Another One: Developer Announces Plans For 750K SF Brickell Office Tower
Another huge office tower has entered the pipeline in Brickell as developers look to capitalize on the neighborhood’s roaring growth as Miami’s business epicenter.
Key International is planning a 50-story, 750K SF office tower at 848 Brickell Ave. to replace the existing 13-story building where Key International has its headquarters. The new tower would include two amenity decks totaling 40K SF, 1,065 parking spaces and 7,500 SF of retail space.
“It’s no secret that Miami is craving exemplary Class-A office space, but the plans for 848 Brickell will surpass national expectations,” Diego Ardid, co-president of Key International, said in a statement. “The innovative architectural design will elevate the Miami skyline and the building amenities will be in a class of their own. 848 will truly redefine the notion of ‘coming to work’ in Miami."
The tower was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Chicago-based architecture firm that designed the tallest buildings in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and One World Trade Center in New York.
Column-free floor plates at 848 Brickell would range from 19K SF to 27K SF, with amenities at the tower planned to include outdoor meeting spaces and lounges, a gym and two padel courts.
848 Brickell would have one underground parking deck, ground-floor retail and an eight-story parking garage above that, site plans submitted to the county indicate. Amenities would occupy the 10th and 11th floors, with the largest office floor plates running from the 13th to the 20th floors. A large terrace on the 21st floor would mark the beginning of the smaller floor plates running to the top of the tower, with outdoor terraces interspersed throughout the upper floors.
Plans for the tower were submitted for review on Friday. Key International is seeking approval from the county because the property is near the Brickell Metromover station and sits inside the Miami-Dade Rapid Transit Zone.
Key International paid $12.5M in 1989 for the existing office building, which was built in 1981, according to property records.
The development firm’s plan is the latest in a series of recent proposals for new office towers in Miami. The Miami Urban Development Review Board will consider two plans Wednesday that would add 511K SF of office space to the city.
In the larger plan, Miami-based One Thousand Group is planning a 636-foot-tall tower with 312K SF of office space near Midtown Miami. A joint venture between Tricap, Integra Investments and Lndmrk Development is also seeking approval for a 199K SF office building on the edge of Miami’s Design District.
The Urban Development Review Board approved plans last month for a 33-story office tower at Miami Worldcenter in Downtown Miami. Miami-based investment firm Abbhi Capital is looking to build 484K SF of office space sharing a podium with a 59-story residential tower on the north side of the master-planned development.
Office leasing in Miami has shown resilience even as activity has retreated from the highs seen during the peak of the pandemic. Tenants signed 588K SF worth of leases in the third quarter, and vacancy dipped slightly. Asking rates are up 8% compared to last year across the city, and Brickell, which attracted much of the pandemic-era interest from firms moving to or expanding in Miami, saw rates rise 16.6% year-over-year.
Asking rents at the under-construction 830 Brickell office tower near the Key International proposal are upward of $200 per SF, Vivian Gonzalez, a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield, told Bisnow this month.
“I’m not sure that we’ve seen the peak,” Gonzalez said. “As long as tenants keep paying, the landlords are going to keep pushing the rate.”
