What A Soccer Stadium Could Mean To Miami
Neisen Kasdin knows something about neighborhood revival. As Mayor of Miami Beach 1997-2001, and a Commissioner and activist before then, he worked on restoring the art deco beauty of Ocean Drive and creating the Gehry-designed New World Symphony campus. Now he's aiming to bring excitement to Overtown.
We snapped Niesen in his office yesterday, where he is Miami managing partner of legal powerhouse Akerman, which represents Miami Beckham United. He tells us the acquisition of nine acres for the stadium (two private parcels under contract, and a third from the county under appraisal) should be complete this month, as well as league approval of location and ownership. He says he has seen “investment magic” work many times before, and when the team starts to play in Overtown by spring 2018, it will bolster the area's once vibrant commercial core, and begin to attract new residential, retail, pedestrian activity, and green space (like Lummus Park made a difference long ago near NW 3rd Street).
This was 6th Avenue at 6th Street yesterday, much of it abandoned and polluted though there are wonderful families around and the occasional oasis like Touching Miami with Love at the right. He says it’s an outstanding site for a sports venue, near Garcia’s and Seaspice as well as Spring Garden, and walking distance to transit like the Culmer metro station, Overtown transit village, and the coming central station of All Aboard Florida. There’s even the Miami River, he points out, which could feature water taxis.
Meanwhile, Niesen gave us a tour of his firm’s cutting-edge new digs as the first and anchor tenant of 3 Brickell City Centre. The firm’s 160 local lawyers (out of 640 worldwide) moved into 110k SF less than a month ago from the SunTrust building. This is the lunch room, which looks more like a restaurant, where employees are encouraged to bring brown bags every day and, as befits modern creative space, collaborate away.
Out the window, much work goes on bringing the rest of City Centre to fruition, although the famous Climate Ribbon is already on the job learning to save energy and rainwater and circulate air.
From the outside, the building is not just imposing but iconoclastic and futuristic.
Ah, but Neisen is a little old-fashion, pouring coffee instead of pressing kale and chia seeds into juice. Some other factoids you might not know about him:
Favorite restaurants: Joe’s, Fratelli Milano, Gabbiano, the Forge
Favorite dish: “a great roast duck, which unfortunately you can’t get too many places anymore”
Culinary hobby: grilling on his Big Green Egg
Dishes he loves to rustle up: ribs, cole slaw from scratch (recipe: sour cream, mayo, apple cider vinegar, celery salt, Dijon, julienne veggies)
Favorite movie: Godfather I
Music: '70s rock like James Taylor, Carole King, Van Morrison (e.g., Tupelo Honey or Brown Eyed Girl)
Vacay destinations: big cities like Paris, cool remote mountain places like in Colorado
Kids: boys 28 and 30, investment fund manager and golf professional (useful people to know)
