French Bank BNP Paribas to Open Miami Office
By Julia Echikson January 11, 2023 5:54 pm
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France’s largest bank, BNP Paribas, is returning to Miami, having inked a 7,700-square-foot lease at the 801 Brickell office building.
The office, slated to open in the fourth quarter of this year, is expected to house nearly 50 staffers from BNP’s global markets business. The French bank will occupy a portion of the 10th floor of the 28-story Brickell building, part of a seven-and-half-year lease.
“This office will allow us to be closer and better serve our clients, many of whom have also migrated to the area, particularly Miami and Palm Beach,” John Gallo, head of BNP’s global markets Americas division, said in a statement.
The bank, headquartered in Paris, had an office in Miami about a decade ago for its wealth management division, said a spokesperson for the company. The new Miami base is part of the bank’s U.S. expansion. In 2020, it signed three leases — all for 20 years — in New York and Philadelphia. The company also has offices in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
In Miami, BNP’s lease is yet another sign of the city’s emergence as the Wall Street of the South, a trend that took hold during the pandemic when financial firms fled New York.
801 Brickell, situated in the heart of Miami’s financial district, totals 469,319 square feet with asking rents ranging between $85 and $110 a square foot. 801’s landlord, Nuveen — the asset manager of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America — has owned the property since 2002 when it paid $80 million. Last year, Nuveen renovated the building’s common areas.
Colliers’ Tom Farmer and Stephen Rutchik represented Nuveen, while JLL’s Adam Bernstein, Barbara Black, Joe Messina and Allison Melichar represented BNP.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
