MIAMI-It isn’t easy being green. Not when you are a 582,817-square foot LEED Gold office tower opening on Miami’s Brickell Avenue, the city’s financial district, at a time when the area’s office vacancy rate is nearly 20%. Still, the 1450 Brickell building, which received its temporary occupancy certificate recently, and where build-outs for new tenants are taking shape, the building’s owner, the Rilea Group, announced that as of mid-May, the building was 34% leased.

The 1450 Brickell building has many attributes which come in handy, given the fierce competition in the office market, especially the Brickell Avenue submarket. Some of those attributes it shares with its neighbors, such as a convenient and picturesque location: It is close to Biscayne Bay, within walking distance of 30 retail businesses, restaurants and luxury hotels and close to Miami’s Metro Mover.

The building has “above-code, large missile-impact glass from top to bottom, making its exterior curtain wall window system one of the nation’s strongest,” according to the building’s owner. It also has an “above-code” backup generator.

On Wednesday, the Rilea Group, announced that it had leased 200,000 square feet so far, 184,884 of which will be occupied by tenants, while the development and leasing staff will occupy the remainder of the space.

The largest lease, announced last September, is for the law firm Bilzin Sumberg, which is taking 80,000 square feet, a coup for 1450 Brickell. The firm now occupies 100,000 square feet at the Wachovia Financial Center, a 20-something-year-old skyscraper in downtown Miami, less than a mile to the north. The firm is planning to move in late this year.

In mid-May, HIG Capital, a private investment firm with offices in Atlanta, Boston, New York and San Francisco, signed a lease for 38,661 square feet. H.I.G. is currently located in the 1001 Brickell building a few blocks away.

A third tenant, which is taking 36,559 square feet, was described as undisclosed in the list of new tenants made available by the Rilea Group.

The Bilzin Sumberg and H.I.G. Capital transactions are among the largest office leases finalized in the Miami market over the last eight months, according to company information.

In addition to the leases mentioned above, there are a number of small leases which have been signed: Kempler Energy, which is taking 7,571 square feet, will be relocating from New York City; Bancaja, a Spanish financial company, is taking 7,457 square feet; the law firm Ratzan & Rubio, with 6,303 square feet, will be relocating from the Wachovia Financial Center; Agri Commodity Trade will occupy 5,054 square feet; global commodities trader Yntegra is taking 1,789 square feet, and Preston III will occupy 1,490 square feet.

Most of the leases announced by the Rilea Group are small, which is typical for Miami, which is not attracting large, corporate tenants from outside the area today.