Miami easing way to add Brickell City Centre residences, retail

Miami city commissioners are being asked to approve a special easement for Brickell City Centre that would clear the way for the next phase of development of the sweeping mixed-use project, including construction of a temporary fire station.

The next phase of construction is also to include about 350 new residential units, 106,828 square feet of new retail/entertainment uses and parking for about 775 vehicles.

Swire Properties Inc. is the main developer of the project.

Commissioners are set to vote today (3/10) on the easement.

The resolution would authorize City Manager Art Noriega to accept a Perpetual Sidewalk Easement from Brickell City Centre Project LLC, as Trustee under Land Trust No. BCC-2012, for public pedestrian access to portions of sidewalk constructed on the 25-foot corner radius intersection at Southeast First Avenue and Southeast Fifth Street, and Southeast First Avenue and Southeast Sixth Street.

The land is north of the existing Brickell City Centre, and south of the Miami River.

The resolution notes that on March 28, 2013, the commission approved an amendment to the Brickell City Centre Special Area Plan (SAP) to include that property, and approved an amended and restated development agreement to encompass the property.

“Grantor is developing a mixed-use project on the Property known as ‘BCCN2,’ which is one of several blocks in an integrated, mixed-use, pedestrian/transit oriented, urban development known as Brickell City Centre,” it reads.

The city desires to assure public ingress and egress access to the sidewalk on the private property and the owner of the property offered to grant a sidewalk access easement to the city for public ingress and egress over a portion of the property.

“The Grantor will construct, maintain, and assume liability responsibility for the portion of the sidewalk located on the Property … and the purpose of the Sidewalk Access Easement is to ensure that the general public will have ingress and egress access to the portion of sidewalk located in the easement area,” the resolution says.

Swire, a global development company, entered into an agreement with the City of Miami that calls for construction of a temporary and then a permanent fire station.

Construction was expected to begin in March 2020 but the Covid-19 pandemic stalled plans.

The temporary fire-rescue station is to rise between Southeast Fifth and Sixth streets, near the Miami River. The addition will benefit the entire neighborhood south of the river.

Brickell City Centre is a landmark $1.05 billion, 4.9-million-square-foot mixed-use development.

The project began in 2013. It includes two condominium towers, two Class-A office buildings, its EAST, Miami Hotel, and a more than 500,000-square-foot shopping center that opened in 2016.