Regalado Ignores Trailer Park Evictions – JP
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Miami, Florida – Where is County Commissioner Raquel Regalado? Two hundred families are losing their homes in her District 7. Every trailer park owned by the developer who bankrolled her brother’s campaign last year for Miami City Commissioner sits on her watch, in her jurisdiction, among her constituents. She found her voice for a campaign letter supporting her brother. She has not found it for her constituents who are being evicted by that same developer.
There will be a protest by those constituents on Wednesday, July 1, 2025 @ 1:00 PM in 3750 South Dixie Hwy, Suite 201, Miami. Residents of Silver Court, Lil Abner and Palm Lakes trailer parks demand that Commissioner Regalado intervene to stop the displacement of her constituents.
DYNASTY POLITICS
The Regalado blueprint set forth how Miami’s most ambitious political dynasty nearly captured three offices at once — and the developer money that followed, straight into the district of the sister who never said a word about the families being evicted from their residences. The residents own their trailer, but lease the ground underneath from the owner of the trailer park. Now that owner is terminating their ground lease and taking his ground back.
They had it all mapped out. Tomás Regalado — Cuban exile patriarch, 79-years old, two-term City of Miami mayor, and architect of a political family brand three decades in the making — became Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser in 2024, the office that sets taxable values on every piece of real estate in Florida’s largest county. His daughter Raquel, already seated as Miami-Dade County Commissioner for District 7 and widely viewed as the frontrunner for County Mayor in 2028, would finally claim the prize that had eluded her when she ran for County Mayor in 2016. And his son Jose Francisco, bankrolled by the family’s political machinery and carrying the family name, would take the City of Miami Commission seat in District 4.
Father. Sister. Brother. Three offices. One family.
The plan almost worked. On June 3, 2025, voters in Miami’s City Commission District 4 said NO. Ralph Rosado, a Princeton and UPenn-educated urban planner, defeated Jose Francisco Regalado by 532 votes in a low-turnout race that drew only 11 percent of registered voters. But the campaign finance records filed during the race tell a story that does not end with the vote count. They reveal who believed they had a stake in a Regalado victory, how much they paid for it, and what one California developer was doing in Raquel Regalado’s own district while his money flowed to her brother’s campaign.
THE DYNASTY
The Regalado name has been a fixture in Miami politics since Tomás won a special election for the District 4 City Commission seat in 1996 — the very seat his son just failed to capture. He served as Commissioner for 13 years, then as Mayor from 2009 to 2017. He is now Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser, a position he assumed on January 7, 2025, controlling the office that calculates taxable values for every property in the county — directly shaping the tax bills of every developer, landlord, and investor with holdings in Miami-Dade County.
The family’s approach to politics has always been hands-on — and its record with campaign finance law is tainted. In 2012, both Tomás and Raquel admitted to the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust that they had filed inaccurate campaign finance reports following the 2009 mayoral race, in which Raquel served as Treasurer. A year-long investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office identified six violations of Florida’s Chapter 106 campaign finance statutes, including a $40,000 discrepancy on an amended Treasurer’s report and questions about contributions from the Dominican Republic. Both paid $5,000 each in civil penalties and reimbursed investigative costs. Raquel told the Miami Herald that she would never again serve as her father’s campaign Treasurer.
She found another role in the family business. Public records from the Florida Department of Elections show that her younger brother, Jose Francisco Regalado, received more than $110,000 from Serving Miamians PAC — the political action committee that backed both Tomás’s mayoral campaigns and Raquel’s races — for social media consulting across the 2013, 2016, and 2017 election cycles. The youngest Regalado was on the family payroll through the same political infrastructure his father and sister used to accumulate power. When Jose Francisco announced his candidacy in April 2025, he presented himself as a fresh public servant answering a personal call. The records describe a family business.
Raquel ran for Miami-Dade County Mayor in 2016, forcing incumbent Carlos Gimenez into a runoff before losing. Her County Commissioner term expires in 2028 — precisely when County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is term-limited and the County’s top seat opens. With her father controlling the assessment of property values countywide, a brother on the City Commission would have given the Regalados reach across every level of local government that touches real estate, development, and public contracts in Miami. In campaign ads for Miami City Commissioner, District 4, Jose Francisco ran alongside his father and sister. Raquel wrote a signed letter to Coral Gate neighborhood residents on her County Commissioner letterhead urging voters to trust the Regalado family with their district’s future.
THE MONEY
Between April 1 and May 29, 2025, Jose Francisco Regalado raised $190,870 from 256 donors across three reporting periods — more than seven times what his opponent Rosado raised in the same period. Industries with direct interests before government accounted for more than 57 cents of every dollar raised. Real estate and construction donors contributed $58,000. Attorneys, law firms, and lobbyists added $35,000.
The donations did not arrive randomly. They came in coordinated clusters — multiple entities sharing a single address, each giving the legal maximum on the same day. On April 25, four entities at 3604 NW 7th Street each gave $1,000. On May 1, four entities at 1650 NW 87th Avenue in Doral did the same. On May 8, Norman Braman sent five of his companies from 2060 Biscayne Boulevard to give $1,000 each. That same day, lobbyist Ron Book gave $1,000 himself, had his law firm give $1,000, and had his wife give $1,000. Three Caribe Restaurant entities gave on May 15. Three Miami Beach parking companies gave on May 29. Three real estate entities at 1101 Brickell Avenue gave on May 29.
Not illegal. But a remarkably transparent map of who wanted access — and what they expected in return.
THE DEVELOPER AND THE DISTRICT
In November 2021, 1989 Sunny Court LLC — an affiliate of Malibu, California-based Marquis Property Company, led by Chairman Zan Marquis — paid $50 million to acquire two mobile home parks on Southwest 8th Street in Miami: (1). Silver Court Mobile Home Park in Little Havana; and (2) Sunnyside/West Haven in West Miami. At the time, a broker told The Real Deal that Marquis planned to “continue operating the properties as mobile home parks.” Both trailer parks sit in Miami-Dade County Commission District 7 — Raquel Regalado’s district. Every trailer park Zan Marquis owns in Miami-Dade County is in her district.
In December 2024 — weeks before Jose Francisco announced his candidacy — Marquis sold Sunnyside/West Haven to Miami-based Cade Capital for $26.5 million, a $5.5 million profit on the four-year hold. He kept Silver Court. In March 2026, 200 families in Silver Court received closure notices. They had six months to leave. “They’re not just taking our homes. They’re taking our life savings, our stability, our future,” said Awilda Suriel, Silver Court resident.
THE OFFER TO LEAVE QUIETLY
The owner of the trailer park has made offers to the residents being evicted:
• Leave by May 31 → $10,000
• Leave by July 15 → $5,000
• Leave by August 31 → $2,500
• State minimum after that: $1,375–$6,000
Most trailers are cemented to the ground. The owner of the trailer leases the land on which the trailer sits from the owner of the trailer park. Relocation is structurally impossible. Teresa Alvarez, 93, paid $8,000 for her home in 1993. She was told to take $10,000 and leave with her trailer home. Residents marched every Wednesday down Calle Ocho. One marcher was 90 years old. They called for concessions from the landowner.
On May 16, 2025 — weeks after those notices went out — Zan Marquis and five affiliated entities wrote six maximum-dollar checks to Jose Francisco Regalado’s campaign. All on the same day. All at the legal limit. All from Malibu, California addresses. Silver Court Mobile Home Park has stood on SW 8th Street since 1961. More than 200 residents received closure notices from 1989 Sunny Court LLC in March 2026 — the same entity that donated $1,000 to the campaign of their Commissioner’s brother.
THE SILENCE
Commissioner Raquel Regalado — who describes herself on her official county website as “most known for her strong advocacy for seniors and housing” — has issued no public statement about Silver Court. She has posted nothing on social media. She has held no press conference. She has sent no letter to residents. In a district she campaigns on knowing and loving, amid a displacement crisis covered by the Miami Herald, WLRN, Prism Reports, CBS Miami, Local 10, and Univision, the Commissioner who calls herself an unwavering advocate for seniors and their housing has been silent.
She was not silent for her brother. She wrote a signed letter to Coral Gate neighborhood residents on her County Commission letterhead, vouching for Jose Francisco’s character and urging voters to trust the Regalado family with their District’s future. The developer displacing her constituents gave $6,000 to the campaign that letter was written for.
Public records from WLRN and Prism Reports show that Zan Marquis was in direct contact with City Commissioner Ralph Rosado’s office before residents even received their eviction notices. A March 11 email shows Marquis referencing a meeting held “a few months ago” with the commissioner’s staff. Rosado’s office described it as an introductory meeting. The question of what Raquel Regalado knew — and when — has not been answered. On the record, she has said nothing at all.
THE QUESTIONS
The questions are simple. The public record makes them unavoidable. Did Raquel Regalado know that the developer displacing her constituents was funding her brother’s campaign? Did that financial relationship have any bearing on her silence? Every trailer park that Zan Marquis owns in Miami-Dade County is in Raquel Regalado’s district. He promised to keep them running. He sold one for a profit. He is clearing out the residents of the other. Two hundred families are losing their homes. And their Commissioner has not said a single public word.
THE BLUEPRINT, INTERRUPTED
Rosado won 2,938 votes to Regalado’s 2,406 — a margin of 532 in a district of 46,742 registered voters. He won despite being outspent more than seven to one. He won despite roughly $1.6 million in outside spending against him by groups tied to Commissioner Joe Carollo and former Mayor Francis Suarez. He won despite running against a family name that has defined Miami politics for nearly three decades – Regalado — a family that has admitted campaign finance violations, collected six-figure consulting fees through its own political action committees, and watched its developer donors evict 200 families from the District its Commissioner is supposed to represent.
He won because 532 more people in the neighborhoods of West Flagler, Flagami, Little Havana, Shenandoah and Coral Gate in the City of Miami chose differently. The Regalados still hold real power. Tomás controls the office that values every property in Miami-Dade County. Raquel holds her County Commission seat, and the 2028 County Mayor’s race is coming into view. The blueprint has been recalibrated, not abandoned.
The Regalados wanted three offices. They got two.