Michael Westen isn't the best tenant: He makes bombs in his apartment and people tend to shoot at him. But Miami's effort to get him off public property by August has erupted into a tense showdown between city officials and South Florida's production industry.

Westen (played by Jeffrey Donovan) stars in Burn Notice, the hit USA cable series that Fox Television Studios films in the city-owned Coconut Grove Convention Center. Though Miami plans to demolish the expo for a waterfront park, city commissioners agreed to let Burn Notice film a third season there in 2009.

The dramatic tension comes in the details: City Manager Pete Hernandez's staff proposed Burn Notice vacate the facility by July 31. Fox says it needs the facility through September in order to shoot all 16 episodes of Westen's escapades as an ex-spy marooned in Miami.

`THE ONLY OPTION'

''We have explored all options to accelerate the schedule, but this is the only option that will work for us,'' Fox senior vice president Kevin Hamburger wrote Hernandez in an undated letter.

Miami Today first reported the expo dispute Wednesday. The stand-off threatens to rob Miami of the first scripted series to return to South Florida since Miami Vice's five-year run from 1984 to 1989.

Bob Lemchen, the senior Fox executive supervising the negotiations, said no one from the city asked the studio for a proposed production schedule before the July 24 commission vote authorizing a third season.

`OTHER LOCATIONS'

He said he only realized there was a problem weeks ago when Miami sent a leasing proposal that mandated a July exit. When Fox balked, the city asked why Burn Notice couldn't film seven days a week to meet the July deadline, Lemchen said.

''Right now we're looking at other locations -- other locations in Florida, and other locations out of Florida,'' he said. The show plans to resume production in March after filming the end of season two last month.

Robert Parente, head of the city's production office and the top negotiator with Fox, declined to comment. Hernandez was not available for an interview Thursday, a spokeswoman said.

Marc Sarnoff, the city commissioner representing Coconut Grove, argues against letting Burn Notice disrupt a timetable that calls for the expo to become a lush park for taxpayers to enjoy. ''There's supposed to be green space there,'' he said.

Should Burn Notice return for a third season, the battle over Westen's fate would likely resume again. Graham Winick, head of Film Florida, which lobbies for the state's production industry, wrote in a recent e-mail to an ally that he would try to persuade Miami to let the show continue using the expo after a third season ``given the state of the economy.''

JOBS

Burn Notice says it employs roughly 110 full-time local cast and crew members, and reported spending $25 million in Florida since filming its pilot at the expo in early 2007. It remains Florida's biggest production, receiving roughly $4 million in state film subsidies over two seasons and is slated to receive another $3 million for the third season, according to the governor's film office.

It pays $6,000 a month rent for the expo, but Miami proposed upping that to $20,000 a month for the third season.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@