John Moriarty pulls $2M sitework permit at 296 SW 7th St, Miami

The City of Miami issued a $2 million sitework permit on Oct. 14 for 296 SW 7th St, with John Moriarty and Associates of Florida Inc. listed as general contractor. The permit covers excavation, piles and soil and site improvement, the groundwork stage that precedes vertical construction.

Moriarty, based in Hollywood, is also the general contractor on a much larger downtown Miami tower at a separate address, which this outlet covered on Oct. 2. This is a different, smaller job at a different site. The two should not be conflated.

Why it matters

A foundation and piles permit is the clearest public signal that a commercial project is about to leave the ground. The parcel, folio 0102050101100, sits in a Miami21 T6-24A-O zone, an urban core commercial and mixed-use district near the Health District and Civic Center, west of Brickell. The city’s permit record lists the property type as commercial and the scope as new construction, but does not name a building height, unit count or project name, so this story covers what the record actually shows rather than guessing at the finished product.

John Moriarty and Associates is a national general contractor with a track record on institutional and high-rise work in South Florida, which makes this a trackable, not speculative, filing.

The numbers

• Permit BD26004170001B001 (application BD26004170), issued Oct. 14, 2026.
• Valuation: $2,000,000.
• Work items: excavation, piles, and site and soil improvement.
• Zoning: Miami21 T6-24A-O.
• Status: active, ready for inspections.

The $2 million figure covers sitework only, not the full build-out cost of whatever rises on the parcel. In South Florida, sitework and foundation permits for commercial parcels typically run well below the eventual vertical construction permit, so this number should be read as an early-stage marker, not a project budget.

What’s next

An active excavation and piles permit means crews can mobilize on-site once inspections clear the early stages. The next public marker to watch is a building or shell permit at the same address, which would confirm height, use and scope. We will follow the Miami-Dade folio and the City of Miami permit record for that filing.