SkyRise Miami was a proposed high-rise entertainment and

observation tower An observation tower is a tower used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, and woo ...

to be built on the shore of

Biscayne Bay Biscayne Bay is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is large ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, promoted and developed by real estate developer Jeff Berkowitz.

Height

Rising to a height of , it would have been the tallest structure in Florida. The

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

objected to the height.

Original project

It was originally to have a tower called "Solar Universe," developed by a company called High Point Energy. It would have been a self-sufficient, vertical energy structure powered by

alternative energies Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Definitions of sustainable energy usually look at its effects on the environment, the economy, and so ...

such as solar, wind, hydro, and biomass. It would have had 11 wind turbines to its east and a collection of solar panels covering its southern face. D’Agostino sold the rights to Solar Universe LLC to Jeffrey Berkowitz's Berkowitz Development Group, headquartered in

Coconut Grove Coconut Grove, also known colloquially as "The Grove", is an affluent and the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhoods of Miami, neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The neighborhood is roughly bounded by North Prospect Driv ...

in April 2012. Berkowitz changed the name, first to Skyhigh Miami, then in August 2013, to Skyrise Miami. It was to have been located on public waterfront land adjacent to

Bayside Marketplace Bayside Marketplace is a two-story open air shopping center located in Miami, Florida, United States. The center is situated on the banks of Biscayne Bay, with the City of Miami marina on one side. On January 1, 2024, a large police presence ...

, from which it would have sublet land. Both the City Commission and Miami voters approved the project in 2014. A significant portion of the several hundred million dollar project was to have been funded a program where foreign investors buy

EB-5 visa The United States EB-5 visa, ''employment-based fifth preference category'' or ''EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program'' was created in 1990 by the Immigration Act of 1990. It provides a method for eligible immigrant investors to become lawfu ...

s. The project was officially cancelled on June 28, 2021.

Controversy

Developer Jeff Berkowitz pledged repeatedly that SkyRise would be built at no cost to the city of Miami advertising during the campaign for the project's approval vote that "taxpayers win without putting in a cent." He made the same claim with nearly the same wording, "not one cent of Miami money", in a city commission meeting in June 2014. But months earlier, in February 2014, he had quietly applied for fifteen million dollars in economic development funding. Local blogger Al Crespo referred to Berkowitz as a "duplicitous hypocrite" for claiming that the project would be privately funded while quietly seeking public funding. Berkowitz responded by threatening to sue Crespo for "false and libelous statements", demanding that he remove from his blog the article that alleged that Berkowitz deceived Miami taxpayers.

References

External links

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Rendering photos of SkyRise Miami
{{Future Miami skyscrapers Proposed skyscrapers in the United States Observation towers in the United States Residential skyscrapers in Miami Arquitectonica buildings