A design house on a slender inland tower against Foster + Partners on the water. The desk at Miami Dossier says what each one is actually selling.
Written by the desk at Miami Dossier, which holds developer material on both buildings and represents neither, for readers who have narrowed it to these two. All comparisons.
These two get compared because both are brand-led towers in Brickell delivering in a similar window. They are almost opposites. One is a fashion house applied to a slender inland tower, the other is one of the most significant architecture practices in the world on a waterfront parcel, and the difference matters more over twenty years than any specification sheet does.
Both are in Brickell, both are tall, and both are being sold substantially on a name that a buyer already recognises from outside real estate.
In both cases the name is doing design work rather than operating work. Neither of these is a hospitality building with staff and service standards written into an operating agreement, and buyers should not assume otherwise because the lobby photographs like a hotel.
Position. 619 Brickell is on the water. 888 Brickell is inside the grid, which means the view is over the city and is contingent on the neighbouring parcels, in a neighbourhood where those parcels get built.
What the name means. Dolce & Gabbana is a design signature applied to interiors and specification, and it is a strong one. Foster + Partners is a practice whose buildings are studied, and whose residential work in the United States is limited enough that the scarcity is real. One is a look. The other is a building.
Plate shape. A slender tower on a small footprint produces efficient plates with light on multiple sides. That is a genuine advantage of 888 Brickell's form and it partly offsets the inland position, particularly on the higher floors.
Ask what you would tell someone in 2045. If the answer is that you live in a Foster building on the Brickell waterfront, that sentence holds. If the answer is that your interiors were done by Dolce & Gabbana, it holds differently and it depends more on the design remaining in favour.
Then ask about the view honestly. The desk at Miami Dossier will tell you what is entitled around 888 Brickell and what the line you are considering will actually look at once those parcels build. That conversation should happen before the plan conversation, not after.
Your situation is specific. Tell the desk in one message and we will say what applies to you, what does not, and who to speak with.
Your situation is specific. Tell the desk in one message and we will say what applies to you, what does not, and who to speak with.
Both carry a three-note series at Miami Dossier. What follows is the comparative read that the individual notes deliberately do not attempt.
619 Brickell by Nobu if architecture and waterfront position are what you want to own, and you are prepared to pay for the practice rather than for the finish level.
888 Brickell if the design register is genuinely the appeal, you want a high floor on an efficient plate, and you have accepted the inland position with your eyes open after seeing what is entitled around it.
Most of the people who bring this comparison to the desk at Miami Dossier are not only choosing between buildings. They are moving to Miami from New York, California, London, Bogotá, Mexico City or São Paulo, or adding a Miami position to a portfolio held elsewhere, and the building question sits inside a larger one: how to buy new construction here, how to hold it, and what changes when you do.
The desk keeps short notes on the parts that come up every week: how buying preconstruction in Miami actually works, what a normal deposit schedule looks like, whether you need to be in Miami to buy, whether a foreign buyer can get a mortgage, what taxes a foreign buyer pays on a Miami condo, what happens if a developer delivers late, and the Florida state income tax question. For buyers arriving from a specific market there are notes for Bogotá, Mexico City and London.
Read the ones that apply, then bring the rest to the desk at Miami Dossier. It usually takes one conversation to see which of these fits, or whether neither does.
This page is general information for people considering Miami, written by a real estate desk, not by a law or accounting firm. Nothing here is legal, tax, immigration or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own circumstances. Rules change, treaties differ by country, and the right answer for one family is the wrong answer for another.
Figures and building details are compiled from developer documents held by the desk at Miami Dossier and from public filings. They are approximate, subject to change, and anything material should be confirmed against the current developer release before you rely on it. Where the desk at Miami Dossier does not know something, the page says so.
Speak with your own attorney and CPA before you commit to anything. If you do not have one who works with international buyers in Florida, the desk is glad to recommend an attorney, a CPA or an adviser suited to your situation, and to sit in the first conversation so that nothing is lost in translation.
Structure, financing, currency, timing, the right building and the right line: the desk works through these questions with international buyers every week. What this page cannot do is know your position. Tell us the shape of it and we will say plainly which of these fits, which does not, and what we would want to see before anyone commits.