Valentino and Chopard Commit to Brickell City Center

Brickell City Center has cemented itself as yet another luxury shopping destination in Miami with the signing of Saks Fifth Avenue, Valentino, and Chopard for the new $1.05 billion downtown mega-project. The announcement will presumably be the first of many high-end retailers flocking to the project. The entire first floor has been earmarked for just such shops, with other premier brands and home decor occupying the second and third floors, with an underground parking garage.

The project will be anchored by a soaring East Hotel and developed by Swire Properties. The retail co-developers are the Whitman Family (as in the owners of Bal Harbour) and Simon Property Group, so expect some big names coming in. Debora Overholt, the senior retail director for Swire Properties says this about the projects commitment to having very diverse roster of shops to choose from. “Swire [is committed] to offering an unprecedented mix of both well-established contemporary brands and emerging designers, many of which are unveiling their first outpost in the U.S.” First U.S. stores? Say no more.

Food and entertainments options that are definite gos include Quinto La Huella restaurant and rooftop bar, Sugar at EAST Miami Hotel, and a fancy Cinemex dine-in movie theater. Brickell City Cente has residential condominium towers and two Class A office towers as well, one of which has been taken almost in its entirety by international law firm Akerman.

Big as the project is, is is LEED-registered for Neighborhood Development, and will feature something called the “Climate Ribbon,” an environmental art installation composed of steel, fabric and a continuous surface of glass that will connect all components of the development and create a comfortable microclimate for shoppers. We can’t wait to see—or feel—this one in action.

We have no doubts that the opening of Brickell City Center will cement downtown as total destination with shopping and theaters. The hotel, condo and office section will be set to open at the end of 2015, with the retail side ready to go in the fall of 2016.