A Miami address is drawing a lot of attention lately — 830 Brickell Plaza.
The under-construction 55-story office tower — loaded with state-of-the-art amenities and building health systems — already is signing up big-name tenants, including Microsoft, WeWork, Thoma Bravo and CI Financial, with more to come ahead of its opening next year.
“Five years from now, it should be seen as the pre-eminent office tower in South Florida,” said Justin Oates, vice president of Cain International, one of the developers, along with OKO Group. “Putting the best-in-class office tower in Brickell is necessary to drive new business to the region, drive new-to-market tenants, and that helps sustain the continued growth in Miami in the years to come.”
What’s attracting the companies, those involved in the project say, are several factors: prime location in the heart of Brickell; transportation convenience; and luxury features.
830 Brickell offers about a million square feet with a rooftop restaurant, over 30 floors of office space with floor-to-ceiling windows, a sky lobby with a cafe, gym and yoga studio, and retail on the ground floor. Once completed, it will be the second-tallest office building in the region after the Southeast Financial Center, which is also 55 stories but 765 feet tall, compared with 830’s 725-foot height. The site had previously been home to a parking lot and a few eateries; a planned 70-story residential tower by a Russian oligarch never got off the ground.
The tower is drawing so much interest that the developers say they can be selective about who they want in the building, according Ryan Holtzman, a managing director at Cushman & Wakefield, which is overseeing leasing at 830 Brickell.
Over 10 firms are currently in lease negotiations, including both Florida and out-of-state companies. More deals are expected to be announced soon.
“Employers realized they need to create an amazing place for their employees to want to go to the office,” said Andrew Trench, a managing director at Cushman. “You need to provide something more comprehensive to them, and we’re fortunate that 830 Brickell has delivered that.”
The combination of work and play attracts tenants, said Holtzman.
“It’s built for tomorrow,” he said. “The sky lobby on the 30th floor is going to look like a five-star hotel with touchless technology.”
Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG), 830 Brickell will be finished in late 2022. The developers declined to comment on the construction budget, but they obtained a $300 million loan in July 2019 for the project.
The building’s technology, including Wi-Fi in all common areas, its design, infrastructure and maintenance protocols appealed to Thoma Bravo, said the firm’s partner Chip Virnig.
“As innovators ourselves, we were immediately drawn to 830 Brickell and realized very quickly that we had found our future home,” Virnig said. “830 Brickell is symbolic of what’s to come, and the forward-thinking innovation that ultimately brought our firm to Miami in the first place.”
For instance, developers updated the tower’s health features after the spread of COVID-19. The building has UV lights, HEPA filtration and integrated HVAC systems, bipolar ionization and UVGI (ultraviolet germicidal irradiation) for drinking water.
“During COVID, it gave the developers the opportunity to make changes to the building,” Trench said. “We will have better air circulation than any place in the market. These are cost prohibitive for other existing buildings.”
With the tower located just off of Brickell Avenue, tenants will be in walking distance to Brickell City Centre, The Shops at Mary Brickell Village, two Metrorail stops and, through public transportation, minutes from the Brightline and Tri-Rail at MiamiCentral in downtown.
Given all that, the building has the highest asking rent in the market, said Vanessa Grout, CEO of OKO Real Estate.
Trench said 830 Brickell is priced 15% to 20% above the average direct asking rate of $70 per square foot for Class A space in Brickell, according to the latest Colliers Miami-Dade County office report.
Colliers Executive Managing Director Stephen Rutchik said the demand for office space in Brickell has remained strong, even during COVID.
“What you are going to find ... through the balance of this year,” Rutchik said, “is that the trend is not just going to back to where it was last year, but we may finish the calendar year with lower vacancy than what we had before the pandemic.”
Looking ahead, OKO Realty’s Grout said the developers will select the remaining tenants from firms in real estate, law, banking, finance and technology.
“We are looking for tenants who are leaders in the market,” said Trench. “We are looking for those at the top of their field. We want to create synergy here.”
The nearby retail and restaurant scene will flourish once the building is occupied, said Chabeli Castillo, a broker associate at Beachfront Realty.
“High-level office tenants such as Microsoft, which will be hiring locally, will bring unprecedented impact to the Miami economy generating thousands of jobs, including high-paying corporate jobs,” she said, adding that 830 Brickell would foster an “overall healthy ecosystem for downtown businesses while also creating the need for high-level restaurants, retail, and entertainment.”
Tommaso Morelato opened his Italian restaurant, Toscana Divino, at the Shops at Mary Brickell Village in 2012. He said that after years of construction in the area, he’s expecting a boost for his establishment and others nearby.
“To have a building with Microsoft and other names,” Morelato said, “it is a great opportunity for us.”
This story was originally published October 04, 2021 6:00 AM.
Rebecca San Juan
Miami Herald
