The Covid-19 pandemic, among many other factors discussed in this report, have propelled a mass corporate migration to Miami-Dade County. Companies and people alike have been enticed to the County’s low tax policies, looser Covid restrictions, economic incentives, and lower overall real estate costs.  

Over the past year, momentum has been building and a clustering of technology, financial, and wealth management companies has taken formation creating one of the largest emerging fin-tech hubs in the nation. You can read more about this formation in our Q1 2021 Miami-Dade County Office Market Report.  

Explore Downtown Miami’s office and luxury residential market in part five of this six-part series.  

Downtown Miami Office Market Overview 

Downtown Miami is one of the largest and most prominent office submarkets within Miami-Dade County with a high concentration of public sector employment and professional services.  

Public organizations with main offices in Downtown include the Beacon Council, the Downtown Development Authority, Miami-Dade County Government, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools. There are also many large private companies occupying significant space here including law firms such as Greenberg Traurig, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, Shutts & Bowen, as well as major national banks such as Citibank and Wells Fargo.  

As investments in Downtown Miami’s infrastructure evolved, the submarket has become home to a growing number of firms. Most recently, at the outset of 2021, Blackstone signed a 41.3K square foot lease at 2MiamiCentral, immediately next to the train station. The global investment giant plans to create a hub for its technology division and hire more than 200 tech-focused employees. Announcements like these, combined with enticing business and economic incentives, favorable tax laws, and quality of life are attracting more and more companies to relocate to Downtown.  

Of the four markets in this report, Downtown offers the lowest rental rate at $50.35 per square foot. Nonetheless, Downtown Miami also saw significant growth over the past year, an increase of 8.2% over Q1 2020. Learn more in our Q1 2021 Miami CBD (Brickell and Downtown Miami) Office Submarket Report. 

Downtown Miami Residential Market Overview 

Downtown Miami has seen an uptick in sales volumes in the first quarter of 2021, however, the high inventory of condo listings is increasing the days on the market. In the $1 to $3 million price range in Q1 2021, there were 10 sales transactions compared to 3 transactions in Q1 2020. Meanwhile, the number of days a listing remains on the market increased by 39% to an average of 154 days. 

Downtown Miami saw the greatest increases in average sales price and sales price per square foot in the $1 to $3 million sales price range. In fact, the average sales price soared 45% to $1.72 million in Q1 2021 year-over-year. Meanwhile, sales prices per square foot increased 13 percent to $615.  

When comparing the Q1 2021 sales in the $3 to $5 million price range to the average sales in 2020 (there were no sales in Q1 2020), there was an increase of 4% in price per square foot and 10% increase in total sales price. 

TRENDS

• There were three sales above the $5 million threshold in Q1 2021, with only 36 days on the market.  
• Sales in the $1 to $3 million and $3 to $5 million ranges have DOM’s of 154 days and 161 days respectively. 
• Downtown Miami had the highest increases in sales price among the markets reviewed in this report at 45% for the $1 to $3 million price range. 

Download the full report here.  

Also read: Part One: Overview | Part Two: Miami Beach | Part Three: Coconut Grove | Part Four: Brickell | Part Six: Conclusion