Cushman & Wakefield Arranges Sale of 801 Brickell Office Tower

MIAMI, October 06, 2023 – Cushman & Wakefield has arranged the sale of 801 Brickell, a 415,000-square-foot landmark trophy office tower at the center of Miami’s Brickell financial district.  

Dominic Montazemi, Mike Davis, Miguel Alcivar, Rick Brugge, and Rick Colon of Cushman & Wakefield along with Adam Spies, Marcella Fasulo, and Ben Lushing of Newmark and Stephen Rutchik and Tom Farmer of Colliers represented the seller, Nuveen Real Estate, in the transaction.

“801 Brickell is an exciting opportunity to acquire one of the top office properties in what is arguably the country’s best office market right now,” said Montazemi, Executive Managing Director at Cushman & Wakefield. “As Miami, and especially the Brickell submarket, continues to evolve and grow, 801 Brickell offers a myriad of opportunities for additional value creation, with the immediate upside of lease-up of the currently available shell and spec spaces."  

At 92% leased, 801 Brickell offers its blue-chip tenant roster a newly renovated lobby, state-of-the-art amenity floor with a fitness and conference center, and floor-to-ceiling windows with unobstructed views of Biscayne Bay. Prominently located at the main-and-main intersection of Brickell Avenue and SE 8th Street, the iconic SOM-designed tower offers immediate access to major transportation arteries and a plethora of residential options, public transit and world-class lifestyle amenities. All are within a short walking distance from the tower which is in the heart of Brickell’s live-work-play environment that has made it one of the nation’s top-performing office submarkets.  

“Since being acquired by Nuveen in 2002, 801 Brickell has maintained its preeminent position in the market. Through our proactive stewardship, we have strived to continually adapt to and thoughtfully elevate the tenant experience, transforming Brickell into one of the most dynamic urban office submarkets in the nation,” said Charles Russo, Senior Director, Head of Southeast – Workplace Sector at Nuveen, who is a tenant in the building.  

Russo added, “In 2017, Nuveen implemented a decentralization strategy, opening offices throughout the globe, including in Miami, to be closer to key market participants and portfolio investments to drive outperformance. Earlier this year, we relocated the Miami regional office to 801 Brickell. Since late 2018, in conjunction with the onsite Colliers leasing team, we have driven rental rates from the mid $50’s to $120 per square foot, renovated and repositioned the asset and demonstrated the outcomes possible with this boots-on-the-ground approach.” 

Among the many notable value enhancements at 801 Brickell was the creative activation of underutilized ground floor interior space into the award-winning Komodo Miami, a three-story indoor/ outdoor high-end Pan-Asian restaurant, which remains one of the top performing restaurants in the nation. 

Early in the pandemic, despite uncertainty around the future of office, Nuveen forged ahead with its major $30 million tenant-centered capital investment program at 801 Brickell, positioning the boutique building to capture local and new-to-market corporate flight to quality, and to leverage the extremely favorable office leasing dynamics in the Brickell submarket. This allowed them to establish record benchmark rental rates for best-in-class office. Twenty-five leases totaling 230,00 square feet have been executed by Nuveen since the pandemic, averaging an increase of 38% versus pre-pandemic rental rates and demonstrating the continued robust tenant demand for highly amenitized buildings, connected to sought-after locations for companies returning to the office. 

The buyer, Monarch Alternative Capital and Tourmaline Capital Partners, recognized the generational opportunity to acquire an institutionally owned and maintained trophy tower at the epicenter of Miami’s vibrant CBD with rental rate growth expected to continue in a more normalized capital markets environment.