The future of Miami, long promised, is finally here. And like the angular new tower jabbing at the clouds over Brickell Avenue, it looks taller, bigger, bolder than anyone imagined.
Call it Miami Manhattan. Clusters of residential towers of 30, 40, even 70 stories are coming out of the ground in and around downtown. They are rising cheek by jowl along Brickell and in the Omni/Edgewater district, and beyond to the Miami River and Coral Way, filling in the city's snaggle-toothed skyline. Many more are on the way.
A city report detailing projects recently completed, under way or proposed from Brickell to Edgewater runs 100 pages. Among them: paired condominiums at the mouth of the Miami River; a tower of loft apartments in the downtrodden heart of downtown; an urban village of apartments and shops in Brickell; and, jutting up over Brickell like a colossal exclamation mark, the new Four Seasons tower, at 70 stories the tallest in Florida.
As it sweeps over the city, this tsunami of development seems bound to leave behind a bracingly different place -- a denser, livelier, more cosmopolitan Miami.
"I think we're in the midst of the most significant redevelopment boom in the history of the city," said Miami Commissioner Johnny Winton, in whose district some of the most intense building is taking place. "We could end up with one of the absolutely best cities anyone would want to live in, work in, play in."
But for that to happen, Winton acknowledged, the city must ramp up planning designed to ensure that the new development will bring life to streets and neighborhoods, not kill them.
The furious pace of development worries some residents and urban activists, who are skeptical of the city's ability to corral it, even with reformist Mayor Manny Diaz at the helm. The city has long been known for embracing developers and neglecting planning, critics note.
In areas like Edgewater, Brickell and downtown, generous zoning instituted decades ago permits sky-is-the-limit construction that many residents fear will result mostly in overdevelopment, greater congestion and walled-off water views.
"It takes a lot of sensitivity to revive a city," said Nancy Liebman, a preservationist and former Miami Beach commissioner who played a leading role in that city's revitalization, and is now president of the Urban Environment League. "I do have confidence the mayor has the sensitivity and he has good people working for him, but they have to begin to make the plans now before they have all kinds of mistakes.
"So far, we don't see any real plan. We see people doing development anywhere they want to do it."
The momentum appears unstoppable. Right now, about 17,000 condos, lofts and rental apartments are under construction or awaiting permits in a narrow bayfront corridor that runs between Southwest 15th Road in Brickell to 36th Street in the Edgewater district, where much of the available land has been snapped up. Developers, many from out of town, are scouting for more. There is feverish speculation as investors try to divine the next hot spot. Will it be Overtown? Park West? Wynwood?
Tall buildings are only the tip of a bigger redevelopment iceberg, says Winton -- an urban renaissance that extends to rehabs of homes and apartments in neighborhoods from Buena Vista and Wynwood to The Roads and Little Havana. "What is more significant is there are literally hundreds of investors crawling all over the city," Winton said. "There is redevelopment, home rehabs, new businesses coming in."
Unlike previous high-rise booms -- the 1920s boom that brought tall hotels to downtown Miami and the 1970s office-tower boom -- the bulk of new Miami projects are residential, although most also contain commercial space at ground level to generate pedestrian traffic.
Those buying and renting in the new high-rises are mostly middle-income locals, developers say, young professionals, downtown office workers, and empty-nesters looking to downsize. That is a sharp departure from the wealthy foreign and seasonal residents who once made up a sizable proportion of high-rise condo buyers along Brickell.
Demand fueled in part by suburbanites' weariness from lengthening commutes is such that no sooner do billboards go up than buildings are rented or sold out, developers say.
"The whole issue of traffic is No. 1," said Luis Ajamil, a partner in BAP, a firm with four mixed-use high-rises in Miami, including a pair in Brickell, under construction. "People are saying, `Enough of suburbia.' It's a dramatic paradigm shift. Maybe it's not for everybody. But certainly it's for the generation that's coming up.
"This is the way to go. Otherwise, there's not enough transit and roads we can build."