The developer of Brickell Financial Centre topped off today on the construction of the Class A office tower.

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and Foram Group CEO Loretta Cockrum hosted a ceremony at the 680 Brickell Ave. construction site to mark the significant step in the race to be the first of Brickell's three major office developments to reach the finish line. Brickell Financial Centre, 1450 Brickell and Met 2 are all under construction and will add more than 1.2 million square feet of office space to the market upon completion.

General contractor John Moriarty & Associates finished the shell of the 40-story building this week. The tower, which includes 600,000 square feet of office and ground-floor retail space and a 30,000-square-foot landscaped plaza, is on target for a second quarter of 2010 completion, Cockrum said.

Foram Group did not obtain financing for the $245 million first phase. The company used its own cash to fund the project.

"In a market like this you can speed up or slow down" construction, Cockrum said. "That's the beauty of being around in this point and time. I wish the other two buildings can finish so everyone can fully appreciate the difference in quality."

A green tree was bolted to a piece of steel signed by workers during the topping off ceremony to celebrate no deaths and limited injuries during the first phase of construction.

Already precertified for silver Leadership and Energy and Environmental Design (or LEED), Foram Group has enough points to qualify for gold pre-certification, Cockrum said. The application has been sent to the U.S. Green Building Council for review.

Helping put the project in position for a bump in LEED certification was a device implemented by the builders that recycles condensation and uses it to cool the tower, she said.

"Our engineers calculated that we will save 1.3 million gallons of water each year," Cockrum said. "That's equivalent to 1,300 swimming pools."

The office tower is 15 percent pre-leased, with law firm Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod signed on for 10 years and 115,000 square feet. The firm will move into the building in January 2011.

Foram Group plans to wait out the struggling economy and real estate market to decide whether to move forward with the Centre's second phase, a 68-story tower with office, retail, a hotel and residential space.

Eric Kaiis can be reached at (305) 347-6651.
Brickell Financial Centre photo by A.M. Holt

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