden move would jeopardize contracts for this year’s productions.
Actress Queca Gordillo, who spoke on behalf of nonprofit Primer Acto Florida Foundation, said, “The Tower Theater is not the success of a single organization; it’s the collective achievement of many small theaters and cultural companies in Miami, who, with hard work, collaboration, and mutual support, have turned this space into a cultural heart of the city.” She then abandoned her notes and pleaded with the commissioners for “a second thought about the management” and asked them to “respect all the programming for 2026.”
Denise Galvez, interim director of Viernes Culturales and founder of Latinas for Trump, argued that “there was never any regular programming” at the theater after MDC stopped managing it. “Forget about what’s happening on the inside,” she continued. “It was always meant to be a film theater. It’s equipped to be a film theater.” She also argued that the new management should have the means to preserve and restore the property. “MDC is willing to restore that marquee. It’s a historical asset of the community.”
Suzy Batlle, founder of Azucar Ice Cream Company, which is located directly across the street from the Tower Theater, echoed those sentiments. “There are five other live performance venues in Little Havana,” she said, addressing the actors who spoke earlier. “If there were so many people there, why is it always closed?” she added, eliciting jeers from the crowd.
In the end, the commissioners declined to pull the item for further discussion, and the management handover passed as part of a group of resolutions less than two hours into the commission meeting.
Watch the City of Miami Commission meeting:
