Jpmorgan Chase Leaving One Biscayne For 1450 Brickell

Written by Yudislaidy Fernandez on July 22, 2010

By Yudislaidy Fernandez
JPMorgan Chase is leaving its home at One Biscayne Tower in downtown Miami to expand into the newly-built office building 1450 Brickell.

Chase doesn’t plan to renew its 29,000-square-foot lease when it ends in late 2011 because it is moving to 1450 Brickell to occupy about 50,000 square feet, said Brian Gale, One Biscayne Tower’s leasing agent.

Rival office building Met 2 recently inked a deal with another banking giant, Wells Fargo & Co., to fill four floors and take the building’s naming rights to become Wells Fargo Center.

Tere Blanca, 1450 Brickell’s leasing director, couldn’t confirm on Tuesday if the tenant was coming aboard.

The global financial institution, which bought Washington Mutual and rebranded it as Chase, wasn’t ready to make an announcement to the media yet, said Daisy Cabrera, JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman.

Chase acquired Washington Mutual in late 2008 after the federal government seized it in the largest bank failure in the nation’s history.

But Ms. Blanca did say in an earlier interview this week that the 582,817-square-foot office tower has several new leases in the pipeline and an announcement is planned in coming weeks.

These new deals would bring the building above 50% leased, she noted.

So far, the 35-story office tower has 12 announced tenants that have filled 200,000 square feet.

They include law firm Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod, taking 80,000 square feet; private investment firm H.I.G. Capital, 38,661 square feet; Kempler Energy, a trading company specializing in energy supply and distribution, 7,571 square feet; Spanish bank Bancaja, 7,457 square feet; and law firm Ratzan & Rubio, 6,303 square feet.

An undisclosed tenant has also leased 36,559 square feet, but 1450 Brickell hasn’t confirmed its name, citing a confidentiality agreement signed with the tenant. Local office brokers have said that it is City National Bank.

At the 1974-built office tower at 2 S Biscayne Blvd., Chase occupies 29,000 square feet that spread over the 22nd floor and a small portion of the 23rd.

Mr. Gale, managing director of Taylor & Mathis, says he isn’t too concerned about getting the space leased.

"I’ve got a year and a half before they move out," he said.

Currently, the 691,783-square-foot office tower is 93% occupied, he noted. With Chase’s exit, the building would lose about 4.5% of its occupancy to 88.5%.

"There’re enough tenants running around," he said, "that hopefully we can get one to lease the entire floor."