Miami Commission Greenlights 62-Story Mixed-Use Tower at Edge of Brickell, Reshaping City's Western Skyline

Miami's Urban Development Review Board and the full City Commission voted 5-0 Thursday to approve a major mixed-use tower at 340 SW 2nd Avenue, a site that has sat vacant since a 2019 demolition cleared the last of the aging warehouse structures that once defined that stretch between Brickell and the Miami River. The project, filed by Coral Gables-based developer Solaris Group in partnership with New York equity firm Harken Capital, will top out at 62 floors and become the tallest building west of Brickell Avenue once completed.

The timing matters. Miami's core residential inventory is tightening faster than at almost any point since the post-pandemic construction surge of 2021 through 2023. Average asking rents in Brickell hit $3,850 per month for a one-bedroom in June, according to data from the Miami Association of Realtors, and the pipeline of permitted units ready to deliver in the next 18 months is roughly 40 percent below what planners projected two years ago. The approval arrives on a Fourth of July when brutal heat has cancelled outdoor celebrations across the Eastern Seaboard — a reminder, if anyone needed one, that interior, amenity-rich urban living is no longer a lifestyle choice in South Florida but something closer to a practical necessity.

What Gets Built, and Where

The tower footprint occupies a full city block bounded by SW 2nd Avenue, SW 3rd Avenue, SW 6th Street, and SW 7th Street — a location that sits roughly 600 feet from the northern bank of the Miami River and three blocks west of the Brickell City Centre complex on SE 8th Street. Solaris Group's approved plans include 890 residential units split between market-rate apartments on floors 12 through 55 and 134 workforce-designated units priced at 80 percent of area median income on floors 6 through 11. The ground floor and mezzanine are reserved for roughly 18,000 square feet of retail, with a publicly accessible riverwalk connector running along the building's southern edge to link up with the existing Miami Riverwalk segment near the José Martí Park boat ramp.

That riverwalk extension was the provision that moved several commissioners who had expressed reservations earlier in the year about building heights in the corridor. The Miami River Commission, which holds advisory standing on projects within 500 feet of the waterway, had originally raised concerns about pedestrian access and flood resilience. Solaris revised its drainage plans three times between January and May before receiving the River Commission's qualified endorsement at a June 18 meeting at City Hall.

Numbers Behind the Decision

Solaris is projecting a construction start in the second quarter of 2027, with delivery targeted for late 2030. The company has committed to using Miami-Dade County's Section 3 contracting requirements, which mandate that at least 25 percent of new hires on publicly assisted projects be local low-income residents. Total construction employment is estimated at 2,400 jobs over the build cycle, with the permanent building operations supporting around 180 full-time positions.

The city's own fiscal analysis, completed by the Office of Management and Budget in May, puts the annual property tax contribution from the finished development at approximately $9.2 million — roughly triple what the site generates now as a surface parking lot assessed at $4.1 million in total value. Miami-Dade's current affordable housing trust fund stands at just under $60 million, and a negotiated contribution of $3.5 million from Solaris will flow directly into that fund at the time of building permit issuance.

Neighboring property owners near the Mary Brickell Village retail strip and residents of the Axis condominium on SE 8th Street have 30 days to file any appeals with the city clerk's office before the approval becomes final. Assuming no successful legal challenge — and the project's attorneys note that zoning challenges to fully code-compliant approvals rarely succeed in Miami-Dade circuit court — Solaris expects to close on its construction financing by December. Buyers and renters interested in the market-rate units can register for priority notification through the developer's leasing office, which opens on Brickell Avenue in September.