The financial district of this Florida neighbourhood is attracting international buyers to its luxury high-rise residences with ocean views

The neighbourhood with the best lifestyle in south Florida isn’t on the golden sands of Miami Beach or the low-level southern suburbs. According to the US ranking company Niche.com, the place to be is Brickell, Miami’s high-rise city centre, the scene of its highest density building.

Brickell, thronged with gyms, coffee shops and restaurants, scored highly for walkability, community and facilities. In a city with little public transport and increasingly tiresome traffic delays, waterfront Brickell offers free local Metromover trains and several cycle routes. And as Florida’s premier financial centre, nicknamed “Wall Street South” by Ken Griffin, billionaire founder of the hedge fund Citadel, when he moved his firm’s HQ there from Chicago in 2022, it offers a compelling work-live-play environment for young professionals.

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Henry Bott is a prime example. The British president of Swire Properties USA grew up in Wimbledon, southwest London, and lived in Hong Kong and China before moving to Brickell Key in early 2023 with his wife, Francesca, and young children. Brickell, he says, is the new centre of gravity for Miami.

“I initially thought we’d move to Coconut Grove or Coral Gables, neighbourhoods I heard were good for families,” says Bott, 39. “However, after researching the market, I realised it would be difficult to beat Brickell’s convenience and lifestyle. My office is in Brickell City Centre and my kids’ schools are both a ten-minute walk along the Baywalk, a one-and-a-half-mile linear park where we spot fish, manatees and, if we’re lucky, dolphins.”

At weekends, Bott plays padel with his family or heads to beaches at South Pointe Park or Key Biscayne. “Francesca and I enjoy cocktails after work in Sugar, a bar on the roof of East hotel, going to the movies at Brickell City Centre or heading to Casa Tua, a favourite restaurant on Miami Beach,” he says.

Construction underway in Brickell includes Mercedes-Benz Places, Miami’s largest mixed-use development, and 888 Brickell Dolce & Gabbana, destined to be its tallest, both by JDS Development Group with partner GV Development. Mercedes-Benz Places is under construction on an entire city block, 67 floors with 791 Mercedes-Benz branded residences, studio to three-bedroom apartments priced from $800,000 (£625,000) alongside a 174-key hotel, offices, shops and wellness facilities. More than half of the site will be a green park, the work of Field Operations, the landscaper for the High Line in New York.

Mercedes-Benz Places is, says the developer Michael Stern of JDS, the fastest-selling residential project in the history of south Florida, with more than 50 nationalities among the first buyers. Residents should move in by 2027 and when they do, in a nod to the branding partner, they’ll have a fleet of cars and chauffeurs at their disposal and a Formula 1 simulator.

888 Brickell is selling more expensive homes, starting from $3.5 million, closer to $2,200 a square foot compared with $1,650 at Mercedes-Benz Places. The 90-storey travertine and steel-clad tower, designed by Studio Sofield, will have 259 residences with interiors designed by Dolce & Gabbana, with restaurants, a pool, gym and spa, event spaces and an indoor padel court.

“Not only are people moving to Brickell from New York but also all the best private members clubs and restaurants are coming too,” Stern says. “In a small area, four or five blocks, you have some of the highest grossing restaurants in the US: Delilah, Cipriani, Komodo. Brickell is a great place to live and a central meeting place between Coconut Grove and Miami Beach.”

“In 1996 Brickell was just parking lots,” he says. “Even in 2018 we were only in the third innings of a nine innings baseball game. Post-pandemic, people priced out of Miami Beach were happy to come here. They liked the urban city vibes and the energy. There’s been so much growth and we’re still only in the sixth innings.”

Baseball analogies aside, construction continues at pace. On the southern tip of Brickell Key, a man-made gated island immediately off the coast, hovering over the water in two connected towers, the Residences Mandarin Oriental will offer 228 “ultra-luxury” apartments priced from $4.9 million, including a $100 million penthouse with one of Miami’s highest private pools.

On Brickell Avenue, Ora by Casa Tua is a 77-storey tower of 533 homes priced from $995,000 with plans for a four-storey sky garden, outdoor cinema and four restaurants. Cipriani Residences has 397 homes priced from $1.8 million, bringing Italian verve to Brickell.

“Brickell is the most vibrant and exciting part of Miami,” says Edgardo Defortuna, the chief executive and founder of Fortune International Group, a real estate business based in the city. “It’s attracting some of the best residential branded products and some of the best US businesses are relocating operations to the area — Citadel, Microsoft and Google. Property prices continue to be great value compared with Miami Beach. Top residential buildings on Miami Beach are going for over $4,000 per square foot while top Brickell buildings are around $2,500. The price gap has narrowed in recent years and I expect that trend to continue as Brickell’s quality of homes and lifestyle continue to improve.”

 

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