Swire Starts Sitework on Brickell Key's Mandarin Oriental

Crews have started sitework at 750 Claughton Island Dr on Brickell Key, moving Swire Properties’ two-tower Mandarin Oriental redevelopment from permit to dirt five months after the old hotel came down. The project pairs a 66-story residential tower with a separately rebuilt Mandarin Oriental hotel tower across a 3.5-acre site, more than 1.2 million square feet in all, with Moss & Associates as general contractor on the residential tower.

Why it matters

This is the physical follow-through on the permits our wire has tracked since July. The old hotel closed May 31, 2025, and was imploded April 12, 2026. Sitework starting now, rather than stalling behind financing or design changes, keeps the project on the 2030 target Swire has stated since permitting closed.

New coverage of this week’s milestone is also citing a $226 million cost for the project. That number needs a correction before it sits in anyone’s underwriting. It is not a project total.

The numbers

Miami-Dade County issued master permit 2026059413 on July 20 for 500 Brickell Key Drive, the hotel tower, at a declared $226,000,000 across 1,286,326 sq ft with Balfour Beatty Construction as contractor. That is the exact figure now circulating as “the” construction cost. It excludes the City of Miami’s separate permit BD23028760001B001, issued July 16 for 1 Island Drive, the residential tower, at $239,983,665 across 1,351,367 sq ft with Moss & Associates as contractor. Add both, as our July 27 reporting did, and the site carries $465,983,665 in permitted construction value, not $226 million.

What’s next

Watch for foundation work to follow sitework on both towers, and for whether Moss and Balfour Beatty coordinate a shared laydown plan on an island with one causeway in and out. More permit-wire coverage runs on our South Florida hub, and our prior permit reporting on this project has the full permit-by-permit breakdown.