Walk the Underline on a Thursday morning near Vizcaya Station Plaza and you'll find a free community fitness class already running, part of a weekly series that continues through February 2027. Come back later in the week for yoga at the same plaza, or in October for a dog walk that turns the corridor into a social route for Brickell's pet owners. None of this waited for a ribbon cutting. The corridor has been hosting Brickell's daily life for years, in pieces, while Phase 3 construction continues.
Brickell's restaurants and retail spaces have seen recent openings and new leases, while Phase 3 of the Underline remains under construction. Together, these developments show different parts of the neighborhood changing this fall.
Recent Restaurant and Retail Updates
Brickell Key spent close to a year without an obvious answer for dinner after La Mar closed as the Mandarin Oriental Miami prepared for redevelopment. The Mexican filled that gap this spring at 601 Brickell Key Drive, arriving with more than 10,000 square feet and seating for over 330 guests across dining rooms, private spaces, and terraces facing Biscayne Bay. Above the financial district, Seia opened this spring too, on the 54th and 55th floors of 830 Brickell, a partnership between OKO Group and the Bastion Collection, the group behind Le Jardinier and South Florida's only two-Michelin-starred restaurant. The 55th floor operates as a members-only club with its own private terrace. The 54th floor is open to anyone with a reservation.
Retail moved on a similarly tight clock. Weeks before the ownership changed hands, Brickell City Centre's original developer, Swire Properties, signed nine new leases totaling more than 29,000 square feet, led by Aritzia, Alo Yoga, Vuori, and Dior Beauty, according to Chain Store Age's reporting on the leasing push. Simon Property Group then closed a $497.7 million cash deal on June 27, 2025, buying out Swire's remaining stake in the center's retail and parking components, according to Simon's own SEC filing, and inherited a leasing pipeline that was already moving. PopUp Bagels, the brand that started as a backyard pandemic project in Westport, Connecticut, before building a cult following on social media, has its Brickell location listed as "coming soon" on 801 Brickell's own building site.
Each of those projects had a start date and a signed agreement.
The Underline's Phase 3 Timeline
The Underline runs a different clock. Phase 3, the 7.36-mile final segment connecting the Vizcaya Metrorail station to Dadeland South, got its construction contract in October 2022, awarded to NV2A Central Joint Venture for an estimated $109 million, according to Miami-Dade County's own project page. For years, county materials and coverage described the segment as on track to finish in 2026.
As Miami Today reported, the project received additional funding and contract extensions. In December 2025, county commissioners approved close to $8 million in added funding for scope changes, covering upgraded plazas, Wi-Fi across the corridor, streetlighting, and design adjustments to preserve the existing tree canopy. Then in July 2026, commissioners approved another $2.25 million increase, this time for the construction, inspection, and engineering contract with Calvin, Giordano & Associates, which rose to $8.25 million and was extended another 270 days.
"I understand it needs to pass, but fundamentally understand what we are doing," Commissioner Oliver Gilbert said of the increase, according to Miami Today.
Gilbert was one of three commissioners who voted against it. The 270-day extension applies to the engineering and inspection contract, while the segment had been described as on track to finish in 2026. The earlier phases provide context: Phase 1, the Brickell Backyard, opened in February 2021. Phase 2 opened in April 2024, connecting SW 13th Street through the historic Roads, Shenandoah, and Silver Bluff neighborhoods to SW 19th Avenue. Phase 3 will complete the 10-mile corridor from Brickell to Dadeland, while programming continues in open segments.
What's Open Now on the Underline
The corridor doesn't need a ribbon cutting to be useful, and the fall calendar makes that clear. Here's what's actually running right now, according to the Underline's own event listings:
- Weekly community fitness class, Thursdays through February 11, 2027, combining strength training with a guided group run beneath the Metrorail corridor
- Weekly yoga, at Vizcaya Station Plaza
- TUMBAO's fifth anniversary edition, October 3, pairing Miami DJs with food, drinks, and Hispanic Heritage Month programming, part of a monthly first-Saturday series running through June 2027
- A guided community dog walk, October 15, turning the corridor into a social route for Brickell's pet owners
- A volunteer green-space workday, also October 3, for residents who want to put in a morning of hands-on maintenance
None of this is a preview of something coming later. It's the corridor functioning now while Phase 3 construction continues.
The Underline's Programming and Construction Timeline
The earlier phases show why the event calendar is worth checking separately from the construction schedule: programming in open areas does not, by itself, mark completion of the final segment.
For anyone deciding when to include the Underline in a routine, it may help to check what is currently open and which events are scheduled, alongside updates on Phase 3's completion timeline.
For homeowners and prospective buyers, the relevance of these changes will vary from block to block.
If you're curious what any of this means for property values along the corridor, or you just want to talk through what's actually changing on your block versus what's still on paper, the Azua Nardon Team knows this stretch of Brickell block by block. And if you're ever ready to see what your Brickell home is worth in today's market, get your free home valuation and we'll walk you through it.
