MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet are voting Tuesday on a plan to hand over downtown Miami land worth at least $67 million to Donald Trump’s nonprofit foundation to build a presidential library — and potentially a hotel — without prior public negotiations.

The vote comes after the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees agreed to transfer the land to the state in a special board meeting last week with no debate, no public comment or discussion of the fact the land was intended for a presidential library. After the vote, the college’s president and vice chairman told the Miami Herald that even they weren’t entirely sure what the state wanted to do with the property, located immediately south of the Freedom Tower.

The college has yet to release any records related to the decision or answer questions about what, if any, perks the institution secured in exchange for giving away the land, which it purchased in 2004 for $25 million. Reached by phone Monday, college President Madeline Pumariega declined to answer questions about negotiations.

The result: a vote shrouded in mystery, with little apparent future opportunity for public input once the land is handed over to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation. It’s not even clear if Trump, whose representatives toured the site months ago, is committed to the property as the home for his legacy project. The president has yet to comment on the state’s offer.

Adding intrigue to Tuesday’s vote, there are discussions of building a high-rise hotel with Trump’s presidential library, according to a longtime Republican operative with knowledge of the discussions. A second Republican said that they believed owning the land was a high priority for the president and his team. NBC News first reported the plans for a hotel adjacent to the library.

“Although not unusual to have the transfer of land in a prime spot, it’s very unusual to make part of that a commercial hotel. I’ve never heard anything like that connected to any other presidential library,” said Benjamin Hufbauer, a professor at the University of Louisville who studies presidential libraries. He added that the state transferring the land this early in the negotiating process is “unusually fast.”

Miami-Dade’s property appraiser has valued the plot at $67 million. But developer Gregg Covin said its commercial value is significantly higher. “I think that site is probably worth between $200 and $300 million in cash, at least.”

Covin has submitted proposals to the college twice in the past two decades to develop the land. At that time, the college was demanding benefits like classroom space, offices and a cultural complex.

The only concession in the state’s proposal to give the land to Trump’s library foundation is that they have to begin construction within five years, according to the agenda for the state board’s meeting.

“It should have been a giant expansion of Miami Dade College with the presidential library as part of it,” Covin said. “That’s what it should have been. Miami Dade College just dropped the ball.”

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said he has not been a part of any discussions with Trump world about the library, seen renderings or heard about plans for a hotel — adding that it did not come up when he was at the Oval Office announcing the G20 summit in Doral earlier this month.

Suarez defended the quick and quiet process to give the land away with few strings attached, comparing the library to affordable housing. “Cultural facilities, they’re all attractants for the city. Donating the land, just like we do for affordable housing sometimes, is not something that’s inordinate,” he said.

Other defenders of the project say it will bring in local economic value.

“The most profitable presidential library, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, generated about $3 billion in its first decade. George W. Bush’s presidential library on the SMU campus in Texas generated about $2 billion in regional economic impact in its first decade,” Boca Raton-based commercial location consultant John Boyd Jr. said. “I expect the Trump presidential library to blow those figures out of the water.”

A new state law passed this summer gives the state full “regulatory authority” over presidential libraries in Florida, and banned local government agencies from passing any resolutions or rules about presidential libraries. It’s not clear if the law would apply to a hotel built along with a presidential library.

Trump’s library foundation did not respond to a request for comment, nor has Trump confirmed the primary library will be in Miami. There have been discussions in the past of having the library, or an additional library location, in Palm Beach County.

Tuesday’s vote comes after a week of backlash among some Miami community leaders. Former college President Eduardo J. Padrón called the quick land transfer “unimaginable” in an interview with Miami Herald news partner WLRN. Coral Gables businessman Mike Fernandez, who recently rescinded a $10 million donation to Miami Dade College over the state’s treatment of undocumented students, called the plans a “direct theft of educational opportunity for political gain.”

On Monday, a few dozen protesters gathered in front of the land the state is dangling for a presidential library. Marvin Dunn, a former psychology professor at Florida International University and the organizer of the protest, said the property “was meant for Miami Dade College, not to be given away to any politician.”

Charlie Morrell, a 24-year-old biology student at Miami Dade College, said the proposal “feels like a slap in the face.”

The state board voting to hand over the land Tuesday consists of the governor, attorney general, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner — all of whom have signaled support for the plan.

“Florida is President Trump’s home state and should be home to the Presidential Library. It’s a no brainer,” Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said in a statement. “I enthusiastically support Florida serving as the home for President Trump’s library.”

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McClatchyDC White House correspondent Emily Goodin contributed to this report.

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