Swire Breaks Ground on Mandarin Oriental Towers on Brickell Key After Selling More Than $1.7 Billion in Condos

Swire Properties has broken ground on The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Miami, a two-tower condominium and hotel project on Brickell Key that has already sold more than $1.7 billion in residences, the developer said. Construction began this month on the island at the mouth of the Miami River, six months after the original Mandarin Oriental hotel on the site was imploded, and the project is scheduled for completion in 2030.

Swire announced the groundbreaking on Oct. 1, 2026, and Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group marked the start of construction with a ceremonial event on Brickell Key and a release dated Oct. 6. The towers, designed by the architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox, will hold nearly 330 condominiums plus a hotel that Mandarin Oriental is positioning as its North American flagship.

What is being built

The project has two towers with different mixes of private residences and hotel product, according to Swire and Mandarin Oriental. The figures below are from the developer's announcements.

The Hotel Collection residences are turnkey units tied to the hotel. The North Tower reached its 25 percent mark after Swire opened a Signature Gallery sales center in May, the company said. Some reports list the North Tower at 34 stories. Fortune Development Sales is handling sales exclusively.

Swire, the Hong Kong-based developer behind Brickell Key and Brickell City Centre, describes the project as its largest luxury residential development to date and its first branded residential project anywhere in the world.

Record penthouse prices and a domestic buyer pool

The sales total includes more than $620 million in contracts signed in 2026, with more than $150 million of that during a three-month summer stretch, according to Swire. Earlier in the sales campaign, the developer had reported roughly $1.3 billion in total contracts, meaning about $400 million was added in the months leading up to the groundbreaking. Two crown penthouses in the South Tower went under contract to separate buyers for $49.9 million each, deals Swire announced in March 2026 as totaling nearly $100 million. Swire said the deals set records for mainland Miami condominiums, both for total price and price per square foot. The mainland distinction excludes Miami Beach and other barrier island markets, where some condo deals have run higher.

About 65 percent of buyers are domestic, Swire Properties President David Martin told Bloomberg News, with Florida, New York and California the main sources. That is a notable shift for Miami's top tier, where international buyers from Latin America and elsewhere have historically played a dominant role. Coverage of the project has pointed to finance and technology professionals relocating to South Florida as a driver of demand.

Swire is paying for construction itself rather than borrowing, according to reports on the Bloomberg interview, using proceeds from its sale of Brickell City Centre assets and a portion of buyer deposits. Florida law allows developers to use part of condo buyer deposits for construction costs when the funds are handled as the statute requires.

From hotel to construction site

The towers replace the 23-story Mandarin Oriental, Miami hotel, which opened about 25 years ago, overlooking Biscayne Bay. Demolition crews brought down the hotel and its adjacent six-story parking structure in a controlled implosion on Sunday, April 12, 2026 as residents and visitors watched from nearby.

Brickell Key, a man-made island connected to the Brickell neighborhood by a short bridge, is mostly residential, with a handful of condominium towers, a park walkway and limited commercial space. The new project will restore a Mandarin Oriental hotel to the island when it opens, while adding hundreds of high-end residences.

How it fits the Miami-Dade condo market

The project's sales pace contrasts with the broader Miami-Dade condo market, where inventory has piled up. Miami-Dade recorded 911 condo sales in August 2026, up 1 percent from 903 a year earlier, according to Miami Realtors. The median condo price slipped 0.49 percent to $408,000 from $410,000.

Condo inventory stood at 11,495 listings in August, down about 9 percent from a year earlier but still equal to 12.1 months of supply. Miami Realtors describes that level as a buyer's market. Older buildings have been weighed down by rising association fees and special assessments tied to Florida's post-Surfside safety laws, which require structural inspections and fully funded reserves.

The luxury end looks very different. Miami-Dade recorded 194 home sales of $10 million or more through August 2026, already above the 170 such sales in all of 2025, according to Miami Realtors, which said the county is on pace to set an annual record. The trade group also reported that 82 percent of Miami condo sales of $1 million or more in 2025 were all cash, a sign that rising mortgage rates have less effect at the top of the market.

Total Miami-Dade home sales, including single-family houses, dipped 1.1 percent to 1,769 in August, ending a streak of year-over-year gains. Miami Realtors attributed the decline to elevated mortgage rates and limited inventory at some price points.

What it means for Miami

For Miami, the project is another marker of the shift of ultra-luxury branded residences into the urban core. Brickell and downtown have added a string of hotel-branded condo towers in recent years, and the Mandarin Oriental project's pricing puts it at the top of that segment on the mainland.

The 121-room hotel will also return a luxury hotel brand to Brickell Key, which has been without one since the old Mandarin Oriental closed ahead of demolition.

What's next

With the site cleared and ground broken, construction will move into foundation and below-grade work on Brickell Key. Swire is targeting completion of both towers and the hotel in 2030. Sales of the remaining South Tower residences and the roughly three-quarters of North Tower inventory still available will continue through Fortune Development Sales during construction, and reports on Swire's self-financing plan indicate it does not need a construction loan to proceed.