WLRN | Residents face off against Miami's oldest church in battle over more concrete in Brickell

FULL STORY FROM WLRN HERE

By Joshua Ceballos on Apr 10, 2025

Miami's oldest church congregation wants to build up into the future, but they're facing pushback from their neighbors.

First Miami Presbyterian Church, which traces its origin to 1896, is looking to tear down an annex building on its historic site on Brickell Avenue to make way for a condo tower project that could rise up to 80 stories.

That move has angered neighbors from a nearby building, who say they fear more congestion and concrete in the already crowded Brickell neighborhood.

They plan to push back against the development in court, despite a Thursday decision from the Miami City Commission that they don't have a right to intervene in the church's plans.

"The development group are seeking to build an 80-story condo building there which we think is unwarranted given the density that's already in the Brickell area. We'd like it not to be a building but if it's gonna be a building, it should not be 80 stories," said George Simon, resident of the 57-story Icon Brickell No. 2 condo that neighbors the church.

Simon and other Icon residents packed the City of Miami Commission Chambers on Thursday to ask that they be allowed to have a say in what happens to the church property.

History

The church's sanctuary building was built in 1949 after outgrowing its original home that was built with funding from railroad magnate Henry Flagler in 1900.

Since the original structure was built, the church also added an educational annex that was built between 1953 and 1963, and eventually added a parking lot too. The City of Miami's Historic and Environment Preservation Board (HEPB) designated the entire church site as historic and worthy of preservation in 2003.

The lot and the church are adjacent to Mary Brickell Park, one of a handful of green spaces in what has become Miami's primary financial and tech business districts.

First Miami Presbyterian's leadership wants to expand the church's footprint while preserving the original 1949 building.

"In the hopes of expanding our ministry and building another 100,000 square feet and endowing the church with a development, we went back to the historic board," said Reverend Christopher Benek, pastor of First Miami Presbyterian.

The church asked HEPB in 2024 to amend its historic designation to only include the original sanctuary building and carve out the parking lot and educational annex that the church does not use, Benek told WLRN. With that done, developer 13th Floor can begin the process to build a condo tower and parking garage on those areas of the church property. First Miami Presbyterian would use the proceeds from that development to build more church space, and perform maintenance to preserve the historic sanctuary.

"First Miami was here before this city was called Miami. We’re gonna be here as long as the city is here," Benek said.

After an architectural and historical analysis, HEPB voted unanimously last December to grant the church's request — but residents of the neighboring Icon condo building didn't get a say. The board did not allow those residents to enter as intervenors in the process, though they had complaints, because Icon is is separated from the church property by Mary Brickell Park.

Appeal

Icon residents then got together under the group name "Brickell Stronger Together." They sought legal representation from the law firm of Sidley Austin, LLP and filed an appeal with the city commission on HEPB's decision.

Dozens of speakers wearing matching T-shirts came to city hall Thursday to ask that the commission reverse the preservation board's decision and allow them to intervene in the process.

"This is not a referendum on construction in Brickell, this is a specific appeal asking the city commission to allow the neighbors to intervene," said Lawrence Silverman, attorney for the Icon residents.

On the advice of the city's legal department, Miami Commissioners voted 4-0 to deny the residents' appeal, with Commissioner Manolo Reyes absent.

Silverman said Icon residents still have legal options available to them, and will take up the matter in county court.