The winds of change are blowing for Miami residents and business owners alike as the $1 billion+ Brickell City Centre breaks ground on its 520,000 square foot retail goliath that will also bring with it a pair of 42-story condominium towers, a 256-room hotel, twin eight-story office buildings, and 3,100 underground parking spaces. And the change won’t simply be the added value of a prime urban shopping center but the economic impact we can expect from the project over the long term.

Steve Owens, CEO of Brickell City Centre developer Swire Properties sums the feeling up saying, “This project is not about what exists today or three years from now when we open. It’s about what exists 10 years from now. The transformational aspects of this project are contagious. It’s not just about doing a large development. It’s about changing this community.”

And our community will change with the addition of the 5-million-square-foot project which will bring together many of the elements that make up this city’s urban core to create a contemporary social hub. The economic impact of the announced project has already benefited the area with the addition of five new condominium projects within the past year. And that’s just the beginning of the retail renaissance.

Particularly exciting for us as residents is that fact that the development is meant to keep us in town by attracting international retailers, value-priced retailers, and even some high-end brands that typically appear only into areas of high tourism such as Bal Harbour and Miami Beach. “We’re not going to just be a luxury shopping center,” Owens said. “We have to be realistic. We want to appeal to the greater urban market that exists now.” A Metromover station is being incorporated into the project for this sole purpose; to keep us from leaving the area for other shopping destinations such as Dadeland, Aventura, and Village of Merrick Park.

Perhaps the benefits of the new development are best expressed in the words of Jorge Perez, CEO of Related Group who recently broke ground for a condo project near the Brickell CitiCentre site, “It will be a great amenity. This is the type of mixed-use development we have all wanted for the Downtown Miami / Brickell area. It really rounds off what we have been trying to do for over a decade. Miami is not just about fun and sun anymore. We are becoming a much more complete city.”

For info on Brickell City Centre sales at Reach or Rise, please contact Sep Niakan at 305-725-0566