Miami administration building at Freedom Park wins OK

The City of Miami’s latest design for its new government administration building, as part of the rising Miami Freedom Park, has earned praise and a recommendation for approval.

The proposed facility is eight stories with government offices spread out over 235,000 square feet, with an attached parking garage for up to 903 vehicles, at a site at 1822 NW 37th Ave.

The new city building will be part of Miami Freedom Park, a 130-acre mixed-use development that will be home to a professional soccer team’s new stadium, on city-owned land next to Miami International Airport.

The city’s Urban Development Review Board heard a presentation of latest plans for the office building and voted unanimously to recommend approval, after commending the design team’s work.

The new building is designed by architectural firm Arquitectonica.

Miami Freedom Park will become home for David Beckham’s Inter Miami CF soccer team.

The Miami City Commission approved leasing the former Melreese Golf Course property to Miami Freedom Park LLC for the soccer stadium, commercial park, hotel, public park and a series of soccer fields.

The private company is composed of Mr. Beckham and his business partners Jorge Mas and Jose Mas.

In 2022, the city commission authorized the city to negotiate an agreement with Lancelot Miami River LLC, an Adler Group affiliate, to develop a new city administrative building at the Melreese site. It is intended to replace the city’s longtime office building on the Miami River known as Miami Riverside Center.

Lancelot has a deal with the city to develop a large private mixed-use development on the city’s riverfront site and adjoining land Adler owns. The deal requires Adler-Lancelot to construct the new city office building.

Miami Freedom Park is approved under the city’s Miami 21 zoning as a Special Area Plan or SAP, a designation encouraging large mixed uses.

The SAP area is generally bounded on the north by Tamiami Canal, the east by Northwest 37th Avenue, and to the south and west by Jorge Mas Canosa Park.

Because it is near the airport, the height of the proposed office building is restricted to about 125 feet, and the latest plans show the new building rising 124 feet.

There is some rooftop parking and the mechanical equipment will be on the roof area.

The City of Miami is the applicant seeking approval for the building.

Andrew Frey, director of the city’s Department of Real Estate and Asset Management or DREAM, appeared before the review board to introduce the agenda item and the design team.

Mr. Frey told the board it is his department overseeing the project, along with cooperation and work from several other city departments, the Adler Group, and the architect.

“We’re very excited for this project as a city,” said Mr. Frey.

This is the first time in the city’s history that it is designing and building a new government office complex, he said. Miami Riverside Center is in a building formerly owned by Florida Power & Light. Miami City Hall is inside the former seaplane terminal for Pan American Airways.

“We’ve never actually built an administration building for ourselves. So, we have the chance to do that now, for the first time in our 100-year history,” he said.

One of the goals is for the city’s new building to better serve the public, residents and businesses, he said, along with city workers and officials, with a theme of public accessibility and being friendly to users, “with an architecture that really, I think, expresses civic pride, and where the City of Miami is today and going into the future,” said Mr. Frey.

Alejandro Gonzalez of Arquitectonica offered details.

He said the building’s design is quite straightforward and simple, encouraging interaction between the people in the building and the public, and a new adjacent 58-acre public park.

Board member Anthony Tzamtzis asked what type of offices the building will house.

Mr. Gonzalez said, “The intention is that all the city functions that are currently in (Miami Riverside Center) and in City Hall will be moving to this building.”

Mr. Tzamtzis said, “It’s a very exciting building. I commend you for the design. I like the vertical brise-soleils; shading devices that you’ve inserted at different spaces that make the façade very interesting … very nice building.”

Board member Agustin Barrera said, “Great presentation. As an architect, I love the project. I love the scale. I love how it steps back from that residential community. I’d also like to have my offices here.”

But he said, as a former elected official, he’d have a hard time approving the funding for a new building like this in a city where the residents and the government are struggling financially.

“Other than that, I commend you on the design of the architecture and I will support it,” he said.

Board Chair Ignacio Permuy said he wanted to commend the design team on a beautiful project.

He suggested a subtle change to enhance the entry to the next-door park, and he asked the city to consider not using the city’s official emblem-logo as a component of that size. The current plan shows the emblem of a palm tree silhouette on a blue background shield of about 20 feet.

“The architecture doesn’t need a logo of the size proposed. The building speaks for itself. In my opinion, I think it’s an overkill and it takes away from the beautiful design,” said Mr. Permuy.

He said he does like a planned “MIAMI” sign on the base of the building, as shown in a couple of renderings.
Mr. Permuy also suggested some type of covering be used to shield the vehicles parking on the rooftop.