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…