Iris Escarrá of Greenberg Traurig: 5 Questions

As co-chair of the land use practice at law firm Greenberg Traurig, Iris Escarrá has worked on a number of high-profile projects.

In one recent example, Escarrá was part of the team that won approvals for Miami Freedom Park, the mixed-use development near Miami International Airport that includes Nu Stadium, the 26,700-seat home of Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami CF.

Before the stadium opened in April, she led the team that guided the development team through environmental remediation, code compliance and traffic and aviation issues.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Commercial Observer: Now that Nu Stadium is open and Inter Miami is playing matches there, what lessons did you learn from the project?

Iris Escarrá: There’s so many. Some of them I have to cover over drinks. Some of them I can cover here.

The stadium is actually one component. It’s 12 acres of a 73-acre complex that’s mixed-use. So while the stadium is the biggest to come in, we have retail coming in, hotel, office, and so forth that we’re also working on. It’s very exciting because that’s what’s actually going to create the whole district.

Inter Miami has 17 home games, and they’ll have other events there, concerts, soccer games for high schools, but it’s never going to be a 365-day-a-year building. So it’s really the other uses around it that are going to create the district. And those uses around it are actually what helps with some of the traffic items because the restaurants and the retail are open a few hours before the match, so if you want to go and have lunch before the game, you could do that. If you want to go after the game, go hang out.

So what happens is that the mixed-use district around the stadiums is what’s really creating the whole district.

When are those other uses going to be completed?

We have a few buildings that are in for permitting now, some food and beverage, some entertainment. They’re going to be coming in over the next 10 years in pieces. There are hotel and office components that’re anticipated to come.

When we started this process, we knew that the stadium was the first catalyst, and then everything else was market driven. So now that the stadium is there, everything is coming on board in pieces over the next 10 years.

What about the stadium itself? What’s different about this stadium than one that might have been built a decade ago or two decades ago?

One of the coolest things at the stadium is that it has created all these different spaces. You could go and grab some food, you could go and grab some drinks. The ambience at the stadium is not just necessarily the game, but you can go early to the game, hang out, grab some food. It’s a little bit different from the tradition where you go to the stadium, they have all the concessionaires all the way around.

They also have these spaces where you can hang out after. They’re having post-game concerts. The game is the main purpose while you’re there, but you can go early. You could stay late, go to the concert. So it’s creating more of an experience in addition to the main event.

In addition to Nu Stadium, you’re working on a laundry list of projects. What’s driving Miami’s continued development boom?

All different factors have come in.

When COVID-19 hit, I thought I was going home for two weeks, like every other hurricane. And then I started getting worried that it would be another 2008 sort of slowdown of work completely.

That was March 2020. By September, there was an influx of folks coming to Miami. All of a sudden, we were in fifth gear. 

I would tell you now we still have consistent new projects coming in. It’s still constant, thankfully so, for our group. We went from a lot of rentals and then condos, and once those two happen, in come the schools, the retail, the office, the complementary uses, and then there’s a wave again.

Let me switch gears and ask about your career. Before you joined Greenberg Traurig, you worked for the City of Miami. What was that transition like?

It was a tough one.

I love government law. When you’re in government, you see things one way. You’re reading the code and you’re saying yes or no.

When you come into the private sector, you’re reading the code and you’re saying yes or no. But then you’re saying, ”OK, how can we make this something that is more balanced? Is there something we can work with the city? Can we work with the community? Can we work with the commission? What could be something on this that we can meet in the middle?”

When I was in government, very simple: Ask me a question, the answer is yes or no. But when I come to the private sector, it’s how to find the right balance for those moments, when it’s not a guess, not a matter of guess, but wanting to know.

Even though Miami has one zoning code, it’s a city of various different neighborhoods. What happens in Coconut Grove may not happen in Wynwood. What happens in Woodwood may not happen in Edgewater.

So it’s knowing that dynamic and finding that middle ground that has evolved through time.

Jeff Ostrowski can be reached at jostrowski@commercialobserver.com.