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Old 07-26-2012, 08:06 AM
 
Location: Eastern Time
4,968 posts, read 10,149,344 times
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New Brickell project wants a low profile for cars - Business - MiamiHerald.com

How to build a three-block mall, office and condo complex without a garage next door? Put it underground.

BY DOUGLAS HANKS
DHANKS@MIAMIHERALD.COM
As Swire Properties sets out to build one of the boldest developments ever seen in downtown Miami, it hopes to keep one crucial element as low-profile as possible: automobiles.

The Hong Kong developer’s planned Brickell CitiCentre will spend millions of dollars freezing the soil beneath the three-block complex to hold back ground water while it installs a rare underground parking garage in Miami’s downtown. Swire took the unusual step of putting the restaurants for its mall on a top floor in part because that’s the same level as the adjoining station for Miami’s county-run Metromover.

Swire’s top U.S. executive told a business group Wednesday that the $1 billion CitiCentre was designed to thrive in a future where Miami residents are far less enamored with driving to work and play than they are now.

“We don’t think petrol will be $5 a gallon forever,” Stephen Owens, president of Swire Properties Inc., told a breakfast reception held by the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade’s economic-development group. “We’re living in a world of subsidized energy, and we don’t think it can last forever.”

The push to make CitiCentre more pedestrian friendly also meshes with Miami’s ambitions to become more of a 24-hour metropolis, where thriving shopping areas serve both offices and residences. The city’s Miami 21 zoning code now bans developers from building garages at sidewalk level, instead requiring restaurants and shops there to make streets seem more lively for pedestrians. And advocates for Miami’s downtown are pushing for more trees and sidewalk improvements to make the city’s retail offerings more inviting for riders of the city’s under-used MetroMover.

Read more here: New Brickell project wants a low profile for cars - Business - MiamiHerald.com
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Old 07-26-2012, 11:27 AM
 
3,848 posts, read 9,281,642 times
Reputation: 2023
Great news!

I just hope there are no environmental issues from freezing soil in an area that doesn't ever have frozen ground.
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Old 07-26-2012, 01:58 PM
 
Location: Miami/ Washington DC
4,836 posts, read 11,952,559 times
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This is going to be a great project for the area. Excited to see it come up.
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Old 07-26-2012, 03:06 PM
 
Location: Eastern Time
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Word is, they are not using the freezing technology for all of the underground project because it will be too expensive and time consuming (the soil will take a long time to freeze).
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Old 07-26-2012, 03:22 PM
 
31 posts, read 42,819 times
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Can't wait for this project to be complete, MIAMI is beautiful.
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Old 07-26-2012, 03:51 PM
 
650 posts, read 1,620,725 times
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Thank you
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Old 07-26-2012, 04:51 PM
 
245 posts, read 658,909 times
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From what I can tell only a portion will be underground. They have started, they have huge cooling units plugged into the ground and I have seen trucks with liquid nitrogen arriving. They have only started on a small corner and that has taken months to work on.......what has been very cool, is they have transplanted almost all the huge trees to other locations. They even relocated the shade structures from the Brickell Tennis Club out to the Mandarin on Brickell Key....
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Old 07-26-2012, 07:19 PM
 
31 posts, read 42,819 times
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Quote:
The Hong Kong developer’s planned Brickell CitiCentre will spend millions of dollars freezing the soil beneath the three-block complex to hold back ground water while it installs a rare underground parking garage in Miami’s downtown.
I just hope this isn't a big disaster waiting to happen......
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Old 07-26-2012, 08:36 PM
 
18,082 posts, read 18,681,854 times
Reputation: 25191
I like the idea, but the reasoning is wrong. People do not buy BMW's, Benz's, Audi's, and other over the price of a Fiesta car because they hate cars and dislike driving, Many in the US and in Miami love driving. If the place was so anti-car, there would not be so many higher priced cars running around, it would be some coutnries in Europe where they would buy the basic bones car to go from A to B.
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Old 07-26-2012, 10:18 PM
 
Location: Seattle, WA
2,975 posts, read 4,915,165 times
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I am glad to see a "low profile" for parking in this project as well as the re-design of the 8th st. Meteomover station. Way too much space in the urban core is dedicated exclusively to parking, and it really does take away from having a vibrant city center (at all hours-not just lunch time during the week and happy hour on weekends).

What I would actually like to see is a minimal amount of space for deliveries and pickup/dropoff and just valet parking, which can make use of the plentiful existing garage and surface parking space nearby (similar to South Beach). From a business standpoint, if you've got a critical mass of downtowners, transit riders, and tourists, you really don't need that much parking, and you can devote the space to more profitable use. Most suburbanites are going to stick to Dadeland, Dolphin, and Aventura anyways because of the hassle of getting downtown. Unfortunately, our zoning regulations would not allow this-a private business has no say in the matter.
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