Brickell Ave. now the “Wall Street of Miami”

The Bank of America building(left) on Brickell Avenue
The Bank of America building(left) on Brickell Avenue

Brickell Avenue has become the Wall Street of Miami, with its huge array of banks and its reputation as the hub for money from Latin America. About 17 percent of the jobs held by residents in the zip code that covers Brickell and part of Downtown are in the finance, insurance and real estate industries, according to data from the 2010 census.

A Spanish-speaking workforce with financial savvy allowed Miami to best other major cities like Houston and Atlanta as a destination for international banks, Fernando Capablanca, a board member of Miami-based Ocean Bank, told the South Florida Business Journal.

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“The clients really drove the banks to Brickell,” Capablanca said. “They were buying apartments in the condos being built and we had no choice but to follow them…Once you get critical mass, then everybody follows.” [SF Business Journal]  – Hiten Samtani