Brickell · Miami

Asia

Thirty-six storeys on the northern seawall of a man-made island, and on the lower tower floors only three front doors per landing. Asia was built to give density away.

Density in reverse

Most towers make their money by putting as many doors on a floor as the code and the lift core will bear. Asia does the opposite and treats it as the product. Swire Properties published three residences per floor on levels 9 through 14 and five per floor on 15 through 29, with a private elevator opening directly into each home and 12-foot ceilings above it. Thirty-six storeys, 123 published residences — a number most developers would fit into twenty.

J. Scott Architecture handled the design. Swire is not a visiting name here: the company master-planned Brickell Key itself, and later built Brickell City Centre across the water, so the island's street grid, seawall promenade and building line all came from the same hand that built this tower.

On the year, the record splits and we will print both. The Miami-Dade Property Appraiser carries the property as ASIA CONDO with a year built of 2008 on every folio we checked. Several sales sources publish 2009. Neither is wrong exactly — county rolls date from certificate of occupancy, sales databases often date from closings — but if a number matters to you in negotiation, the roll says 2008.

Unit count splits too. The developer's published figure is 123 residences. Counting the distinct residential folios recorded at 900 Brickell Key Boulevard returns 122, one short. A one-unit gap in a 123-home building usually resolves into a combination, a conversion or a folio the roll has not separated, and we cite it here only because we counted it ourselves. The roll also skips a thirteenth floor — the numbering runs 12 to 14.

The amenities, honestly

The arrival is the strongest part. A two-storey lobby with water views on the way in, then a heated pool with spa, a sauna, a fitness centre and tennis courts. Assigned covered garage parking with valet, 24-hour security and concierge. Private storage rooms — a modest-sounding line item that anyone who has lived in a tower without them will read as a headline.

That is a competent amenity set, not an enormous one, and it would be dishonest to sell it as the reason to buy. There is no marina, no restaurant, no spa floor. What Asia has instead is a location doing amenity work: the building sits directly on Brickell Key's seawall, and the island's continuous public promenade — the Mandarin Oriental publishes it as a 1.3-mile loop — starts at the door. Brickell Key Park anchors the eastern tip.

In practice that means the thing residents use every day is not inside the building at all. It is a flat, uninterrupted mile and a bit of waterfront with the bay on one side, which most towers in this market would pay almost anything to be able to offer and cannot.

The residences

Published sizes run from 1,326 to 4,515 square feet, across two-, three-, four- and five-bedroom plans plus penthouses. The roll corroborates the range closely and stretches it slightly at the top: the folio for residence 3005 is recorded at exactly 1,326 square feet, matching the published floor to the foot, while residence 3401 comes in at 4,635 square feet with five bedrooms — a little above the published ceiling of 4,515.

Three things carry these homes. The private elevator means you step out of the lift and you are already inside; there is no corridor and, on the three-per-floor levels, almost no shared landing. The 12-foot ceilings are close to a full storey taller than the market standard of the period and they change how the glass reads from inside. And the finishes the developer publishes — Italian wood cabinetry, marble floors, Sub-Zero refrigeration, Miele ovens with integrated convection, built-in espresso machines and wine coolers — were specified as standard rather than upgrade packages.

Then there is the outlook, which is the real reason to pay attention to this address. Asia occupies the island's northern edge, so its glass takes in the mouth of the Miami River and the open bay at the same time — a working waterway on one side, water and horizon on the other. Very few towers in this market hold both at once, and none of them are on the mainland.

Brickell Key, and getting off it

Brickell Key is a 44-acre man-made island off the northeast corner of Brickell, reached by a single access road. That one road does a lot of work: it makes the island quiet in a way the mainland has not been since the nineties, and it means groceries, dinner and the office all involve a bridge. The Mandarin Oriental, Miami sits at 500 Brickell Key Drive with its own restaurants. Asia's near neighbours are Carbonell at 901 Brickell Key Boulevard, roll year built 2005, and Two Tequesta Point at 808 Brickell Key Drive.

Cross the bridge and Brickell opens up. Brickell City Centre at 701 South Miami Avenue — Swire's own, opened November 2016 — is five storeys and about nine acres under the Climate Ribbon, 150,000 square feet of fabric-wrapped steel blades engineered by Hugh Dutton Associates to channel breezes and collect an estimated three million gallons of rainwater a year into above-ground cisterns. Mary Brickell Village is two blocks south at 901 South Miami Avenue. Komodo is at 801 Brickell Avenue, and across the Brickell Avenue bridge the downtown riverfront at 270 Biscayne Boulevard Way adds Zuma and the Kimpton EPIC.

Transit is mainland-side: the free Metromover Brickell Loop stops roughly every two blocks and runs into Brickell City Centre at the Eighth Street station, Metrorail's Brickell station goes direct to Miami International, and Brightline's MiamiCentral is about 1.5 miles north. By car, MIA is about 7 miles via SR-836, typically 15 to 25 minutes; Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood is about 28 miles north on I-95, typically 35 to 55.

One piece of local mechanics worth knowing: three movable bridges cross the Miami River from Brickell — Brickell Avenue at mile 0.1, Miami Avenue at 0.3 and SW 2nd Avenue at 0.5 — and under 33 CFR 117.305 those draws are restricted on weekday mornings, midday and evenings. I-95 and Metrorail cross on fixed high spans.

Who it suits

Somebody who values privacy over spectacle. A private elevator into three-per-floor landings is a quieter kind of luxury than a 200-foot amenity deck, and it is the whole argument of this building.

Somebody who leaves and comes back. One road onto the island, 24-hour security and concierge, valet, and private storage rooms make Asia unusually easy to lock and leave for a season without renting a unit out or hiring anyone to mind it.

Somebody who wants full-time water. The northern seawall position and 12-foot glass mean the river mouth and the open bay are the room's permanent condition, not a slice visible from one corner.

And somebody letting on an annual basis. Brickell Key holds tenants well, the island's promenade and the walk across to Brickell City Centre do most of the selling, and the residences are large enough to compete on square footage rather than only on address.