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Week of May 18, 2006 |
| Developer gets Brickell Park easement for Icon sales center By Deserae del CampoMiami commissioners last week approved a temporary easement of 12,560 square feet of city-owned property in Brickell Park for developers of Icon Brickell at 501 Brickell Ave. The Related Group requested the temporary easement to house its sales office as it begins to build the third tower of the project on the site of the former Sheraton Biscayne Bay hotel. The three-tower project is to have 1,705 condo units, 95 hotel rooms, 25,000 square feet of retail space and 2,085 parking spaces. According to city planning records, the cost to build Icon Brickell is estimated at $1.2 billion. The Related Group bought the 598-room hotel in December 2004 for $94 million. Letters from the Brickell Homeowners Association and the Brickell Area Association were submitted to the city backing the easement, said Lori Billberry, Miami's director of public facilities. "The sales office would be in the way of them constructing the third tower," said Gloria Konsler, executive administrator for the Brickell Area Association. "In exchange for the easement, developers would be out of that space a year earlier than they expected. One reason we are in favor of the easement is that the land will be back to normal and usable by the public one year sooner." The original agreement, filed in November, had the Related Group on the land for five years with construction ending in 2010. But with the easement, the developer should be out of Brickell Park by 2009. "This is not a gift to them," said Tory "Sinclair" Jacobs, president of the Brickell Homeowners Association. "It does make it easier for them to do their construction. Part of the deal with Icon is they are going to leave the park beautifully landscaped and manicured once they are done." A member of the Brickell Area Association, Ms. Konsler said, will sit on a commission overseeing a redesign of the park once construction is completed.
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