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Miami taps into earth-friendly side with city's greenest tower

A 1.5 million-square-foot office-hotel-condo complex under construction in Miami's financial district will combine eco-friendly materials with luxury amenities to create one of the city's most desirable mixed-use projects. And it will be the most ecologically friendly.

Brickell Financial Centre is one of the first new significant office projects in Miami's downtown since 2000 and the only high-rise in South Florida pre-certified under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system.

The industry's de facto standard has four levels: certified, silver, gold and platinum. Only 42 projects, out of the 900 the council has certified since 2000, have achieved platinum status. Most buildings have housed government agencies, nonprofits or universities, but the trade group says a growing number will be corporate headquarters. The council currently has 13,000 projects waiting for certification.

Foram Group CEO Loretta Cockrum is a pioneer in the South Florida green building boom, and the firm's Brickell project is high on her list of achievements. Cockrum, who started her real estate career in the 1970s managing farmland, has built Foram into a $500 million-plus asset firm, with buildings in Jacksonville, Boca Raton and Miami.

One of the first green luxury apartment projects in the U.S. to receive the council's official nod also comes from the Miami-based asset management and real estate firm. Their 334-unit multi-family development in Gainesville will be ready for occupancy in May. In 2006, the Green Building Council pre-approved the developer's energy conservation systems of the tower's shell and core at the "certified" level, the minimum level of LEED designation.

Foram's $300 million project at 680 Brickell Avenue is only three steps away from attaining the council's higher rating, an LEED gold, which would make it the largest green commercial office project in Florida when it is completed in 2010.

The $245 million Phase I, which broke ground in April, includes a 40-story glass tower with 600,000 square feet of Class A office space, plus a lobby, parking garage, and ground-level restaurants and retail.

Foram is in the process of obtaining a construction loan for the second half of the project. Cockrum did not disclose the loan terms or say how much the company wanted to borrow.

Cockrum expects office rents to fetch somewhere in the high $40 per square foot range when the first tower opens in 2010.

Foram will start the second tower in 2009. When it is finished in 2012, the 68-story tower will include 134 condo units, office space, ground-level retail and a 300-room luxury hotel.

A 30,000-square-foot landscaped public plaza located between Sixth and Seventh Streets on the west side of Brickell Avenue will anchor the Brickell towers.

Inspired by New York City's Rockefeller Center and its landmark plaza, Cockrum said she envisioned a similar plan for Brickell. The plaza would be the center's signature stamp as well as a draw for the local community.

"The plaza will become the business district's social epicenter," said Cockrum. "It can accommodate cultural and arts shows and other public events. There is nothing like the plaza anywhere in Miami."

Boston-based Sasaki Associates, the firm charged with designing Disneyland Paris and the 2008 Beijing Olympic campus, designed the plaza to include a park, garden and three restaurants.

Brickell Financial Centre is not the only darling project making green headlines in Miami's downtown these days. Two companies also in the running for the top environmental spot: The Rilea Group is planning a 588,000-square-foot, 35-story tower at 1450 Brickell Avenue, and MDM Group has proposed building a 712,000-squarefoot, 47-story tower called Met 2 at 200 SE Third Street.

Both developers have said their projects would be finished by fall of 2009.

Green building is relatively new to Miami, compared to Silicon Valley in California, Portland, Ore., and Austin, Texas, partly because local government doesn't offer incentives for going green, like tax rebates.

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who encouraged Cockrum to pursue LEED gold over a Silver certification, wants developers to put more of an emphasis on sustainability and environmentally sensible practices.