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Brickell is now, unequivocally, the center of Miami. It is the heart of the city’s financial, residential, and soon, commercial, universe, and it seemingly happened overnight.

The crash of 2008 allowed an influx of young people, who originally couldn’t afford the high prices, to call the neighborhood home and make the area, for lack of a better term, cool. “We started off in 2009 with 62 percent occupancy, and that grew over the next four years to 95 percent occupancy,” says Alyce Robertson, executive director of Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA), who estimates the current population base to be largely 25- to 44-year-olds. “There were virtually no condos left to be had.”

The catalyst in the urbanization of Miami is Brickell City Centre, the $1.05 billion mixed-use development that will include luxury shopping, two residential towers, an East Hotel, and two mid-rise office towers. “We felt the development was a symbol for the future of Miami,” says Clare Laverty of Swire Properties, the developer. “We were trying to curate a lifestyle and build off the model that we have in Hong Kong and China, where you have these very successful mixed-use urban developments where people live, work, and play, and stay on the hotel side.”

Brickell City Centre will create a hub within the urban core and fill in the gaps, allowing more Brickell residents to ditch their cars and live the city life they so desire. People will stroll up on foot, ride a Citi Bike, or take the Metrorail or Metromover to dine at Quinto La Huella, sip cocktails at Sugar, and shop at Valentino, Chopard, or the 107,000- square-foot Saks Fifth Avenue. “Miamians are learning how to walk again,” says Related Group’s Rosso, who notes that Latin American buyers used to places like Mexico City, Caracas, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo enjoy an urban center. “All those characters that were in our brochures walking the streets are starting to show up in Brickell.”