Santander Bank is making its largest investment yet in Miami as the company officially begins work on a skyscraper that reaches 765 feet into the sky and will serve as the bank's new regional hub in the city’s financial district.
A ceremonial groundbreaking took place this week for 1401 Brickell following the demolition of an old 1970s-era office on the site that was Santander’s longtime Miami home. The new office tower is set to rise 50 stories — up from 41 stories in the original plans — encompassing 1.6 million square feet of office, mixed-use retail space, fitness and wellness facilities and a rooftop restaurant.
“This is our biggest, biggest bet in the U.S. real estate platform,” said Christiana Riley, Santander's U.S. CEO, in an interview with CoStar News at the ceremony. Upon completion in 2029, the tower will host about 650 of the bank's employees in addition to being a regional hub that manages "all of our operations across the U.S. as well as leveraging scale effects of other markets that we cover across Latin America,” Riley said.
Santander runs all of its private banking operations out of Miami, Riley told Costar News. The business encompasses about $60 billion in assets under management and has been growing at around 10% annually “for the past several years,” Riley added.
“We really see this shining tower as the center of our Latin American activity,” Riley added.
Dubbed "el faro," the Spanish word for lighthouse, by Banco Santander Executive Chairwoman Ana Botin, 1401 Brickell is the latest investment from the global bank in the United States. In February, the company, headquartered in Madrid, announced its acquisition of Stamford, Connecticut based-Webster Bank for $12.2 billion, making Santander “a much stronger commercial bank,” said Botin at the event.
Santander's employees are expected to occupy a portion of the office space at the new tower with the bank planning to lease out the rest of the space to future tenants. The team at Blanca CRE that is in charge of office leasing at the tower on behalf of Santander wasn't immediately available to comment on other tenants.
Plans for the tower include seven levels of amenities and a sky terrace restaurant with panoramic views of Brickell Avenue.
The office tower is only the second to begin construction in Miami's Brickell financial district in the last decade. While a number of developers announced speculative offices in the neighborhood during the height of the pandemic aiming to capture business relocations to the area, many have yet to materialize, and some have been canceled outright.
However, other parts of the city, particularly in the Wynwood arts district, have seen new offices open up. And Citadel, the $65 billion hedge fund led by Ken Griffin, continues to make progress on a new supertall office tower just two blocks from Santander's 1401 Brickell Ave. location. Overall, Miami's office pipeline totals 2.2 million square feet as of April, according to a CoStar report.
Development at 1401 Brickell is being coordinated by Rilea Group. The developer has built multiple high-end projects throughout South Florida, including 1450 Brickell, home to tenants that include JPMorgan Chase and HIG Capital.
Santander's new tower's design was led by Handel Architects and Bernardi & Peschard Arquitectura. Retail leasing is led by Vertical Real Estate.