MIAMI-The 1450 Brickell Avenue Brickell building, which opened this spring with its temporary certificate of occupancy, is now 40% leased thanks to 26,045 square feet of new leases. With these additions, the building, which has 582,817 square feet, will have 226,000 feet leased.

The new tenants are Bank of New York Mellon, a financial services firm; Korn/Ferry International, an executive recruitment firm; BroadSpan Capital, an investment banking firm, and International Broking Solutions, a commercial re-insurance company.All the tenants in this group are scheduled to move in by year-end, except BroadSpan Capital. Korn/Ferry International will be relocating from the Wachovia Financial Center in the adjacent downtown area, and Bank New York Mellon will be relocating from the Sabadell Financial Center on Brickell.

The four new leases follow two of the largest leasing transactions in the area in the last year-- the Bilzin Sumberg law firm’s 80,000 square foot lease at 1450 Brickell and private investment firm HIG Capital’s 39,000-square foot lease at the building. And with another batch of leases to be announced within the next month, says Tere Blanca, president and CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, who represents the landlord, 1450 Brickell, LLC in the transactions,  "We are going to be over 50% leased in less than 30 days and 60% by year-end," she says.

The 1450 Brickell building has many attributes which are helpful given the fierce competition in the office market, especially the Brickell Avenue submarket. Some of those attributes it shares with its neighbors, such as its convenient and picturesque location: It is close to Biscayne Bay, is within walking distance of 30 retail businesses, restaurants and luxury hotels and is 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. The 1450 Brickell building received its Gold-LEED certification in the last two weeks and the building recently got its final certificate of occupancy, says Blanca.

Pointing to 1450 Brickell’s many technological and aesthetic attributes, Blanca says, “We aren’t going to match the economics of buildings built 20 years ago.”

The asking rents at 1450 Brickell are $40 to $50 per square foot with a tenant allowance of $55 to $60 per square foot. The parking ratio is two spaces per 1000 rentable square feet leased.

 A big driver for tenants, says Blanca, is that “at our location (which is 10 blocks south of the Brickell Avenue bridge over the Miami River) we don’t have to deal with the congestion of the bridge.” The bridge’s frequent openings has been a source of frustration for many drivers waiting for it to close so that vehicular traffic can proceed.  “ We have multiple ways to get in and out of this project-- by car or the Metro Mover-- so you are not really stuck,” says Blanca. And when the new trolley line begins service on Brickell, it will stop in front of the building, she says.