{"id":226354,"date":"2026-04-10T14:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/226354\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T14:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:17:07","slug":"miami-freedom-park-retail-construction-kicks-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/226354\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Freedom Park Retail Construction Kicks Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nu Stadium\u2019s opening last weekend was the most visible milestone yet for Miami Freedom Park<\/a>, but not without some drama.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inter Miami didn\u2019t secure a temporary certificate of occupancy<\/a> for the 26,700-seat venue, which was built with a $450 million<\/a> construction loan, before the game started. The team, led by soccer\u2019s most famous star, Leonel Messi, hosted its first match against Austin FC with a \u201climited event\u201d permit issued by the city of Miami, and it is still waiting for the occupancy certificate ahead of its next game this weekend, the Miami Herald reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The episode showed how tight the stadium\u2019s timeline was for Inter Miami\u2019s owners, billionaire Jorge Mas<\/a> and his brother Jose Mas, retired soccer star David Beckham and Los Angeles-based Ares Management.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now the pressure shifts to building out other portions of the first phase of the $1 billion mixed-use development, not to mention filling up nearly 1 million square feet of retail and office space. That\u2019s a tall order in South Florida\u2019s highly competitive commercial real market, according to experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a very hard thing to fill,\u201d said Hollywood-based retail real estate investor Todd Nepola. \u201cWhat they\u2019re building is really a one-off concept. This isn\u2019t like putting a shopping center on Commercial Boulevard and University Drive [in Broward County]. This is a really tricky play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, the Mas brothers, who are the lead partners, have the financial resources to be patient with Miami Freedom Park\u2019s leasing strategy, said Nepola, who leads Current Capital Real Estate Group. He was speaking as an expert on the market and is not involved with leasing the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never doubt anything the Mas brothers do because they know their stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cI would rather see them slow-roll the launch and get the right operators in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the office side, Miami Freedom Park represents a new submarket that offers tenants a central spot, Cushman & Wakefield\u2019s Brian Gale told The Real Deal. His team is handling Miami Freedom Park\u2019s office leasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are smack in the middle of the city,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat potential tenants realize is that Miami Freedom Park offers the most accessible location compared to Brickell, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Miami Beach and Wynwood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first phase will have 500,000 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment, along with a 58-acre park and a planned 250,000-square-foot office building. The cash and financing to build that phase hasn\u2019t been revealed.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami is also building a new city of Miami headquarters, which will combine the city\u2019s administrative departments, currently in a downtown Miami office, and city hall, which will leave its longtime home, a converted PanAm Airways seaplane terminal along Coconut Grove\u2019s waterfront<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Miami City Commission recently approved a change to Inter Miami\u2019s contract, extending the deadline for the Major League Soccer franchise to make a required $10 million payment for public park improvements at the 131-acre city-owned site.<\/p>\n

The first phase\u2019s office component, which will be known as Heron 1, is still going through final design, Gale said. The project is scheduled for completion in 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of the prospective tenants are local and out-of-state corporate offices, Gale said, noting that Miami Freedom Park is going to be a standalone submarket.<\/p>\n

Miami Freedom Park and Inter Miami executives and spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment. At the Miami CCIM real estate conference in January, Miami Freedom Park executive Terry Frazier Reed said the first phase focuses on building a brand identity and in-person experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First up are spaces for Miami Freedom Park\u2019s three announced tenants: Fever, a live-entertainment company that is taking 30,000 square feet for a rotating line-up of events; Toroverde, a Puerto Rican-based eco-tourism adventure firm that\u2019s planning a 24,000-square-foot attraction that will include climbing obstacle courses, arcades and a restaurant; and Jupiter-based PopStroke, a miniature golf and entertainment company that signed on for 75,000 square feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are creating these experiences that will bring people beyond soccer games,\u201d Reed said. \u201cThat\u2019s our mission.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miami Freedom Park<\/a> and PopStroke began discussions in 2022, the year the city approved the ground lease, PopStroke CEO Greg Bartoli told The Real Deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company, which counts Tiger Woods as an investor, operates facilities across the U.S. that feature two 18-hole putting courses, large TVs and jumbotrons, bars, a restaurant and games like cornhole and foosball. PopStroke has sites in seven states, including nine in Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The concept has locations near other professional sports stadiums in Las Vegas and in Glendale, Arizona, Bartoli said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not concerned about being one of the first brands that is open for business at Miami Freedom Park,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce Miami Freedom Park fills out, it will get better over time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gartoli declined to comment on PopStroke\u2019s rent at Miami Freedom Park, but noted that \u201cMiami is more expensive than a lot of other markets in the state.\u201d He also explained that PopStroke facilities usually require 3-plus acres, which is \u201creally challenging\u201d to find in Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PopStroke has been working on the final design for the past year and is expecting to start construction on May 1, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miami Freedom Park has another 375,000 square feet of retail space to fill. Leasing has shifted to landing retail and dining tenants that can fill spaces ranging between 2,500 square feet to 30,000 square feet, a news release states. Brokers for InHouse Commercial, Newmark and Magellan Realty Group, which are handling the retail leasing, declined to comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Retail real estate is performing well in Miami-Dade County, with the average asking rent hitting $43 per square foot, representing a 1 percent increase compared to the previous year, while continuing a steady rise since 2020, according to Marcus & Millichap. The county\u2019s vacancy rate was 4 percent in the first quarter, so supply is tight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t make things easy for Miami Freedom Park, retail real estate players said.<\/p>\n

\u201c300,000-plus square feet is a lot of space to fill in this economy,\u201d said Andy Hellinger, a principal with Miami-based Urban X. \u201cBut they have something special, in the team and the intrigue of Messi and company.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hellinger\u2019s firm developed River Landing, a massive mixed-use project along the Miami River near Miami Freedom Park. The development has 300,000 square feet of retail anchored by a Publix supermarket and big box stores like TJ Maxx and Ross Dress for Less.<\/p>\n

Word on the street is that Adidas will be opening a large experiential store at Miami Freedom Park, Hellinger said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that is true or not, but that is a store that I think could do well,\u201d he said. \u201cA Dick\u2019s House of Sport would do well also. But it\u2019s not a place where you\u2019re going to say, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s go shop at Miami Freedom Park.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the dining side, Miami Freedom Park would benefit from having local brands that reflect the city\u2019s international flare, said Paulina Begliomini with Miami-based PB Restaurant Partners, a consulting firm that handles leasing and permitting for restaurateurs. However, sports franchises typically want a share of a tenant\u2019s gross sales as part of the rent equation, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really try to negotiate and mitigate that concessionaires\u2019 fee,\u201d Begliomini said. \u201cBut the percentage rent is typically so high that sometimes it doesn\u2019t make it worth it for local brands to participate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miami Freedom Park restaurant concepts would also need to cater to tourists, said Current Capital\u2019s Nepola. \u201cI would be hard pressed to believe that your local resident from Aventura or Coral Gables is going to want to spend Friday night hanging out at this place,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you put a great local restaurant in there \u2014 even if it\u2019s a trendy, hot name \u2014 I don\u2019t think it would really be able to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nu Stadium\u2019s opening last weekend was the most visible milestone yet for Miami Freedom Park, but not without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,102017,125,124],"class_list":["post-226354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-freedom-park-construction","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}