Posted by: WTVJ NBC-6
Posted: March 13, 2009

MIAMI — A historic agreement may give the Florida Marlins a green light for the stadium and could provide a boost to local businesses.

The Miami Dade Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will announce a historic agreement with the Florida Marlins on Friday at 11:15 a.m.

It will be a first of its kind deal that will guarantee contracts for Black Owned Businesses (B.O.B's) during the construction and subsequent operation of the proposed $515 million state-of-the-art world class ballpark in Miami-Dade County.The formal announcement will take place during a signing ceremony at the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce Annual Business Leaders Luncheon at Jungle Island in Tree Top Ballroom in Miami.

Attendees will include Bill Diggs, President of the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce, Bishop Victor T. Curry, President of the NAACP, David Samson, President of the Florida Marlins and other community leaders.“This is a great day for black business, not only in Miami, but nation-wide. It shows the strength of collaboration between the NAACP as an advocacy group and the chamber of commerce as an effective economic development organization. This agreement creates a standard for partnerships and how they should work in the Black community across the country,” Bill Diggs, president and CEO of the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce said.

The Community Compact and Agreement was agreed to in principal on March 2. The purpose of this compact is to promote racial diversity in the construction and everyday business activity of the Marlins in the new ballpark.According to the compact, the Marlins have agreed to provide B.O.B's with 15% of the Marlins private contribution in construction contracts. The team will also seek to provide 15% of its contracts for product & services annual in its operations to B.O.B's.

Additionally, the Marlins reaffirm their commitment to assist with the educational programs both for adults and youth in the community and work with community-based organizations and grassroots organizations to provide assistance to them.

“The Miami-Dade Branch of the NAACP is committed to ensuring that contracts and other significant opportunities be made available to Black businesses in the pre-construction and ongoing operations of the Florida Marlins Stadium Project,” said Bishop Curry, President of the Miami-Dade Branch of the NAACP. “We are taking proactive measures to protect the civil rights of our members and the community at-large.”

Marlins president, David Samson, they are proud of the partnership.

“The Florida Marlins are extremely proud to partner with the NAACP and the Miami-Dade Chamber on this unprecedented agreement and we hope that this will serve as a catalyst to establish similar partnerships throughout the country,” Samson said. “It's important to our organization as a good community partner to guarantee that Black Owned Businesses contribute and share in the ballpark's success. We look forward to seeing the results of this partnership so that a broad range of people in Miami-Dade County can enjoy the many economic benefits that come from a construction project of this magnitude.”



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