Posted on Tue, Mar. 22, 2005
DEVELOPMENT

Office tower planned for Brickell Avenue
A new 32-story office high-rise is planned for 1450 Brickell Ave., the first luxury tower to be built on Brickell Avenue in five years.

BY BEATRICE E. GARCIA
bgarcia@herald.com

Coming to South Florida's condominium-crowded building boom: a luxury office tower on Brickell Avenue in the heart of Miami's financial district.

This addition to the Miami skyline is the first office building planned since 2000, when the Mellon Financial Center, which includes the J.W. Marriott Hotel, was completed.

The $150 million, 32-story building at 1450 Brickell Ave. will have 500,000 square feet of office space and will complement the upscale rental tower next door. Park Place will have 371 units and should be completed this summer.

Both the office and the rental towers are being developed by the Rilea Group, headed by Alan Ojeda. This developer already is familiar with the Brickell Avenue corridor. The Rilea Group and MDM Development Group cooperated on the Mellon Financial Center.

''We're a true office building, not mixed-use,'' said Ojeda, noting it will offer premier space for such clients as law firms, banks, brokerages and accounting firms.

He also referred to the Four Seasons tower and the Espirito Santo Plaza mixed-use projects across the street, which have condos, hotel and office space.

Ojeda doesn't have a signature tenant for the building but said several major tenants are interested.

An anchor tenant would get naming rights, said the developer.

''It's about time for a new major building to be considered,'' according to Edgar Jones, senior manager for the Rockefeller Group Development Cos.'s Miami office.

Jones noted that anchor tenants require amounts of contiguous space. There aren't many large chunks of office space available in today's market.

Ojeda said he has a long-term investment, so he's not bothered by the cyclical short-term swings in the ever-changing office real estate market.

The 3.5-acre site on the northwestern corner of Brickell Avenue and Southeast 15th Road had been part of a major tract of land assembled by developer David Blumberg in the late 1980s.

Blumberg had planned to build a major complex with retail, office and residential space that would have straddled Brickell Avenue.

But an economic slowdown and a glut of office and residential space in the area in the early 1990s ended Blumberg's dream, and the land was never developed.

Ojeda, who said he is lining up financing for the project, expects to break ground next summer and have the building completed by late 2008.

He says he owns the land free and clear, having purchased it from a Spanish investor group in 2000.

This is incredible news since it will solely be an office building although I wish it were being constructed in the CBD. Nevertheless it is a major project with 500,000 sq.ft. of Class A office space.

Here are some comparables:
Mellon Financial Center / 31 stories / 430 ft. / built in 2000
701 Brickell Avenue / 33 stories / 450 ft. / built in 1986
Miami Center / 34 stories / 484 ft. / built in 1983
Espirito Santos Plaza / 36 stories / 487 ft. / built in 2004

using these comparables I would imagine the height could be anywhere from 430' to possibly 500' depending on the size of the lobby and/or whether a parking garage is included in the design.I guess we'll have to wait to see the renderings.
anyone else here have an idea regarding the possible height of this new tower?

if this is park place 2 it was stated in the city report to be 512ft.

maybe we can get an office boom,or semi boom going like what we had in 2000 when we had mellon,espirito,four seasons etc.

Bob -

Good find !

Can't wait to see a rendering.

check it. i read the article bob posted & remembered that rilea group has a website (http://www.rileagroup.com) so i took a peek at it to see if by chance they had a rendering of the new office tower. & sure enough...
http://www.rileagroup.com/fotos/1450%20Brickell/1.jpg

http://www.rileagroup.com/fotos/1450%20Brickell/2.jpg

http://www.rileagroup.com/fotos/1450%20Brickell/3.jpg

my first thought was, sweet, an actual glass, office tower! that feeling lasted about 3 seconds til i looked at all the renderings. now i'm praying they don't build this monstrosity. it's hideous. :puke:

talk about killing my buzz.

what do you guys think?

I kind of like it. But then I've always liked Origami.

And is it my imagination, or does this tower pay homage to ESP ?

This is definitely the most uniquely styled bldg. that I've seen so far. I think it can complement the ESP and Four Seasons nicely, but I'm not the biggest fan of the corner facade on Brickell. But I like it better than Park Place. But, I like Park Place better than an empty lot as the alternative.

One question: Where exactly is Park Place 2 going in that rendering? I think the second Park Place tower is going to block the western wall of that bldg. if its to go to the SE of tower 1. If this is the case, I'm sure the developers want to hide this fact from prospective tenants.

FYI, the Daley Ctr. in Chi-town is 32 stories and 662'. Its a black box.

Dave Im with you, that is ugly. It seems to be a square building with some kind of wedge sticking out of it? Ok we were talking about building buildings tall and the cost, this surely has wasted space with that ugly wedge on it and is therefor not totally cost effective. I think they should drop the wedge and add another 10 floors :). I too would have rather had this in the cbd.

This is definitely the most uniquely styled bldg. that I've seen so far. I think it can complement the ESP and Four Seasons nicely, but I'm not the biggest fan of the corner facade on Brickell. But I like it better than Park Place. But, I like Park Place better than an empty lot as the alternative.

One question: Where exactly is Park Place 2 going in that rendering? I think the second Park Place tower is going to block the western wall of that bldg. if its to go to the SE of tower 1. If this is the case, I'm sure the developers want to hide this fact from prospective tenants.

FYI, the Daley Ctr. in Chi-town is 32 stories and 662'. Its a black box.

I believe the office tower replaces Park Place II.

The office building IS park place II. I like better than PPI personally because it is office and it is all glass. It will fit in well with Four Seasons and ESP and the other glass office buildings in that area of Brickell. The one that stands out like a sore thumb will be PPI (along with the horrible Club at Brickell Bay).

Well I found this article from December 2004 regarding the change in plans for Park Place II from condo to office tower. Thanks SFDave for those renderings.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Planned Brickell apartments now will be offices

By Suzy Valentine
One developer is bucking the trend by shifting plans for rental apartments to office use for part of a Brickell project because he thinks it will balance an area heavy with residential offerings.
Alan Ojeda of Miami's RG Rilea Group said he plans to apply for a permit to build a 30-story, 400,000-square-foot office tower for $120 million on Brickell Avenue at Southeast 15th Road. He had planned to build rental apartments.
"People need a job and a place to live both," he said. "Adjacent to this project, I'm developing Phase I of Park Place, comprising 371 rental apartments. If you have different uses in the same street, the society will have more equilibrium. In a properly urban district, you work, you shop and you live on the same street."
Brickell Avenue, he said, has started to lose balance.
His decision comes on the heels of an announcement that builders of Met I, under construction in downtown Miami, plan to change their plans for an office component to residential.
"There are so many units coming along on this street that it might have become a dormitory town," said Mr. Ojeda. "I think the balance is restored by having the three uses - residential, office and retail."
Mr. Ojeda said he had considered occupancy rates in existing commercial spaces and the pace at which the city has been growing when making his decision.
"The best indicator is how much empty office space there is. Occupancy rates vary from 80% to 88%," he said. "You break even around 50-something percent. Above 80%, you start making decent money."
Each year, 30,000 people relocate to Miami-Dade County, he said. Some will be looking to work somewhere that doesn't present a difficult commute or is within walking distance of their home.
"You can improve the quality of your life by avoiding a 21/2-hour commute," said Mr. Ojeda. "There are no traffic jams like there are in the northern part of Brickell near the river, and there's an adjacent Metromover station."
"This man is obviously a forward thinker," said real estate attorney and investor Jerrold Wish. There isn't demand for office space now, he said, but sometime there might be.
"He's the guy that most developers don't want to be - the first guy," Mr. Wish said. "Most developers are happy to be the second guy after they see how the first guy fares."
Mr. Ojeda has lived in Miami for 23 years and has worked on other high-profile projects, including Barclay's Financial Center, now called Mellon Commercial Center, on Brickell.
The developer said there is a demarcation between the tendency to build residential properties north of the Miami River and commercial spaces elsewhere. "The office market in Brickell is definitely moving south," said Mr. Ojeda.
The structure would form a triangle of office towers with Espirito Santo and the Four Seasons on Brickell Avenue. Mr. Ojeda said much of the necessary infrastructure is in place to support further office space.
Naming rights for a tenant leasing a quarter of the available space or 100,000 square feet may be offered by Mr. Ojeda, he said.
"Let's say someone who takes 20% to 25% could get naming rights for the building," he said. "The building has great exposure. You will see it from Brickell and the bay but also from I-95."
Developers have to read a market well if their projects are to meet future demands.
When the project was conceived in 1999, Mr. Ojeda intended both phases of Park Place to be rental apartments. Five years later, a change to office space for the second phase indicates that Mr. Ojeda sees a market change by the time his project is completed in 2008.
"Is it a leap of faith? Yes, it is," he said. "A lot of things can happen in three years, both good and bad."
Many of his peers have placed their faith in the residential market and have converted use from office to condo - decisions Mr. Ojeda agreed have merit because low interest rates have created a demand for residences and made condos that were once out of reach more affordable.
But he doesn't think he's going against the tide.
"A developer can become the tide, taking the market in a different direction," he said.
Among those riding the condo wave is MDM Development Group, with whom Mr. Ojeda worked on Barclay's Financial Center. MDM has put on hold Metropolitan Financial Center - an office component in downtown Miami - while turning its attention to an adjacent 72-story condo complex.
In July, plans for an office tower at Flagler Street and Biscayne Boulevard were abandoned in favor of a 54-story condo development when Atlanta-based Cousins Properties reevaluated the market.
Mr. Ojeda is reading the market differently.
Though office-rental rates haven't provided developers the necessary return on a first-class building, that could change over the next three years, according to one real estate broker who reacted to Mr. Ojeda's plans.
"There will be upper pressure on rents as there have been no new products for some time," said Peter Harrison, senior vice president of Transwestern Commercial Services.
"The issue becomes economics," he said. "If he's expecting a 10% profit, he needs to get $44 per square foot. Today's Class A space is commanding $33 to $35 per square foot, including operating costs - $10 shy of what he needs," said Mr. Harrison. "If he's pricing the space net of operating costs, then he's on target. If it's gross, there may be some reevaluation."
The broker said Mr. Ojeda has chosen a great spot.
"It's a good location, across from the Four Seasons, which my partner and I leased," he said. "It did well being so far south on Brickell."
At the Beacon Council offices on Southwest Eighth Street, a few blocks from the site, news of the development was warmly received.
"We're very positive about mixed-use," said Beacon Council Executive Vice President Holly Wiedman. "It can't be all condo or all office, and the proximity of home to work works well. You need the infrastructure, too, the service industries.
"What we're seeing is that Miami has an astounding quality of product," said Ms. Wiedman. "Now we're planning space well so that you can live, work or play on Brickell."

this is great... hes the first man... the one to start the trend... and god help us, hopefully it catches on... i like the design tho... itll go well with espirito santo and four season

plus met 2 is gonna b office, great, we need more offices inthe cbd, or else itll stop being the cbd, and theyre waiting it out to see how the markey does...

great, great news...

the SE corner looks really cool and interesting. Really futuristic and edgy. It does seem a bit bulky though like it belongs in San Francisco's skyline. Im just happy to get more commercial buildings in Brickell!

If nothing else, the design is different. Maybe Miami (and Las Vegas) can lead American corporate architecture away from its preference for pinstripe suits.

check it. i read the article bob posted & remembered that rilea group has a website (http://www.rileagroup.com) so i took a peek at it to see if by chance they had a rendering of the new office tower. & sure enough...
http://www.rileagroup.com/fotos/1450%20Brickell/1.jpg

http://www.rileagroup.com/fotos/1450%20Brickell/2.jpg

http://www.rileagroup.com/fotos/1450%20Brickell/3.jpg

my first thought was, sweet, an actual glass, office tower! that feeling lasted about 3 seconds til i looked at all the renderings. now i'm praying they don't build this monstrosity. it's hideous. :puke:

talk about killing my buzz.

what do you guys think?




what this building is a beauty,other than esp we don't really have an modern arch.bldgs this thing is a masterpiece ,just a little short and fat but it looks great.
now let the office boom begin baby!!!!!

I say dont put the cart in front of the horse. Like the article says, no one else is going to build until they see what is going to happen. This guy is going to test the waters for everyone.

^^I like it too....even though it is a little short and bulky...I think we're all gonna like, once built (esp from Brickell ave)...it just looks a little awkward in the rendition!!

South Florida Business Journal - 3:41 PM EST Tuesday
C&W to market planned Class A tower
Rilea Group has hired Cushman & Wakefield as exclusive leasing agents for the first Class A high-rise office building to join Miami's central business district since Mellon Financial Center in 2000.


The proposed 1450 Brickell Ave. is to be at the corner of Southeast 15th Road and Brickell Avenue, directly across the street from the Four Seasons. The 32 stories are to hold 500,000 square feet, of which about 15,000 square feet would be for retail. Construction is slated to begin in summer 2006, with delivery in late 2008.

Adjacent to 1450 Brickell Avenue is to be Miami-based Rilea Group's latest residential development, Park Place. The 371-unit, high-end residential rental tower is to be complete this summer.

Tere Blanca, Cushman & Wakefield senior managing director and branch manager for South Florida, has a long-term relationship with Miami-based Rilea Group. She worked with that company's president, Alan Ojeda, in lease-up of Mellon Financial Center, formerly known as Barclays Financial Center.

Ojeda said he believes a city's balance between residential, commercial and retail is imperative if it wishes to strive as a true urban district.

"In every great metropolis, critical mass is delivered through proper symmetry in all facets of city living," he said. "By adding 500,000 square feet of office space to accompany Park Place, as well as the retail components, we are adding positive value to the cadence of Miami."



© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.

Uptown-Midtown :) , is that rendering of Park Place 2, the Office Tower for real ???, wow, I hope so, its better than the old rendering of Park Place 2 the Condo tower !!! GO CRANES !!! :cheers:

itll b interesting to see how much response theyll get to lease out the space... hope theyres a huge pent up demand that no1 knew about that will surpirse every1 and all of a sudden there will b thousand foot office towers going up all over the place!

I like that building, It'll be great to see it with the Esp Santo and the 4 Seasons. Miami definitely needs more glass.

itll b interesting to see how much response theyll get to lease out the space... hope theyres a huge pent up demand that no1 knew about that will surpirse every1 and all of a sudden there will b thousand foot office towers going up all over the place!

I'd love to have my office in that tower! I don't know if I could aford it. I'm tired to have it in my house. althought I don't have to deal with traffic. I wouldn't mind going thru the rush hour all the way from Pembroke Pines to downtown Miami. An office in a higher floor with waterviews its worth it.

Wow!
This is great news. I hope this begins a office tower boom.

Wow!
This is great news. I hope this begins a office tower boom.
YES Pablo :) , Maybe a 1,000 FOOTER in 10 - 15 Years, this will look good, But Remember Everyone :) , Interest rates UP today another Quarter to 2.75 %, the 7th Rise since last summer, its gonna hurt about 2 years down the road. :cheers:

interesting building, well it looks like its gonna break the 500 foot mark with that pointy wedge thing at top,

well brickell seems to be competing with the cbd on getting all these unique towers and new towers,!! infinities, this, and some nice glass office towers!

interesting building, well it looks like its gonna break the 500 foot mark with that pointy wedge thing at top,

well brickell seems to be competing with the cbd on getting all these unique towers and new towers,!! infinities, this, and some nice glass office towers!
MIAballinboi :) , Good Name, " The Interest Building ", I like it, good name for Brickell's Financial District. :cheers:
P.S. one of the Illegal mexicans in the back bed of my Super-cab R.A.M. ( Running around Miami ), thought that one up, lol. GO CRANES !!! :cheers:

Wow, I guess I didn't read the memo that PP2 was this office bldg. All the better. It definetely beats the resid. tower. What a stark contrast between the two.

Well, it does look kinda awkward and my first impression was ugh! But then I was like yes an office tower!! And it does look modern. Anyways the big plus is it will replace yet another cookie cutter residential. Like everyone's been saying this will test the market and maybe set the new trend. I think/hope this project will do well.Way to take one for the team Rilea!!

"In every great metropolis, critical mass is delivered through proper symmetry in all facets of city living," he said. "By adding 500,000 square feet of office space to accompany Park Place, as well as the retail components, we are adding positive value to the cadence of Miami." Wow is it me or would'nt Ojeda make a great SkyscraperCity forumer?

I have mixed feelings about this proposal. I would have rather had a more slender and taller building. But I prefer the office building over another residential "McCondo" structure.

Posted on Tue, Mar. 22, 2005
DEVELOPMENT

Office tower planned for Brickell Avenue
A new 32-story office high-rise is planned for 1450 Brickell Ave., the first luxury tower to be built on Brickell Avenue in five years.

BY BEATRICE E. GARCIA
bgarcia@herald.com

Coming to South Florida's condominium-crowded building boom: a luxury office tower on Brickell Avenue in the heart of Miami's financial district.

This addition to the Miami skyline is the first office building planned since 2000, when the Mellon Financial Center, which includes the J.W. Marriott Hotel, was completed.

The $150 million, 32-story building at 1450 Brickell Ave. will have 500,000 square feet of office space and will complement the upscale rental tower next door. Park Place will have 371 units and should be completed this summer.

Both the office and the rental towers are being developed by the Rilea Group, headed by Alan Ojeda. This developer already is familiar with the Brickell Avenue corridor. The Rilea Group and MDM Development Group cooperated on the Mellon Financial Center.

''We're a true office building, not mixed-use,'' said Ojeda, noting it will offer premier space for such clients as law firms, banks, brokerages and accounting firms.

He also referred to the Four Seasons tower and the Espirito Santo Plaza mixed-use projects across the street, which have condos, hotel and office space.

Ojeda doesn't have a signature tenant for the building but said several major tenants are interested.

An anchor tenant would get naming rights, said the developer.

''It's about time for a new major building to be considered,'' according to Edgar Jones, senior manager for the Rockefeller Group Development Cos.'s Miami office.

Jones noted that anchor tenants require amounts of contiguous space. There aren't many large chunks of office space available in today's market.

Ojeda said he has a long-term investment, so he's not bothered by the cyclical short-term swings in the ever-changing office real estate market.

The 3.5-acre site on the northwestern corner of Brickell Avenue and Southeast 15th Road had been part of a major tract of land assembled by developer David Blumberg in the late 1980s.

Blumberg had planned to build a major complex with retail, office and residential space that would have straddled Brickell Avenue.

But an economic slowdown and a glut of office and residential space in the area in the early 1990s ended Blumberg's dream, and the land was never developed.

Ojeda, who said he is lining up financing for the project, expects to break ground next summer and have the building completed by late 2008.

He says he owns the land free and clear, having purchased it from a Spanish investor group in 2000.
okay Everyone :grouphug: , its over a year later :omg: , and the Summer promise of groundbreaking, is this for real, or do we have to wait for another summer to see this office tower rise :dunno: .

:speech: Also a year later and the Feds rate has risen 5 more times to 4.25 %, will it be enough to get this office tower off the ground before the Feds raise interest rates again this MAY,2006 at www.interest.com :rant:
We'll soon find out< I hope its a go, I'm crossing my fingers. :laugh: :cheers1:

I think It will rise, it's on a prime location and will be a great addition to the Brickell skyline...but they really do need to hurry up and start going vertical...

I think it looks awesome and it's going complement Four Seasons and Espíritu Santo very well. Plus, the glass is going to give Brickell a more office look away from the balcony-infested streets. Very nice, I like it!

are you all kidding me?! I have been infatuated with this one since i saw it! It is stunning. If this, ESP, and Met 2 were in a line, it would be fantastic, but they won't be; which makes it all the better. 3 somewhat spreadout grand towers, all complementing each other very well. Add in the Four Seasons and it's all uphill from there. I can't wait to see this thing up and go inside of it; i like it!

:edit:
i think the only flaw i can point out is the obvious bulky look from the northwest view. but i can say the same for one of Miami's icons, and dare i say it? Bank of America. I do LOVE the BofA, though. do not get me wrong.

okay Everyone :grouphug: , its over a year later :omg: , and the Summer promise of groundbreaking, is this for real, or do we have to wait for another summer to see this office tower rise :dunno: .

:speech: Also a year later and the Feds rate has risen 5 more times to 4.25 %, will it be enough to get this office tower off the ground before the Feds raise interest rates again this MAY,2006 at www.interest.com :rant:
We'll soon find out< I hope its a go, I'm crossing my fingers. :laugh: :cheers1:
YES, Everyone :grouphug: , Its starting Late Next month, 1450 BRICKELL 35 - story Office Tower will break ground according to a Miami Today newspaper , July 20th :righton: , The Rilea Group :okay: , will Deliver the tower READY for first class A office Tenants in this beautiful 35 - story, 580,000 tower to reach the skies at the end of 15th Road and Brickell Ave. Definately September According to its CEO and President Alan Ojeda :bow: , we are focusing on the Overwhelming Positive Response from our Future Client Base. :cheers1: :cheers:

^^Great news!! Love this building!!

for some reason i don't feel this tower will get built , i don't even know why....

for some reason i don't feel this tower will get built , i don't even know why....

hello345, do you know if the Miami Heat will repeat ? What are you feeling about that ?

ya empezamos

ya empezamos

"WE HAVE STARTED"

Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :banana: :tyty: :cucumber: :carrot: :cheer: :pepper: :dance2: :banana2: :applause: