(Crystal Proenza is associate editor of Real Estate Florida.)
MIAMI, FL-It has been speculated since earlier this year that international law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP was looking to leave its current 160,000 sf at 1221 Brickell when that lease expires in 2010. Now the firm has officially announced its future move to Met 2, a 700,000-sf, 47-story speculative office tower under construction on SE Second Avenue.
Greenberg has signed a lease to occupy 150,000 sf by fall 2010, says Jack Lowell, managing director of Flagler Real Estate Services/Oncor International, which handled the transaction on behalf of Met 2 owner MDM Development. Greenberg represented itself in the deal. Daily Business Review, a Miami-based newspaper related to GlobeSt.com, reports that a spokeswoman revealed that the 15-year lease was in the "mid to high $40s per sf."
Greenberg was an original tenant at 1221 Brickell when the 27-story building opened in 1986 and currently has 30 locations throughout the US, Europe and Asia, with approximately 180 employees in Downtown Miami. The move from the Brickell area is an indication of the resurgence of Miami's core CBD, Lowell tells GlobeSt.com, and points to the fact that the company is returning to its original location.
"We are particularly excited at being able to return to our roots at the urban core of the City of Miami," said Greenberg Traurig president Matthew Gorson, a former board member of Miami's Downtown Development Authority, in a news release. "We were leaders when we were one of the first legal offices to move to the Brickell Avenue corridor. We are doing the same as we move back to the center of Downtown Miami and take a role in the further development of this dynamic community as the center for residential, commercial and cultural life."
The newly signed lease represents the second in the competition between three new class A office towers coming online in 2010. In April GlobeSt.com reported Brickell Financial Centre was the first of the three buildings under construction in the Downtown Miami/Brickell market to land a major tenant, Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP, in a deal valued at $58 million. Rilea Group's 1450 Brickell has yet to announce leases.
"I think this lease gives Met 2 tremendous momentum and validates the location for major local tenants," Lowell says. Met 2, the office component of the $1-billion mixed-use Metropolitan Miami development, will seek silver certification under the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, which executives emphasize was an important factor in Greenberg Traurig's decision.
"We are absolutely delighted to have inked an agreement with such a prestigious tenant for Met 2," adds Tim Weller, vice president of MDM Development. "An organization of magnitude like Greenberg Traurig mirrors the importance of Metropolitan Miami and consolidates Met 2 as the future leading financial address in Miami."
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