523-Foot Babylon Racquet Club Planned In Brickell

A mixed-use tower called the Babylon Racquet Club is now moving through the approval process in Brickell.

The Babylon Racquet Club intends to serve as downtown Miami’s “premier racket sports health/wellness center,” according to a Letter of Intent submitted to Miami-Dade planners.

The area continues to add new population and business activity but is severely lacking in recreational amenities that elevate the quality of life for its growing number of residents, the letter said.

Facilitating development of the Project will help increase mass transit ridership with those seeking to play padel, tennis, or pickleball and to utilize the other club amenities, the letter added.

The new tower is proposed to rise 523 feet, or 23 stories, and include:

  • Five floors of sports courts, including padel, tennis and pickleball (levels 6-10)
  • Multiple restaurants on levels 5 and 15
  • A longevity hub and gym (levels 11, 12)
  • Hotel suites (levels 13, 14, 17)
  • Office, day care, salon, and event space (level 16)
  • Residential, including duplex units (levels 18-22)
  • Parking (levels 2, 3, 4)

A pre-application was filed with Miami-Dade planners on April 24, with review now underway.

The project team includes ODP (architect of record), Rotterdam-based MVRDV (design architect), Bliss & Nyitrya (structural consultant), Power Design (MEP Consultant), and SLS/Socotec (life safety). The plans were prepared for Cloud and Co.

Arquitectonica’s Babylon residential building was once on the property but has been demolished.

 

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Cool
12 days ago

Looks great and unique… let it rip!

Anonymous
12 days ago

It looks like a bunch of containers stacked on top of each other.

Anon
12 days ago

That’s called a stacked box massing strategy – common amongst MVRDV’s buildings.

Anonymous
12 days ago

How about using massing strategies to articulate buildings, and not for tryhard edginess?

Please
12 days ago

Unless you’ve seen the actual floor plans and know how the program correlates with the massing, you’re talking out of your ass. This massing is most likely a result of optimizing views and reducing glare for players inside – nothing to do with “edginess”.

It’s hilarious how the keyboard warriors here think they know more than the architects and engineers that put this stuff together.

anonymous
12 days ago

smash the approval button. Nice to see more mixed use properties going in rather than just residential.

Anonymous
12 days ago

Is smash the Miami equivalent of the common phrase crushing it?

Anonymous
12 days ago

What’s so mixed use about this when so many other residential towers have the same style of amenities?

Dr. Robert
11 days ago

“Multiple restaurants on the 5th and 15th floor.” Is one of the many reasons, and I can’t think of a single residential tower with a 15th floor restaurant, and multiple.floors of raquet sports.

Antennae
12 days ago

This project is awesome with great architecture. I have to admit that I used to love the original Babylon back when “that” firm was creating unique designs.

Anonymous
12 days ago

Incredible design! Perfect size and shape to maximize light and space. This is what added density should look like in Brickell. And glad to see developers thinking about balancing density with quality of life for the city community.

Anonymous
12 days ago

Love this! So glad for the zoning change and resulting development on this lot.

bob art guy
12 days ago

WOW Now we have a developer with taste. Beautiful and creative. and its not a dark black color

Zz01
12 days ago

Not yet it’s not.

west coast charlie
12 days ago

This is the most insano style racquetball club I have ever seen.

Yet Another Anonymous
12 days ago

Very neat and interesting, but sad to see the Miami vice building go.

REPARATIONS FOR FBA
12 days ago

Like it.
offset glass boxes is a great look. Have’nt lived in Miami for years…kinda wild to know that there’s enough affluent population to keep this place afloat.

Sgt. Sapingo
11 days ago

I wish Paco (Mr. Martinez) were alive to see this. He would be so happy.

Anon
12 days ago

Nice design and while it’s a little tall for the street, I like it. It’s perfectly acceptable cause it’s being built on an empty lot but I hope they don’t tear down every building on this street. I know they aren’t the nicest buildings but this area has charm and is a quiet place to walk. It go ves Brickell some variety. I hope they don’t turn the whole Bayfront street into another Brickell Ave. There are plenty of empty lots that need projects for new high rises.

Anonymous
11 days ago

A 23 story building that’s 523′ tall. Wow. Those floor heights also play in nicely with the architectural style of the building, too.

Anonymous
10 days ago

Looks like the usual group of NIMBYs on the Brickell Living Facebook group are coming for this development. Speak up to counter their position if you support more building.

Cover the Podiums
12 days ago

Good! we need more gyms that are not packed like sardines

Anonymous
12 days ago

Let’s get a place like Lifetime in Brickell!

Anonymous
12 days ago

Wow, what an inferior replacement… to an Arquitectonica building for that matter!

Anons
12 days ago

How long until they change the design? This will never work. Ppl who live in Brickell barely leave their bldg let alone walk that far south for “amenities” their building probably already offers

Anne A.
12 days ago

Never underestimate the power of pickleball. Especially indoors during the August-October monsoons. There’ll be mobs in those five floors of courts, all wondering why their building doesn’t have even one.

Anonymous
12 days ago

Another beaut by Arquitec…wait, WTF? They tear down a beaut (by Arquitectonica) for this?
BOOOOOOOOOO!

Brickell
12 days ago

This should never be approved, I love the design, however this lot is horrible for this project. All of these older buildings on brickell bay drive will eventually come down wait

Anonymous
12 days ago

Even if this older buildings come down (god willing), why is this lot not appropriate for this project?

Anonymous
12 days ago

So a bigger plot can be assembled for a better designed building.

anonymous
12 days ago

you know how long it would take to buy out some of these condos on brickell bay? Could be decades and this would bring more commercial space to the area so that everyone isnt crammed into the area near brickell city center

Sterling Cooper
12 days ago

Yes. About 90 days with the right offer and willing sellers.

Anne A.
12 days ago

Ah, yes, an entire building of condo owners coming together to the negotiating table, holding hands, throwing away their differences, forgiving slights, trusting “right’ offers without complex review – all in 90 days. I can see it now.

Anonymous
11 days ago

Yeah right. Look into the mess with Biscayne 21 and the 8 holdouts (representing less than 5% of all unit owners).