A bank’s proposal for a new 40-story office tower marks the latest plan to bring more high-end office space to Brickell, Miami's financial district.
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Santander Bank has filed plans to build a 765-foot-tall tower at 1401 Brickell Ave. that would have 613K SF of office space, 108K SF of food and beverage space, and a 1,496-space parking podium topped by a multilevel club. The proposal is scheduled for consideration at Miami’s Urban Development Review Board meeting Wednesday.
The project, called Santander Tower in the plans submitted to the UDRB, includes a 13-story parking deck along with basement-level parking below a ground-floor lobby with two retail spaces and a café. Retail and restaurant spaces with terraces would run along one side of the garage.
The tower would replace a 14-story office building that was built on 2 acres in 1974. A Santander-controlled entity bought the existing building for $114M in 2008, according to property records.
A representative for Madrid-based Banco Santander, which has its U.S. headquarters in Boston, told Bisnow the company continues to explore its options but hasn’t made a final decision about when or if it will move forward on the project.
New York-based Handel Architects designed the project, with Miami-based Rilea Group serving as the local development adviser and project manager. Los Angeles-based Rios is the landscape architect, with Mexican firm Bernardi + Peschard Arquitectura acting as the design consultant.
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The property would include seven separate food and beverage spaces, including one atop the parking deck on the seventh floor with an expansive outdoor terrace. A large conference area would be located on the sixth floor.
Office space would begin on the eighth floor, but the ninth and 10th floors would host what the site plan describes as a 25K SF “urban club” with a large terrace.
All but two of the upper floors of the triangular building with rounded edges would be dedicated to office space, with floor plates around 20K SF and terraces on each level. Floors 29 and 30 would host a sky lounge with a wraparound terrace.
The building’s exterior design is dominated by floor-to-ceiling windows with multistory diamond-shaped white metal accents running the length of the building and an art screen cladding the garage that would shift in color based on the viewing angle. The underside of the mechanical roof would be painted in Santander’s red brand color.
Santander established its first Florida office at the existing property in 2020 but disclosed plans in October to relocate to 3000 Grand Ave. in Coconut Grove, the South Florida Business Journal reported. Santander has also reportedly signed a 95K SF lease at the 830 Brickell office tower being built by Cain International and OKO Group.
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A Brickell Avenue address is seen as lending cachet to firms in the city, and Brickell is by far Miami’s most expensive office submarket.
Asking rates for office space in Brickell were at $83.90 per SF at the end of the fourth quarter, according to Blanca Commercial Real Estate, and the limited remaining available space at 830 Brickell is being marketed at rents approaching $200 per SF. Asking rents across all of Miami-Dade County were at $52.37 per SF at the end of the year.
Santander isn’t alone in looking to replace its Brickell offices with a new trophy tower. Key International announced a partnership with Chicago-based Sterling Bay last month to build a 51-story office building at 848 Brickell Ave.
The planned 750K SF tower would replace Key International’s 13-story headquarters at the address, for which it paid $12.5M in 1989.
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