Florida State Representative Fabián Basabe pays roughly $2,700 a month in taxpayer funds for a legislative office in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood, but during a recent visit the storefront at 327 NW 54th St. was locked, with no listed hours or visible staff. Basabe leases the space from Shiloh Properties LLC, a company he has listed as a source of income in public financial disclosures.
The arrangement was first detailed by the Miami New Times, which reported that expense records obtained by filmmaker Billy Corben show taxpayers have paid $2,662.50 monthly to Shiloh Properties since at least November 2025, with payments at the same rate dating back to the start of the November 2024 lease. Basabe signed a two-year lease agreeing to pay $63,900 in total rent, according to the same records. Corben, who confronted Basabe about the lease at a town hall during his reelection campaign, said the Little Haiti site has never functioned as an office to his knowledge and lacks sufficient facilities to be staffed.
When the outlet visited the office on a recent Monday afternoon, its door was locked, with no visible activity at Basabe's office or the offices next to it. The space carries no listed operating hours. Basabe told the publication the office appeared closed because a legislative aide had recently resigned, though he did not directly answer whether the office had been regularly staffed since the lease began in November 2024.
A District Office Outside the District
Florida House District 106 covers a coastal strip of northeastern Miami-Dade County that includes Miami Beach, Surfside, Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles Beach, and Aventura, a boundary that places the Little Haiti office entirely outside the territory Basabe represents, according to Florida Politics.
Basabe has defended the setup, telling the Miami New Times he followed House rules and guidance on the lease and rent, and that Miami Beach rents were too expensive. He said he had arranged to provide the space without charge but was advised that a paid lease at fair market value was required, and he said the lease, payments, and House staffing records are all available through public records. He also criticized news outlets for framing what he called a permitted arrangement as a scandal, while not directly addressing questions about his financial relationship with the landlord. Basabe did not directly answer whether the office had been regularly staffed since the lease began, and Miami Beach officials did not immediately respond to the New Times' emailed request for comment.
The Statute at the Center of the Question
Florida Statute 112.313 generally prohibits public officials from leasing property to their own agencies through businesses in which they or certain immediate family members hold specified interests, and it covers businesses in which an official is an officer, partner, director, proprietor, or holds a material interest. The statute more broadly bars any public officer from holding an employment or contractual relationship with a business entity doing business with or regulated by their own agency, absent a specific exemption, per the Florida State University Office of Research. The New Times reported that the reviewed records do not by themselves establish an ethics violation.
Basabe has listed Shiloh Properties LLC as a source of income in public financial disclosures.
A Harassment Verdict Hangs Over a Tight Re-Election Race
The lease questions surface as Basabe faces Democrat Lucia Báez-Geller, a former Miami-Dade County School Board member and high school teacher, in the November 3 general election for House District 106 — a flippable seat Basabe won by less than one percentage point in 2022 and by about 4 percentage points in 2024, according to Ballotpedia. The race follows a July 15 civil verdict in which a Leon County jury found Basabe liable for sexual harassment, battery, and defamation involving former legislative aide Nicolas Frevola and former intern Jacob Cutbirth, ordering him to pay $450,000 in damages after two hours of deliberation, as reported by Florida Politics. Basabe is appealing the verdict and has defended himself publicly in a Miami Herald opinion column, while the Miami New Times notes he has faced allegations of sexual harassment from former legislative aides.
Basabe represented himself without legal counsel during the three-day trial after his former defense attorney withdrew in March 2025 at his request, and Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh repeatedly admonished him for violating court orders before Basabe rested his defense without calling any witnesses, according to Florida Voice News. Hoodline previously reported on his decision to go it alone in the courtroom in Basabe's pro se trial gamble. Following the verdict, Florida Democratic Party leadership called for his immediate resignation, pointing to an October 2024 video in which Basabe publicly pledged to step down if found liable for sexual harassment or battery, per Local 10 News.
Campaign finance filings for the 2024 and 2026 cycles show Basabe's campaign paid $73,674 in total legal fees to firms associated with attorney Gus Harper, including $20,000 paid in July around the time of his civil trial. The Little Haiti lease has also drawn questions weeks before Election Day.
