| The
new Miami - Downtown Miami/Brickell Area Report
to download Downtown Miami.
For years city officials
and urban planners have been pushing for -- and predicting --
a rebirth of Miami's central business district. After numerous
fitful starts, the transformation of downtown Miami and Brickell
Avenue into a 24-hour urban core has begun in earnest, with nearly
$3 billion in projects planned and underway.
Call them signs of the times.
On a Wednesday morning in October, the Greater Miami Chamber of
Commerce held the second of its "Good Morning Miami"
breakfast series. Entitled "The New Face of Downtown,"
the program attracted more than 250 people to the Miami City Club
on the 55th floor of downtown's First Union Financial Center.
The breakfast was a standing-room-only sellout, the largest daytime
event ever held at the private dining club.
Two weeks earlier and four blocks away on Flagler Street, hundreds
of culture mavens filled the lobby and auditorium of the newly
renovated Olympia Theater at the Gusman Cultural Center. Built
as a Vaudeville theater in 1926 by Paramount Pictures, the 1,709-seat
theater underwent a $2.1 million renovation over the summer. An
example of "atmospheric theaters," stars glimmered from
its sky-blue ceiling once again. The Solid Gold Dancers performed
that night, including their apropos rendition of "Everything
Old Is New Again."
A month later, on an evening in the first week of November, 650
business executives and would-be residents filled tents at the
mouth or the Miami River, where developer Jorge Perez inaugurated
his One Miami luxury condominium project. Here, on a pebble-strewn
lot in the shadow of the InterContinental Hotel, twin 40-story
towers are scheduled to rise, the first high-end residential condos
in the history of downtown.
All at once, it seems, the City of Miami's long-ignored downtown
has become the hottest ticket in South Florida. A huge Performing
Arts Center is going up on the north edge of downtown, plans are
afoot to transform the waterfront Bicentennial Park with science
and art museums, and old warehouses are being transformed into
loft buildings and nightclubs.
About the only place hotter than downtown is the Brickell neighborhood
just across the Miami River, where a quilt-work of construction
cranes signal an explosion of offices, residences and retail centers.
The highest profile building there -- literally -- is the Miami
Four Seasons Hotel and Tower, rising 70 stories above Brickell
Avenue. Already topped off, it is the tallest structure east of
the Mississippi River and south of New York City, and will house
condominiums, offices and a Four Seasons Hotel. The rest of the
Brickell building boom includes the low-rise Mary Brickell Village
retail complex, several high-rise rental apartments, more condominium
towers and the signature Espirito Santo office tower.
Adding a final layer to the mix is the Miami River itself, all
but forgotten until just recently, when a small cadre of urban
pioneers began building lofts on its banks, opening up the possibility
of a vibrant riverfront community.
"This is a historic moment for Miami," City of Miami
Mayor Manny Diaz told the crowd assembled for the inauguration
of the One Miami project -- and the statement was not a political
exaggeration. "Future generations will owe a debt of gratitude
for this."
Also at the microphone that night was Miami commissioner Johnny
Winton, whose constituency includes the Downtown Development Authority
(DDA) taxing district. In addition to his pivotal role on the
city commission, Winton is chairman of the DDA. The area the authority
covers, bounded by Biscayne Bay to the east, SW 15th Road to the
south, I-95 to the west, and NW 24th Street to the north, contains
the Brickell neighborhood, downtown, the Park West neighborhood
and, finally, what's been designated the "Media & Entertainment
District"-- better known as the Omni neighborhood.
Taken as a whole, it is an immensely rich area, full of razor-sharp
contrasts. Within its boundaries are Miami's most modem high-rises
as well as its largest stock of historic buildings. It contains
pockets of intense wealth, just blocks from the city's poorest
neighborhoods. There are streets jammed with club-goers on weekend
nights, but many more that turn into ghost towns as soon as the
sun goes down. It is where Miami began, and, after years of neglect,
it is now the crucible where the city is reinventing its future.
All at once, plans are being launched to build thousands of residential
units, hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail space, and
a series of major cultural institutions. The collective magnitude
of the projects is astonishing.
"If you think about what's developing here, downtown Miami
is on the verge of becoming the epicenter for arts, culture, entertainment,
film, government and finance," says Winton. "If you
were to cut off development today, and just take the current wave
of development that's been in the pipeline since four years ago,
it would still be the biggest wave of development in the history
of the city. It's billions of dollars. The tax base of the city
grew by 13 percent this year, and it will probably do the same
next year. That's huge."
What is driving the renaissance of the area is not just the army
of developers who can sniff profits to be made. It is also, very
critically, a new sense of political will. For the first time
in decades, the city has a mayor and downtown commissioner who
are dedicated to doing whatever it takes to bring Miami's core
back to life.
"Johnny and I like to use the phrase that the stars and moons
have come into alignment," says Diaz. "The market factors
are an important part, because that has to be there for the dollars
to make sense. But there is also a tremendous sense of faith in
where Miami is going."
In the last analysis, it may be that sense of political trust
which has provided the missing key to unlocking the pent-up forces
ready to rebuild Miami's urban core. Timothy Weller, vice president
of MDM Development Group -- now on track to build a $600 million
residential/entertainment complex in the heart of downtown --
says the current administration was catalytic to the company's
decision to move forward. "The city of Miami is now a much
more stable environment for this type and magnitude of development,"
says Weller. "In order for someone to invest what it takes
to build something like this, you have to know that the city is
very stable."
And as to where the mayor sees Miami going -- that would be toward
achieving its long-cherished dream of transforming the downtown/Brickell
core into a real, 24-hour city filled with residents and cultural
institutions, as well as a vibrant business community. The latter
part has not been lacking; downtown and Brickell have long been
the preferred home of the area's leading banks and law firms,
as well as numerous multinational corporations. But it has been
a city that goes dark at day's end, with workers fleeing for distant
suburbs, or for lively urban centers like Miami Beach, Coconut
Grove and Coral Gables. If Diaz and Winton have their way, that
will all change -- and it will do so not in some distant decade
but in the near future.
"I'm a very impatient person," says Diaz. "This
is something we want now, not in 20 years."
The Commercial Hot Spot
While occupancy rates in the office towers of downtown and Brickell
are neither stellar nor dismal -- overall vacancies for the entire
area are hovering around 14 percent -- this summer, Miami's central
business district (Brickell and downtown combined) became the
hottest real estate ticket in South Florida.
First came the purchase of three acres at 901 Brickell Ave., which
sold for $18 million. Next came the First Union Financial Center,
the 50-story signature building at the base of downtown on Biscayne
Boulevard, which sold for $270 million. Back across the river
on Brickell, three buildings sold: One Brickell Square, for $80
million; Barclays Financial Center, for $135 million; and the
SunTrust Building, for $45 million. Finally, a 60 percent interest
in Miami Center fetched $87 million, and another three acres on
Brickell snagged another $18 million.
"The recent activity here has been unprecedented," says
Peter Harrison, the senior executive with Cushman & Wakefield's
Miami office. "For years we were red-lined, and no one would
consider us. Now, Miami is at the top of the radar for the pension-fund
buyers and institutional buyers. We are as high on the list for
institutions as we can be."
In addition to the national trend of shifting capital from equities
to real estate, Harrison says, Miami's real estate market has
proven stronger than most around the nation. The city's perennial
lack of Fortune 1000 companies, in this case, has proven a boon.
We have not been
as impacted by the downturn in the economy as have other cities,"
he says. "We are not as dependent on corporate America as
are the other major cities in the country. Because of that lack
of dependence, we're doing okay, in spite of Latin America doing
badly."
The commercial buildings have been able to attract good prices
because of high occupancies and their mix of quality tenants.
Even though the Brickell and downtown sub-markets are not at peak
occupancy, the trophy buildings are close.
"The buildings that people want to be in are full,"
says Tim Prunka, the Florida executive director of Insignia/ESG
who is in charge of leasing the First Union Financial Center (soon
to become the Wachovia Financial Center). Prunka reports that
the building -- which, at 1.145 million square feet, is larger
than some sub-markets -- is about 97 percent leased. "You
have to look at who's really located here, and the dynamic nature
of their interplay' he says. "It's primarily banks, financial
services firms, accountants, lawyers and international businesses.
If you want to be in play with certain types of people, this is
the place to be."
Across the street from the First Union tower, the Miami Center
also reports a high occupancy level. "It's about 96.5-percent
leased and we feel like we are poised to reach 98 percent by the
end of the year," says Jones Lang LaSalle vice president
Eric Siegrist, who is in charge of leasing the building. "I
think it has a lot to do with who you are doing business with
in the first place. Our clients are many of the top banks in the
world, and many of the largest regional law firms."
The story is similar at 100 N. Biscayne Boulevard, also known
as the New World Tower, a Class-A building which has been upgraded
with state-of-the-art technology for both telecom and professional
use. "We are almost fully leased," says David Garfinkle,
a partner with Investment Equities Associates, which owns the
building. "There was some softening in the market, but we
are now seeing an increase in both the technology and professional
sectors. There is definitely a renewed interest in downtown."
On the other side of the river, in the Brickell market, Insignia/ESG
is also in the midst of leasing new space. In October, the commercial
real estate services firm announced a 50,000-square foot sublease
in the Barclays Financial Center. The space, previously occupied
by Barclays, will be taken by Mellon Bank -- as will the center's
name. "This is the largest new lease signed in the Brickell
Area in over two years," says Randy Olen, the Insignia/ESG
subleasing agent for the space. The deal puts the three-year-old
building at 90 percent occupancy.
Few leasing agents seem overly concerned with the two new mixed-use
towers rising a few blocks south of Barclays, both on Brickell
Avenue. The half-million square feet of additional office space
the two projects will add to the market seems like a quantity
which can be absorbed. But the visual impact of the two new buildings
is something else altogether.
The Millennium's Four Seasons project lives up to its name. At
70 stories, it rises hundreds of feet above its neighbors, supplanting
the First Union tower as the pinnacle of the urban core. Its sleek
blue-gray skin will house a 222-room Four Seasons Hotel, 186 condos,
a 40,000-square-foot spa, 5,000 square feet of retail space, a
two-acre "grand pool terrace" and, oh yes, 230,000 square
feet of office space. The building is scheduled to be finished
in the fall of 2003.
A stone's throw away is the dramatic Espirito Santo Plaza, the
signature building of the $35 billion Lisbon-based Espirito Santo
banking group. This 36-story tower is a green curtain of glass,
with a huge, parabolic curve scooped out of its reclining facade.
Like the Four Seasons, which it will beat to a finish in the summer
of 2003, the Espirito Santo Plaza will be mixed-use, with a 203-room
hotel, 116 condo-hotel units, 22,000 square feet of retail space,
and 280,000 square feet of office space. The bank will occupy
70,000 square feet of that space.
Bill Ross, president of Estoril, Inc. -- Espirito Santo's development
firm -- predicts few problems in filling the new Class A space
in the building once it comes on line. In addition to the bank's
space, he says he is close to a deal for 30,000 square feet leased
to a prominent area law firm, with other deals under negotiation.
"The [Brickell/downtown] office market, in the A-buildings,
is staying firm," says Ross. "Rents are still above
$30 a square foot, which is a nice range to be in." While
the past year has given pause to some commercial developers, Ross
says, "if anything, Sept. 11 created a more orderly market,
There were a lot of buildings on the board that didn't make sense,
and sources of capital shut down. So, between us and the Millennium,
we have only about 500,000 square feet. There's not millions of
square feet coming on, but an amount that can be dealt with in
an orderly fashion."
Brian Collins, the Millennium partner who moved to Miami to oversee
the construction of its tower, is equally sanguine about filling
his office and residential space. Both the Four Seasons and Espirito
Santo projects enjoy the leverage of large investor groups with
substantial equity, so pre-sales and leasing deals were not financing
prerequisites, and patience is the order of the day when it comes
to pricing. When it comes to the purely residential aspects of
Millennium's Four Seasons, Collins is pursuing an aggressive pricing
range that reflects his firm's brand of quality as well as its
freedom from the pressures of pre-construction sales requirements.
"Implicit in our business philosophy, by not focusing on
pre-opening sales, is that sales will be supported and enhanced
by the product itself," says Collins. "In Washington,
New York, Boston and San Francisco, we have built the best hotel,
the best fitness club, and the best condos -- with the best values
in each respective market. Once the hotel opens, and people realize
that our marketing is not hype, it enhances our ability to sell
the condos. People will see what they are going to get. So we
are able to beat the competition [in pricing and sales]."
The Residential Play
With some 130,000 people working in the downtown/Brickell corridor
every day, even a conservative 10 percent estimate of "people
who want to live closer" means that you could build 13,000
units, says DDA director Alonso Menendez. "The demand is
there," he says. "It's almost unending."
The Millennium's Collins says that he expects sales to reach 50
percent by the time his building opens, with condominium units
selling for between $500 and $850 per square foot. "The demand
has been very strong for everything that is being offered in this
market," Collins says.
The sales team selling the Jade condominium, a block away on Biscayne
Bay, is taking a different angle, coming into the market with
prices averaging $400 a square foot. "If you look at the
comparative prices, ours are good," says Edgardo Defortuna,
whose Fortune International Realty partnered with Swire Properties
to build Jade. Defortuna says that presales for the 49-story,
336-unit building, scheduled for completion in fall of 2004, are
"substantially over 50 percent. It's very attractive for
buyers here."
Swire Properties has long believed in the area's strength, and
has spent the better part of the last two decades proving that
with its build-out of Brickell Key, a triangular island at the
mouth of the Miami River connected by bridge to mainland Brickell.
Here Swire built (and sold) the Courvoisier Center, a two-building
office complex, along with some 800 condominium units in the form
of three Tequesta Point towers. It as just completed another condo
tower, the 300-unit Courts Brickell Key, and has plans to build
two more towers, says company vice president Megan Kelly.
The most stunning new development on Brickell Key, however, has
been the Mandarin Oriental Miami, which Swire developed in partnership
with the hotel chain. Its rakish, slanting curve houses not only
the latest incarnation of the global hotel brand, but two restaurants,
one of which -- Azul -- was designated last year by Esquire magazine
as the best new restaurant in the US.
As for bringing new residents to Brickell, the rental market may
prove more attractive than the condo market; it certainly promises
to bring more young professionals to the area in the next few
years. The process has already begun, with the completion in 1998
of the 357-unit Oakwood Apartments on Brickell Bay Drive. This
year, architect/developer Willy Bermello's BAP firm completed
the 405-unit luxury Summit Brickell apartment project just west
of Brickell Avenue.
These fitful starts
are about to be reinforced by a rental tsunami, beginning with
Bermello's 600-unit Brickell View rental high-rise at 12th Street
and S. Miami Avenue. If completed on time in the spring of 2004,
it will barely beat to market developer Tibor Hollo's $100 million,
645-unit Brickell Bay Plaza apartment tower at 1200 Brickell Bay
Drive, which will also contain retail space.
Hollo, CEO of Florida East Coast Realty, Inc., has long been a
pioneer in both the Brickell and Omni areas. Buildings he developed
include the River Gate Plaza (home of the Capital Grill), the
Venetia (now the Grand), 888 Brickell, the Biscayne Bay Marriott,
the Omni Mall (in partnership), and many others. Hollo re-entered
the market two years ago with the 471-unit Bay Parc Plaza, a rental
tower just north of the Omni, the phenomenal success of which
has spurred developers up and down the Biscayne Corridor.
"There has been a continued desire for the current generation
to come back to the city, not to spend one hour-and-a-half traveling
to work," says Hollo, a self-declared proponent of urbanism.
"Suburbia is a wasteful thing. If you can find areas ready
for vertical intensification, you can put 2,000 people comfortably
on five or six acres. In suburbia, it would take 640 acres of
land to accommodate the same number of residents."
In addition to the Brickell Bay Plaza, Hollo has two more apartment
high-rises on the drawing board. The first is the Opera Tower,
an oval-shaped apartment building of 645 units that will break
ground in spring 2003 next to Bay Parc Plaza, and the South Bayshore
Tower, a 347-unit rental tower on Brickell Bay Drive, also scheduled
to break ground next year. As for concerns that the Brickell or
downtown areas will suffer a glut of apartment units, Hollo scoffs
at the idea. "I wish I could build 10,000 units in Brickell
and downtown," he says. "I could rent them all."
For Pasquale Renzi, the construction of two apartment towers in
the Brickell submarket -- the Sail and the Beacon -- is the next
step in his 20-year career as a Miami residential developer.
"So far, we've had an eye for catching trends," says
Reozi, who started building townhouses in Coconut Grove 14 years
ago with his brother. Previously the company focused on rental
projects with 20 to 40 units each. With the 29-story Sail, Renzi
will offer 152 rental units, though he is keeping his options
open to convert to condos.
The Sail is scheduled to open in 2004, to be followed by the Beacon
six months later. Both, Renzi hopes, will contribute to populating
the Brickell area. "At night you don't see anyone walking
around, and that's sad for a big city," he says. "I
think this is the only city in the US without a nightlife."
In the Brickell area, that nightlife is, however, on its way.
A Village and a River
One of the weaknesses of the Brickell area has been its lack of
street-level retail, as well as any defined sense of neighborhood
center. Unlike Coconut Grove, Miami Beach or Coral Gables, it
has no pedestrian-friendly core. Though Miami's downtown is directly
across the Miami River from Brickell, that neighborhood with the
exception of Bayside Marketplace and a row of cutting edge nightclubs
on 11th Street -- also shuts down at night.
This is not to say that Brickell residents have nothing to do
in the evening. On the first floor of the Terra building on Brickell,
micro-brewery restaurant Gordon Biersch has become a major success.
And in the Brickell Village area just west of Brickell Avenue,
a cluster of pioneering restaurateurs have earned a loyal following.
The oldest venue for evening entertainment is Tobacco Road, a
bar and restaurant which has served hamburgers on the ground floor
and Blues musical acts on the second floor since 1912. It stands
like an Alamo in the last lonely block of original buildings on
S. Miami Avenue.
Two blocks south, however, is the shady grove where Perricone's
Marketplace has been the standard-bearer of what the area can
become. The elegant, atmospheric Italian restaurant and market
was created on the edge of tiny Allen Morris Park in 1996 by New
York restaurateur Steve Perricone. He built it around the original
live-oak trees on the property, using weathered wood from a barn
he disassembled in New England.
"We were very well-received from early on," Perricone
says, but most of his business came at lunchtime from the area's
workday executives. "It took a while to develop a night business.
I just stayed open, and we went weeks without anyone coming at
night. This was an area that people said you didn't want to go
to after dark." It has come along way since then. "I'm
amazed at the numbers of people who come here for dinner at night,"
Perricone says. "There's nothing else to do or see."
By the year 2004 there will be, and in spades. Perricone's groovy
little grove will be wrapped up with two square blocks of Mary
Brickell Village. Rather than crowd him, the layout of the new
retail village actually opens the space up, creating courtyards
surrounded by low-rise shops that preserve the old trees of the
neighborhood (see sidebar). The developers of Mary Brickell Village
are also adding a rental high-rise on the west side of the project.
"There are 2,000 units slated for this west Brickell area
here," Perricone says. "I think if everything happens
the way it's supposed to happen, that this will be a little SoHo."
Perricone himself is doing his part on the residential side, developing
a triangular wedge of land south of his Marketplace. There, he
and three partners intend to build Miami's version of New York's
Flatiron building; its striking design allows the elevated Metro
Mover, which transits the neighborhood, to pass directly through
the building.
While the immediate neighborhood will have to wait for more nightlife,
crowds are already appearing on weekend nights a few blocks away,
along the south bank of the Miami River. There, two restaurants
-- the riverfront Big Fish and nearby Cafe Nostalgia -- are attracting
a loyal clientele. That is one reason Lissette Calderon, a New
York banker-turned-developer, decided to build a loft building
on that same south bank.
"One of the attractions for us is the fact that the south
bank of the river has become an entertainment destination,"
says Calderon. "You can't get into Big Fish or Cafe Nostalgia
on a Friday night."
You could get into Calderon's loft project for a reasonable price,
however. It's one reason her Neo Lofts condominium, on the Miami
River at SW 1st Street, has sold so quickly. For about $240 per
square foot, Neo Lofts' 199 units have attracted a "a very
hip, downtown urban crowd, relatively young and early in their
careers," she says. Calderon already has a second building
planned, at SW 7th Street and the river, in what were formerly
the Miami Ship Yards.
"I think it took someone to leave and come back to realize
what a resource we have in the river," says Calderon, a Miami
native. "It also took a realization that it was the last
waterfront property available in Miami."
Calderon is hardly alone in her realization. Down the river, just
south of the Miami Avenue bridge, Panther Real Estate Partners
is putting up the first new commercial building on the river since
FPL constructed offices on the north bank in the late 1980s. The
firm's One Riverview Square will contain 155,000 square feet of
office space and 8,000 square feet of retail. A slew of other
projects are also on the drawing board, from Michael Bedzow's
twin-tower Brickell on the south bank of the river, directly across
the water from One Riverview, to the Miami River House, a loft
project planned for the north bank in the space now occupied by
the shuttered East Coast Fisheries.
"In the past, you had no political leadership that wanted
to deal with the river's problems," says Robert Parks, chair
of the Miami River Commission, the state-established policy group
which monitors the waterway. "Eighteen, 20 years ago you
started to see some sense that this is a tremendous asset. It's
taken until now, because it's only now that you've got people
on the commission and in public office who are interested in doing
something about it."
In the next few months the commission hopes to finalize its plan
for the river, which includes a "greenway" for pedestrians
and bikers on both banks. "We're working hard on getting
the urban infill master plan adopted by the county and city, so
that the development can get done in an orderly fashion"
Parks says.
As far as the lower reaches of the Miami River go, however, the
proverbial cat is already out of the bag.
Downtown Do-Over
On the November night
when the One Miami sales center opened at the mouth of the Miami
River, generous compliments flowed as freely as the rum and vodka
served from the open bars under the tents. Miami Mayor Diaz compared
the project to the original landfall made by Henry Flagler, when
he built a flamboyant hotel at the terminus of his Florida railroad.
Commissioner Winton was effusive in his praise of developer Jorge
Perez, CEO of The Related Group, the largest builder of luxury
condominiums in South Florida (or the entire state, for that matter).
"Jorge is man who puts his money where his mouth is,"
Winton proclaimed, a refreshing twist in a downtown which has
experienced more than its fair share of hot air. "That means
a lot in this city."
Bravado aside, the One Miami project represents a breakthrough,
the importance of which is hard to exaggerate. On the one hand,
it is a river project; more importantly, however, it is a downtown
project, and the first to bring new, luxury high-rise housing
to the downtown in, well, its entire history.
"Is this a gamble, crossing the river from Brickell?"
asks Perez. "Let me put it this way. I have never felt as
strongly about any project as I do about this. We are the precursors
of the future with this," When finished, the project will
have two condominium towers, 44 and 45 stories high, with units
averaging about $300 per square foot, and a shorter office tower.
As a sign of his commitment, Perez plans to relocate the corporate
headquarters for The Related Group from its current home on Coral
Way to One Miami.
While no developer has come forward to build luxury condominiums
in the downtown to date, Perez is convinced that he will have
little trouble selling his units. "We feel that the biggest
seller of condos in Florida is water, by far," Perez says.
"We have a location in which 95 percent of the units or more
have direct water views. We also have a location that is the closest
to the largest base of employment [in the county]."
For Perez, a self-avowed urbanist who began his career as a planner
for the City of Miami, the One Miami project is just one part
of his connection to the city's urban core. He also built the
first residential high-rise on Brickell Key, a condo and an apartment
high-rise on Brickell Bay Drive, and one of the best examples
of restored, affordable downtown housing, the Congress Building
on NE 2nd Ave. He is also a prominent member of the board of the
Miami Art Museum and a major proponent of creating a bayfront
promenade.
"Downtown Miami doesn't have a waterfront that has been used
by the majority of its population," Perez complains. "Everything
we've seen, including the Rouse job [Bayside Marketplace], was
designed with tourists in mind. We've never seen permanent facilities
for the population as a whole." As part of One Miami, Perez
plans a river-walk that will include art installations, park benches
and waterfront cafes. "Hopefully, people are going to light
up, and this will be a something that will be duplicated."
That may already be happening. Next to Perez's One Miami project
are three vacant square blocks in the heart of the to both the
Miami Art Museum and the Miami Science Museum (see sidebar).
If Delehanty needs any encouragement in her daunting task to raise
the many millions of dollars needed to build a new museum, she
need only to look to the northern rim of downtown, in the area
now known as the Media and Entertainment District. There the $255
million Performing Arts Center has already broken ground, and
is well underway to meeting a 2004 target date for completion.
The advent of the Performing Arts Center, combined with pricing
pressures in South Beach, were among the reasons that photo/movie
producer Eugene Rodriguez made the leap several years ago and
established a film studio five blocks west of the PAC. There,
his 70,000-square-foot Miami Ice Palace on Northwest 14th Street
served as the studio space for the recently made-in-Miami films
"Bad Boys II" and "The Fast and the Furious II."
In addition to the film studio, Rodriguez also owns several buildings
at the historic intersection of Miami Avenue and 14th St., including
an old bank building and hotel. Other building owners in the immediate
neighborhood include Sony CEO Tommy Mottola, the Chairman of Telefonica,
and Gloria and Emilio Estefan.
"North Miami and 14th Street is like a back lot -- both movies
used it," says Rodriguez. "They changed the feeling
by painting the buildings and modifying them. The City of Miami
has been great in letting them come in."
Rodriguez gives kudos to both Diaz and Winton for supporting the
development of the film industry in downtown Miami, which he believes
will replace South Beach -- minutes away across the McArthur Causeway
-- as the hot entertainment place-to-be. "I live on Ocean
Drive, and you can go to the beach and a club only so much,"
he says. "I personally see people living here [downtown],
and going to the beach on the weekend. I see this becoming the
main focal point."
In addition to the PAC, Rodriguez points to the installation of
the new International Fine Arts College at the southwest corner
of the Omni building, and the emergence of the new "club
row" along 11th Street. "There's my stuff, the museums,
the art school. And there are a lot of loft projects. Once they
get up and running you'll see the galleries and cafes coming in.
It'll be a real city area."
Anticipating the demand for both living and entertainment space,
Majestic Properties president Jeff Morr has already established
an office on Biscayne Boulevard at 54th Street to service the
district. Morr's firm, a pioneer of loft development on South
Beach, is already working on a loft project at 7th Street and
Miami Avenue, as well as a restaurant on 14th Street near Miami
Avenue. Other lofts are in the works, including developer Henry
Harper's Parc Lofts project on 17th Street west of the Omni, which
will be built atop an old warehouse, with 18 to 20 foot ceilings
and "lots of raw space" says Harper.
"South Beach has gotten expensive and buyers are looking
for alternatives," says Mon. "That original South Beach
energy of 10 years ago is transferring over to the Biscayne Corridor.
The Bohemian style -- and the new lounges and clubs and restaurants
-- is coming to this area. People want to be part of that arts-related
movement."
Rebirth of the Cool
With all that is being planned, and all that is being promoted,
downtown Miami still needs work. You can still fire a cannonball
down Miami Avenue at 7 p.m. on a Saturday night, right through
the heart of the downtown, and never hit a soul. "This area
is in many ways the most derelict, with homeless, etc.,"
says Majestic's Morr. "But that makes it the last frontier."
The leading real estate agent in downtown, Edie Laquer -- whose
signs in the area appear omnipresent -- also sees the area as
a final frontier for development.
"Downtown as we know it began with Brickell Avenue and the
Brickell financial district, and to many people that was the only
downtown," Laquer says. "There are now so few parcels
left in the Brickell corridor you can count them on one hand.
Those properties are now spoken for, even to the west, in Brickell
Village."
The Miami River, as well, says Laquer, has been picked over and
"anything worth acquiring there is presently under contract'
The only direction for developers to go, she says, is north into
downtown and the two neighborhoods immediately adjacent: Park
West, the land just inland from the American Airlines area, where
Terremark has installed a Network Access Point of the Americas
in the Technology Center of the Americas building; and the Media
& Entertainment area, where the PAC is going up.
"Opposite Bicentennial Park and the American Airlines Arena
there is a lot of tire kicking. It's still a learning curve, but
five years ago you wouldn't have walked that area with a Kevlar
vest on," says Laquer. "We've come full circle and now
developers and investors are looking at that market."
While the realization of a vibrant downtown is still a few years
off -- between two and five years, depending your level of enthusiasm
-- Laquer points out that the downtown is emerging at a relatively
rapid pace. "Biscayne was one of the best kept secrets until
just recently. With no land left it the Miami Beach corridor,
people are coming over to set up businesses and live here... I've
personally sold about $1 billion [in Brickell and downtown property]
since 1980. A very good portion of that I've done in the last
five years."
This is not to say that the Brickell and downtown areas do not
have their fair share of growing pains. Rodriguez, for one, worries
that property taxes are already rising too rapidly and that there
is too little parking in the area. Apartment developer Renzi stili
feels that the permitting process is too slow and political, despite
Mayor Diaz's declared mission to speed up -- and clean up -- the
process.
Others worry that developers will be given carte blanche to build
anything they want. Automobile magnate Norman Braman, who has
kept his BMW dealership on Biscayne Boulevard at 20th Street for
decades, is suing the city to prevent the construction of a windowless,
mid-rise storage building on the boulevard at 24th Street.
And then there is the worry that too much of the historic fabric
of the old downtown will be torn apart, ignoring the lesson of
South Beach, where preservation has added enormous value.
"We are pushing for a national historic district," says
Becky Roper Matkov, president of the Dade Heritage Trust. "That
would make the downtown more of a unique destination, and help
with marketability. There is just so much potential for the downtown.
It's imperative to preserve the historic elements, or you'll have
a schlocky place that no one wants to go to."
Matkov, like others, is highly complimentary of the current city
government -- noting that the city commission recently voted unanimously
to preserve the original Miami High School building. "Even
three or four years ago the city was notoriously horrible in its
anti-preservation sentiment," she says. "But I think
we have seen a tidal change. People are realizing that we have
so little left and it had pretty damn well be preserved. I am
very encouraged."
Indeed, if there is one refrain among the myriad developers and
urban pioneers intent on reviving the historic core of South Florida,
it is that for the first time in decades the city now has the
political will to breath life into the clay of downtown and Brickell,
and to create a living city. All of the puzzle pieces appear ready
to be fit together, like dots waiting to be connected.
In some ways it's almost a mystery why things haven't coalesced
sooner. After all, the Port of Miami -- the "Cruise Capital"
of the world -- is linked by bridge to downtown. On one side of
that bridge sits Bayside Marketplace, the No. 5 tourist destination
in Florida, which has been attracting millions of visitors each
year since 1987. On the other side stands the AmericanAirlines
Arena, which draws crowds to concerts and NBA games.
"The one thing which has been missing is people living in
downtown and Brickell," says developer Bermello. "We
have always been a great daytime place to visit, but that doesn't
work when it comes to making a city lively around the clock."
Bermello should know better than most, having helped stage the
Grand Prix Americas race through downtown in October. That race
drew more than 80,000 spectators -- and national media attention
-- to Miami.
"It was great sizzle and great exposure," says Bermello.
"But at the end of the day, all those people went home. What's
going to make the difference is when that home becomes the downtown.
When that happens, everything will fall into place, and this city
can realize its destiny as one of the great gateways of the world."
A Summer of Trophy Sales
Nearly $600 million
changed hands for commercial buildings in downtown
and Brickell in the summer of 2002, the hottest in years for the
submarket
Building Address
Price
Vacant Land 901 Brickell
Ave. $18 million
First Union Financial Center 200 S. Brickell Ave. $270 million
Barclays Financial Center 1111 Brickell Ave. $135 million
One Brickell Square 801 Brickell Ave. $80 million
SunTrust Building 777 Brickell Ave. $45 million
Vacant Land 945 Brickell Ave. $18 million
(Please take into account this figure where created back 3 years
ago.)
Building Price SQF
Vacant Land $130
First Union Financial Center $235
Barclays Financial Center $256
One Brickell Square $193
SunTrust Building $157
Vacant Land $130
Stats: Miami's Downtown/Brickel
Office Market
2000 2001 2002 YTD
2003e 2003e
Vacancy 9.50% 8.70%
13.29% 11.57% 13.82%
Absorption -- Square feet N/A 80,000 -456,000 -396,000 99,000
Absorption -- % 5.74% 0.57% -3.30% -2.87% 0.72%
Construction -- square feet N/A 0 0 0 476,000
Construction -- % of stock 5.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 3.44%
% Year-Over-Year Rent Growth 5.32% 1.82% -4.49% -3.62% 0.00%
Source:
Jones Long LaSalle
RELATED ARTICLE: Projects in Miami's Central Business District
Miami's Central Business District -- which includes Brickell,
downtown and the Miami River -- is undergoing a metamorphosis
unparalleled in the city's history. Included are commercial and
residential high-rises, plus a clutch of cultural institutions
and low-rise retail complexes. What follows is a sampling of projects
completed, under construction and planned.
Summit
Brickell
50 SW 10th St.
Type: Rental
Floors: 15
Cost: $51 million
Completion date: June 2002
JW Marriott
1111 Brickell Ave.
Type: Hotel
Floors: 22
Cost: $100 million
Completion date: October 2000
The Mark
1155 Brickell Bay Dr.
Type: Condo
Floors: 36
Completion date: Spring 2001
Four Seasons
1441 Brickell Ave.
Type: Mixed-use
Floors: 70
Cost: $380 million
Completion date: Summer 2003
Brickell Bay Plaza
1200 Brickiell Bay Dr.
Type: Rental
Floors: 43
Cost: $100 million
Completion date. June 2004
Espirito Santo
1395 Brickell Ave.
Type: Mixed-use
Floors: 36
Cost: $160 million
Completion date: June 2003
Brickell View
30 SW 12 St.
Type: Rental
Floor: 36
Cost: $60 million
Completion date: Spring 2004
Jade Residences At Brickell Bay
1331 Brickell Bay Dr.
Type: Condo
Floors: 48
Cost: $255 million
Completion date: Fall 2004
Mary Brickell Village
Betw. 9 and 10 St on
Miami Avenue
Type: Retail
Floors: 2
cost: $140 million
Completion date: Summer 2004
South Bayshore Tower
1390 Brickell Ave.
Type: Rental
Floors: 39
Cost: $27 million
Completion date: May 2005
Coral Station at Brickell Way
Betw. 13 St. and 15 Rd. on SW 1st Ave.
Type: Mixed-use
Floors: 38
Cost: $100 million
Completion date: June 2005
The Sail
170 SE 14 St.
Type: Rental
Floors: 29
Cost: $26 million
Completion date: Summer 2004
Brickell Station
1101 SW 1 Ave.
Type: Mixed-use
Floors: two 38 story towers
Cost: $125 million
Completion date: November 2005
Courts Brickell Key
801 Brickell Ave.
Type: Condo
Floors: 34
Cost: $80 million
Completion date: 2000
Neo Lofts
10 SW S. River Dr.
Type: Condo
Floors: 20
Cost: $35 million
Completion date: October 2003
One Riverview Square
325 S. Miami Ave.
Type: Mixed-use
Floors: 8
Cost: $13.5 million
Completion date: Spring 2003
Miami River House
350 W. Flagler St.
Type: Condo
Floors: 33
Cost: $61 million
Completion date: February 2003
Old Post Office
100 NE 1 Ave.
Type: Mixed-use
Floors: 4
Cost: $1 million
Completion date: December 2002
Freedom Tower Museum
600 Biscayne Blvd.
Type: Museum
Floors: +6
Cost: $12 million
Completion date: Summer 2002
One Miami
205 S. Biscayne Blvd.
Type: Condo
Floors: Two towers, 44 and 45 stories
Cost: $300 million
Completion date: Fall 2004
Technology Center of The Americas
50 NE 9 St.
Type: Telecom hotel
Floors: 6
Cost: $52.88 million
Completion date: June 2001
Miami Flatiron Building
1100 Brickell Plaza
Type: Mixed-use
Floors: 25-30
Cost: $75 million
Completion date: 2005-2006
Performing Arts Center
Betw: 13 and 14 St. on Biscayne
Type: Arts, culture
Cost: $255 million
Completion date: Fall 2004
International Fine Arts College
1501 Biscayne Blvd.
Type: Education
Cost: $4.5 million
Opera Tower Apartments
1750 N. Bayshore Dr.
Type: Rental
Floors: 57
Cost: $110 million
Completion date: September 2005
Source: Miami Downtown Development Authority
It Takes A Village Constructa's plans for Mary Brickell Village
will create a retail environment unlike anything else in Miami.
Their plans could also provide a missing link for the area: a
sense of identity.
* One of the first things you notice in the scale model of Mary
Brickell Village -- even in its smaller-than-life version of reality
-- is the presence of trees. "All the trees were preserved,"
says George Giebel, senior vice president for constructa, the
French firm which is developing the two-square-block retail project
west of Brickell Avenue. "We were cognizant of the fact that
Perricone's [a restaurant adjacent to where the village will stand]
is successful because of the ambience, and much of that is due
to the vegetation."
Giebel then points out a specific tree in the model. "This
one here is a banyan, and has a 1 0-foot-in-diameter trunk' he
says. "The building is actually designed around it."
constructa, which earned a reputation in South Florida in the
1990s when it developed the pedestrian-friendly cocowalk retail
center in Coconut Grove, is about to redefine its image again
with Mary Brickell Village. "We don't do cookie-cutter projects;'
says Giebel. "What we're trying to create here is a true
town center."
What they have come up with is just that, a village-like collection
of small retail buildings centering on tree-filled open spaces.
With construction scheduled to begin in December 2002, and completion
set for June 2004, Mary Brickell Village will deliver 200,000
square feet of retail. On the west side of the project will be
a 1,300- space parking garage, a Publix supermarket, and a Mediterranean-styled,
360-unit rental high-rise on top of the Publix.
The key to the project's success, says constructa director of
development Philippe Labarre, was the quiet assemblage of land
which began four years ago, before prices began to soar. "We
started in 1998, when the land was divided into 30 different parcels,"
says Labarre. "If we bought the land at today's prices we
couldn't do it. High land prices are the enemy of low density."
Diamonds in the Rough Developer Scott Robins had years of experience
restoring Art Deco buildings on Miami Beach. Now his target is
the 1918 Post Office building in downtown Miami -- as well as
the surrounding neighborhood.
* Scott Robins is no stranger to the exercise of restoring neighborhoods
to their former luster. He and his brother Craig were instrumental
in reviving South Beach, where Robins still maintains his headquarters
and has just completed a series of stylish office buildings. But
the next frontier for Robins is downtown Miami, and in particular
a four-square-block area -- bound by Flagler Street, North Miami
Avenue, NE 2nd Street and NE 2nd Avenue -- known as the Miami
Jewelry District.
"We've always tried to work with what's there, rather than
reinvent a place," says Robins. "Miami already has the
third-largest jewelry district in the country -- only New York
and Los Angeles have larger districts. The Seybold Building [in
the heart of the district] is already one of the highest-grossing
buildings per square foot in the Southeast US."
Robins, who convinced the DDA to conduct a full-blown study on
the neighborhood, has already begun converting the old US Post
Office building at NE 1st Street and NE 1st Avenue into a building
for the trade. "Downtown Miami can t compete with South Beach
or Brickell, but jewelry is something people will come for from
all over the world. This district can act as a draw. If we restore
it, it can be a catalyst for the downtown."
What Robins envisions is an upscale district with wide, tree-lined
sidewalks and its own special security forces. Older buildings
whose facades have been covered with "modern" facelifts
would be returned to their original appearances. "This is
the next frontier for the next ten years," he says. "The
time has come when people are really beginning to appreciate an
urban environment."
Final Script for a Tabula Rasa
For decades, different plans have been made for the 29-acre bayfront
plot known as downtown's Bicentennial Park. Now a proposal to
make it home to Miami's art and science museums could put the
question to rest.
* Among the more outlandish plans submitted for downtown Miami's
Bicentennial Park was one several years back for a snow-covered
mountain -- Mt. Miami! -- housed inside a geodesic dome. Skiers
would slalom down the slopes while listening to Latin music blaring
from nightclubs inside the mountain. More recently, the park served
as part of the track for the Grand Prix Americas and as an amusement
park setting.
Such varied uses will melt away, however, if the park can become
home to the Miami Art Museum and the Miami Museum of Science.
That is what the city government voted for in July, when it designated
the 29 bayfront acres as "Museum Park."
The problem is cost. Even a minimal vision of a restored park
-- the "Open Space" version (1) -- would cost more than
$20 million to create. Another variation (2) envisions offices
in the park, in exchange for the revenues such buildings would
bring.
The preferred "cultural Park" version (3) would see
the park anchored by the two museums. To that end, the city passed
a neighborhood bond issue in November 2001, which earmarked $10
million for enhancement, and $7 million -- $3.5 million each --
to the museums under a 3-to-1 matching grant campaign. But cost
estimates have run past $200 million for that vision, which will
require a general obligation bond issue, grant money from the
state and a huge private fund-raising drive.
Miami city commissioner Johnny Winton believes that the project
can be completed if the cost of the two buildings is reduced to
$65 million. "The impact that this will have on our city
will be unbelievable," says Winton. "And it will happen
before I leave office." with plans to run for another term,
that gives Winton about five years.
South Florida CEO, Nov, 2002 by J.P. Faber
to download Downtown Miami.
|
Click here