Citadel Files First Plans For Miami Headquarters Project, Adds Housing
Citadel inched closer to breaking ground on a new headquarters tower in Miami and disclosed potential plans to build residences on an adjacent site.
A lawyer representing Ken Griffin's hedge fund has submitted a pre-application to Miami-Dade County to discuss and review plans for the 2.5-acre site at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive and the adjacent property at 1250 Brickell Bay Drive.
A letter of intent submitted with the application signals that Citadel would develop the sites in multiple phases, with the first phase including a tower at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive that would have office space, a hotel and retail space, including a health and fitness club.
Citadel is planning to build more office space, along with a residential component and food and beverage, on its L-shaped property at 1250 Brickell Bay Drive, according to a site plan submitted with the pre-application meeting request. Each property would have its own parking deck.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that a hotel was under consideration at the waterfront site. Citadel, which Griffin announced would relocate from Chicago to Miami in June 2022, has tapped Foster + Partners to design the tower, which is expected to cost more than $1B and be one of the tallest buildings in Miami.
The site plan, drawn up by New York-based AAI Architects, says the plans are only conceptual and subject to change.
Neisen Kasdin, co-managing partner at the law firm Akerman in Miami, submitted the request on Friday to meet with county officials to discuss the approval process for developments inside a rapid transit zone, a county-administered regulation that allows for greater density and reduced parking requirements for projects near transit stops.
The 1201 Brickell Bay Drive site is roughly two blocks from the Financial District Metromover station.
Kasdin didn’t respond to Bisnow's request for comment, and a Citadel spokesperson declined to comment.
Citadel spent a then-record $363M in April 2022 to acquire the 2.5-acre waterfront site in Miami’s financial district. The hedge fund purchased the property through a Chicago-based entity that hid the true buyer, leading to months of speculation about who was behind the purchase of the last vacant waterfront development site in Brickell.
Citadel paid $287M for another 28-story building at 1221 Brickell Ave. in June 2022 and spent an additional $20M in August 2022 to acquire the 12-unit apartment building at 1250 Brickell Bay Drive and an adjacent lot. The development is also slated to serve as the global headquarters for Griffin's market-making firm Citadel Securities.
Citadel’s pandemic-era relocation became an avatar for Miami’s growing profile, frequently cited by the mayor, real estate brokers and developers as a signal that the city had matured into a global destination.
While Citadel begins the process of developing its own headquarters, it has for now committed to anchoring 830 Brickell, a fully leased and nearly complete office tower that itself has become a symbol of Miami’s recent success.
Griffin's firm took two more floors at the tower in June, making it the largest tenant in the building and bringing its total footprint at the tower to 130K SF across eight floors. Tenants are building out their spaces at the tower and are expected to begin moving in this quarter.
Citadel is also planning a 1.8M SF office tower in New York in partnership with Vornado Realty Trust and Rudin, with Citadel and Citadel Securities committing to 800K SF at the property.
In Miami, the full occupancy at 830 Brickell prior to its delivery inspired a wave of other office proposals.
Swire and Related Cos. are planning a 1,000-foot-tall office tower at the Brickell City Centre mixed-use complex. Key International and Sterling Bay have plans for a 750K SF office tower at 848 Brickell Ave., just down the road from a 40-story tower proposed by Santander Bank.
830 Brickell broke ground in 2022 and filled its floors with firms from out of state that opted to relocate to or open outposts in South Florida at the height of the pandemic. The new projects are being proposed as Miami returns to a prepandemic pace of leasing and as tenant footprints shrink.
None of those other buildings have gone vertical yet, as developers look to execute significant preleasing before they can land financing and break ground on a new tower. Miami's cooling office market means those developers could be waiting awhile to find that anchor tenant.
Citadel, for its part, is in the unique position to both anchor and finance its own development.
UPDATE, JULY 24, 5:15 P.M. ET: This story has been updated to include an additional transaction that's part of Citadel's assemblage in Brickell.
