Banco Santander, which is replacing its aged office building at 1401 Brickell Ave. with a new 40-story tower, plans to create 250 new jobs there to house its investment banking regional headquarters and brokerage operations.
Miami-Dade commissioners this week are being asked to approve $5 million from the Targeted Jobs Incentive Fund program as an incentive for the bank to create the jobs here rather than in either the Dallas or Houston areas, which the bank told economic development organization the Beacon Council were alternative candidates for the global Spanish bank’s regional headquarters.
The 250 new jobs are to have average annual salaries of $115,000 plus additional benefits of $25,000 apiece. The real estate investment in the site is $290 million, the Beacon Council told the county. The bank would maintain its 702 existing jobs here.
The bank would create the jobs over a five-year period, longer than the standard three years for the targeted jobs incentives. No incentives are paid until the jobs are created.
Part of Santander’s plan is to increase its overall operations here by consolidating its various domestic business segments and their supporting functions.
The new building will add 315,000 square feet to Santander’s present local space use, its application for funding says.
Unlike most applications for the county’s job incentives, Banco Santander did not request confidentiality in its funding request. If incentives are approved, the bank expects to create 50 jobs a year from 2026 through 2030.
The new office tower will combine prime office space, terraces, integrated gardens, five floors of restaurants and retail, and over 1,500 parking spaces, the bank’s application states. It expects to lease the office floors it doesn’t occupy in the building.
Design enhancements are to include a water recycling plant and a solar panel ledge.
When the bank sought City of Miami approval for the building, it listed exclusive tenant amenities including a private club, meeting facilities and fitness facilities.
Services and Promotions Miami LLC plans to build the office building, Santander Tower. The tower will have just under 1.5 million square feet of floor area and be home to 612,918 square feet of offices, 107,953 square feet of food and beverage space, a multi-level urban club atop the podium, and 1,496 parking spaces.
Miami’s Urban Development Review Board recommended approval last year with one condition: for the developer to revisit the landscaping plan for the plaza and replace palm trees with shade trees.
Handel Architects of New York is the architect.
Ines Marrero-Priegues, an attorney representing the owner-developer, told the city the new tower has outstanding design and architecture that will transform the skyline of Brickell Avenue as well as the ground level pedestrian experience of that segment of that prestigious boulevard.
She wrote, “The proposed building will rise 40 stories with a signature round tower with exoskeleton structural support construction.”
The 2.02 acres was occupied by a 14-story building and a detached six-level garage built in 1973. It occupies the entire frontage along the east side of Brickell Avenue, between Southeast 14th Terrace and Southeast14th Street. The site is flanked by the Four Seasons Millenium Tower to the south and the Brickell Arch office/ hotel tower to the north.
Gary Handel, founder and managing partner of Handel Architects, cited details of the tower that will offer outdoor social and fitness spaces, and have a water feature at the entrance. The building will be a rounded triangle with an exoskeleton frame, and every floor will be landscaped.
“The goal is to be one of the most sustainable buildings in the world,” he told the city’s Urban Development Review Board. Each floor promotes indoor and outdoor working space, and all have access to terraces, he said.
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