OKO Group, Cain Sign 60 KSF Tenant at Miami Tower

830 Brickell. Image courtesy of OKO Group and Cain International

After topping out the 55-story skyscraper last month, co-developers OKO Group and Cain International secured another tenant at 830 Brickell, a 640,000-square-foot office tower taking shape in Miami’s Brickell Financial District. Law firm Sidley Austin LLP inked a 60,000-square-foot lease and will occupy three floors at the 724-foot high-rise.

The Miami office will be the Chicago-based tenant’s first in The Magic City and the global firm’s 21st worldwide. The transaction marks the largest new-to-market lease signed in Miami’s urban core year-to-date. JLL negotiated on behalf of the tenant, while Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlord.

The developers broke ground on 830 Brickell—currently the largest office building under construction in Miami—in 2019, after securing a $300 million construction loan from MSD Capital. Building plans were adjusted once the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020 to include the latest health requirements for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems as well as contactless entry and exit technology.

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Ahead of its late-2022 completion, the office tower taking shape at 830 Brickell Plaza is already nearly 70 percent leased. The Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill-designed building will be home to Microsoft, which agreed to occupy 50,000 square feet of space for its Latin America regional team.

Other notable tenants include aircraft leasing company AerCap, which will relocate its headquarters to occupy the property’s entire 50th floor, and Canadian investment firm CI Financial, which increased its original lease to nearly 40,000 square feet. A-CAP, Thoma Bravo, Marsh Insurance and WeWork will also be on the roster.

Miami’s strong office market

As of June, the office vacancy rate in the Miami metro dropped 20 basis points month-over-month to 12.9 percent, according to CommercialEdge. The figure is well below the 15.2 percent national average and represents a 200-basis-point decrease year-over-year, marking one of the largest 12-month changes among U.S. markets. The metro was outpaced only by Phoenix (-240 basis points).

Amid amplified migration patterns, Miami is a clear winner. Among the companies seeking to relocate, the road led to Miami for health-care company Makana Therapeutics, commercial airline El Al, fintech company FundKite and hedge-fund firm Citadel.

Tenants seeking to relocate to The Magic City are mainly from New York, Chicago and San Francisco, Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chairman Brian Gale said in prepared remarks. Gale worked together with Ryan Holtzman and Andrew Trench in assisting the landlord, while Sidley was represented by JLL’s Jeff Gordon and Barbara Black.