Chicago-based developer Sterling Bay has found a new partner to help it break into the Brickell market.
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The developer is teaming up with Key International to build a 51-story office tower at 848 Brickell Ave. in Miami’s financial district. The partnership, announced Wednesday, is Sterling Bay’s second attempt at building a Brickell skyscraper after its partnership to develop Citadel's planned Miami headquarters dissolved.
"Miami is the nation's new epicenter for commercial growth, and Brickell sits at the center of the city's business activity,” Sterling Bay CEO Andy Gloor said in a statement. "It's arguably the hottest submarket in the country right now for commercial office development, and we’re poised to deliver a top-tier office product at a crucial inflection point for the area."
The planned 750K SF office tower is slated to replace Key International's 13-story headquarters building, for which it paid $12.5M in 1989. The developers have tapped JLL to handle leasing at the property, which is scheduled to break ground next quarter.
It was designed by Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, known for designing the tallest buildings in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and One World Trade Center in New York.
A proposal submitted for review to Miami-Dade County in October showed a tower with column-free floor plates ranging from 19K SF to 27K SF, with the larger footprints on the lower floors and a 21st-floor terrace marking the start of the smaller floors.
The proposed design includes two amenity decks totaling 40K SF, along with 7,500 SF of retail space and 1,065 parking spaces. The property would lean into outdoor amenities, with terraces interspersed throughout the upper floors and amenities including outdoor meeting spaces, lounges and two padel courts.
The county is handling the application because the property is near the Brickell Metromover station and sits inside the Miami-Dade Rapid Transit Zone. Public records indicate the project is still under review, with the last activity being a Dec. 21 memo with recommendations from the Department of Transportation and Public Works.
Sterling Bay had been Citadel’s partner for a planned tower at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive, a 2.5-acre parcel the hedge fund paid a record-breaking $363M for in April 2022, two months before founder Ken Griffin announced the firm’s relocation from Chicago to Miami.
Citadel cut Sterling Bay out of the project last April, saying it would internally handle some of the development work on the tower, of which plans have not yet been revealed but could span as much as 1.8M SF.
The split was publicly amicable, with Citadel spokesperson Zia Ahmed telling Bloomberg that Sterling Bay was “instrumental in selecting and procuring critical real estate investments” for the firm in South Florida and a Sterling Bay spokesperson telling the publication that it “makes sense” for Citadel to bring the process in-house.
The partnership with Key International gives Sterling Bay a second chance to break into Brickell, Miami’s most expensive office market, and the project would be its second in Miami.
In 2019, the firm completed the 545Wyn office building in Wynwood, the creative district that saw the second-highest office rent growth in the fourth quarter behind Brickell. The property has attracted several high-profile tenants, including Sony Music, PwC and architecture firm Gensler.
Most recently, the Miami stock exchange MIAX announced plans for a 38K SF options trading floor at the property to complement its office on the 11th floor of the 1450 Brickell office tower.
"We strategically selected Sterling Bay as our co-development partner at 848 Brickell to bring their expertise in creating world-class offices to this exciting new project," Diego Ardid, co-president at Key International, said in a statement. "We're confident that their involvement will ensure 848 Brickell represents the next generation of modern workspaces in South Florida."
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