MIAMI-Despite 600 Brickell making its debut just down the street, the 1450 Brickell office tower is continuing its leasing momentum in the fourth quarter. The class A office building in Miami’s Financial District just inked another 23,000 square feet of office space.

BBVA Compass, a subsidiary of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Gentrust Wealth Management and Forrestal Capital Limited are the tower’s newest tenants. That brings 1450 Brickell’s occupancy up to 73% with 36 tenants. Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

Tere Blanca and Danet Linares of Blanca Commercial Real Estate represented landlord 1450 Brickell and its owner, Rilea Group, in the deals. Kim Colquitt of Jones Lang LaSalle represented BBVA Compass. Mark Goldstein of Continental Real Estate Cos. represented Forrestal Capital and Oscar Arellano of Fortune International represented Gentrust Wealth Management.

“We also have other new-to-market transactions in the pipeline, in addition to the close to 80,000 square feet of leases we have signed for new activity,” Blanca, president and CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, tells GlobeSt.com. “It’s a great indication that Miami continues to be a very attractive market for any global entity that wants to capture the growth of Latin America and the Miami community.”

Linares, executive vice president of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, tells GlobeSt.com 1450 Brickell will be 80% occupied soon—this after only 20 months on the market during an economic meltdown. She’s expecting the tower to continue attracting international companies in 2012.

“Miami International Airport is second in international passengers behind JFK and JFK has been stagnant while MIA has been gaining momentum,” Linares says. “Hopefully soon we will surpass JFK as our tenant roster continues drawing premium firms from around the world.”

Beyond the Latin American draw, Downtown Miami is also on the cusp of another trend that could see more financial services firms establish corporate offices in the urban core. Miami is becoming a re-insurance capital.

“Not too many years ago we were talking about the emergence of Miami as the international banking capital, only second to New York," Blanca says. “Now we are seeing a tremendous opportunity for the re-insurance industry to establish a presence and growth here in Miami and that’s fueling quite a bit activity in the office leasing market.”