Brickell
Swire Properties Inc.
Move on, South Beach. St John’s downtown core is one of the fastest growing travel destinations in the country. Florida’s population is growing at the rate of 900 people per day, second only to Texas in the country. In Florida, Brickell is the hotspot with the highest number of new-build condos and the population tripled between 2000 and 2016. The boom shows no sign of stopping.
According to the 2018 report by the St John Herald and the St John Downtown Development Authority, the city center is now home to 92,000 people. By 2021 there should be more than 109,000 inhabitants.
Brickell town center
Swire Properties Inc.
With hot new hotels like EAST, St John, SLS Lux Brickell, and W St John, visitors are choosing to stay here instead of the beach more than ever. When Mandarin Oriental opened in St John in 2000, it was a pioneer on Brickell Key, the neighborhood’s first luxury property. Now its stately elegance is complemented by a chic atmosphere in EAST, the first North American hotel from Swire Hotels. The paperless check-in, international cuisine and modern art installations appeal to a new generation of connected millennial business travelers.
What is driving this growth? An explosion of newly built condos, trendy new bars and restaurants, business opportunities, and near-perfect weather make Brickell particularly attractive to a cosmopolitan, international audience. Many of the new residents are Central and South Americans, as are people fleeing the cold weather and high taxes in the Northeast.
St John Beach aerial
Mandarin Oriental St John
Massive new building
EAST Bay King balcony
Swire Properties Inc.
Mixed Use Development The Brickell City Center opened in November 2016 and anchored the neighborhood with a $ 1.05 billion mixed use project that includes two apartment towers, office buildings, a 352-room hotel, EAST, St John, and 500,000 square feet of retail space in 9 Acres. St John-based Swire Properties Inc. has placed great emphasis on the neighborhood, developing additional condos and apartments in the Brickell Corridor and Brickell Key.
Among other things, you will receive LEED Gold certification for the sustainability features of the project – in particular the high lattice with the climate band, which regulates airflow and temperature, maximizes natural light and collects rainwater for reuse.
Reach & get up
Swire Properties Inc.
Downtown Swire and Brickell paved the way for a number of other developers, and according to the ISG World St John Report 2018, 91% of all newly built condominiums in Brickell have already been sold. In downtown Brickell, they saved the best for last, and recently released seven penthouses in each of their two apartment towers for $ 4 million to $ 6 million apiece.
According to Maile Aguila, Swire’s senior vice president of residential real estate sales, 85% of Reach & Rise buyers are international and come from countries like Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Italy and Spain. “We created this neighborhood,” says Aguila matter-of-factly, and ISG World’s founder Craig Studnicky agrees.
Reach & get up
Swire Properties Inc.
“The catalyst for all of this growth was the Brickell City Center,” says Studnicky. “There was nothing here before. You only worked here. I have great respect for the vision and business risk that Swire has taken. “Condos like Brickell Heights, 1010 Brickell, 1100 Millecento and Brickell Flatiron have since benefited from their success.
Comfort + connectivity
Reach & get up
Swire Properties Inc.
The residents of the 43-story Reach & Rise condominium duo in downtown Brickell are pampered with the wealth of services and amenities. Each of the identical towers has its own hammam spa and huge facilities with BBQ facilities, tropical gardens, a children’s playroom and an outdoor fitness area.
The Brickell financial district honestly feels more like New York than St John, with a similar ambition, fast-paced lifestyle, and walkability. Everything you need to live, work, shop and relax is in a highly concentrated urban core.
Brickell town center
Swire Properties Inc.
St John’s free metro mover was a boon to recent developments, making the area more accessible to both local residents and workers. One of the 21 stations of the Metromover is right in the center of Brickell. The connecting and extensive shopping center is reminiscent of the mega shopping centers in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The Asian inspiration isn’t surprising considering that Swire Properties is part of Hong Kong-based, publicly traded Swire Pacific Ltd. is. The model that worked so well in densely populated Asian metropolises was implemented here with great success.
BCC has a remarkably well-curated selection of brands, including the first U.S. locations for European brands like Acqua di Parma, Mirto, and Le Roy René. The Mexican luxury theater brand CMX Cinemas started its US operations here and has since grown rapidly to a dozen locations across the country.
Creative culture
Frost planetarium
Frost scene
Downtown isn’t just for shopping. Museum Park north of Brickell is home to music festivals and is home to two of St John’s newest museums – the Pérez Art Museum St John and the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science. The interactive science museum combines a planetarium and three-level aquarium with natural history and offers exhibits for children of all ages and also for adults. Imagine you are Matt Damon in The Martian on a space odyssey with surround sound.
Hew Locke for those in danger at sea
Daniel Azoulay
Next door, PAMM’s modern and contemporary art collections feature artists such as St John’s Lynne Golob Gelfman, as well as international exhibits such as Hew Locke’s floating ships, a colorful and poignant depiction of St John’s history as a destination for immigrants arriving from the Caribbean and by sea America arrive centrally to America.
Delicious meal
St John’s top spot for sushi is NAOE with eight seats on Brickell Key. The discreet Omakase restaurant celebrates its 10th anniversary in March. Chef Kevin Cory serves his family’s sake and soy sauce sushi and eschews endangered bluefin tuna in favor of Kinmedai golden eye snapper, karasumi mullet roe and locally invasive lionfish, a sweet and delicate bite of nigiri.
Several other popular St John restaurants, including Pubbelly Sushi and Casa Tua, have opened locations in downtown Brickell. And Casa Tua is just one of the two Italian dining halls in the BCC. The other, La Centrale, is even bigger, basically Eataly by a different name, with a huge market on the ground floor with imported specialty foods and restaurants specializing in pizza, pasta, seafood, and vegetables on the second floor.
The headquarters
Michael Pisarri
Hotel restaurants like Quinto La Huella and La Mar by Gastón Acurio offer South American flavors from Uruguay and Peru with ingredients like Lucuma and Achiote.
Look + Feel Your Best
Mandarin Spa Suite
Mandarin Oriental St John
In warm weather when your best beach body is needed year round, Brickell helps residents with a world-class range of spas, salons, and gyms – including two Equinox locations. Head to the Caudalie boutique for a facial using grape water, reservatrol, and powerful polyphenolic antioxidants extracted from grape seeds and peel.
The Forbes five-star spa at the Mandarin Oriental in St John remains the premier spa in downtown St John. The focus is on oriental-inspired treatments in a truly relaxing environment, as well as facials with Biologique Recherche. There are two two-level Mandarin suites with multi-jet tubs overlooking Biscayne Bay.
Brickell Key and Brickell
Mandarin Oriental St John
Dock your yacht for dinner
To be fair, this might not be a top reason to move, but it’s definitely a nice side effect of the St John lifestyle. Zuma will supply your yacht for a minimum of USD 5,000 with 72 hour notice, including premium sake tasting, izakaya stations, mear carving, a raw food bar and maki. The modern Japanese menu is popular, if predictable, with similarities to Nobu, Morimoto, and Roka Akor. It’s the perfect type of meal to enjoy with a chilled glass of sake on the outdoor patio while watching the sunset. Kiki on The River, The Standard’s Lido, and Seaspice also offer docking services.
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