Citadel Headquarters Project Under Stop-Work Order Following Rig Collapse
Construction on Citadel‘s $2.5B Miami headquarters is on indefinite hold following an accident last week in which a drilling rig collapse sent four people to the hospital.
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Bisnow/Chloe Gallivan
The stalled construction site for Citadel’s headquarters following a rig collapse
The accident is under investigation by federal and county safety officials, and the Miami-Dade County Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources has issued a stop-work order for the site, department spokesperson Tere Florin confirmed to Bisnow.
The agency’s Building and Environmental Permitting Division issued the order when the incident occurred the morning of Sept. 14 and “instructed the project contractor to submit a safety plan before the stop-work order is lifted,” Florin wrote in an email.
“Once the safety plan is submitted, it will be reviewed, and upon approval, the construction site may reopen.”
Related Cos. is developing the project on a site Citadel CEO Ken Griffin acquired in 2022 for $360M.
Construction workers were in the process of deep soil mixing to ready the foundation for a massive skyscraper when a rig collapsed onto Brickell Bay Drive and crushed three cars and a Container Express box, trapping two construction workers inside.
The driver of a white BMW that caught fire after it was crushed, along with two construction workers and the rig operator, were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
“Following an incident regarding one of our drill rigs, our concern is for the individuals affected, and we would like to thank the emergency services for their support,” a representative for the project’s contractor, Keller North America, said in a statement.
“Our highest priority is the safety of our workers and the entire Brickell community, and we will work with the authorities and our project clients to conduct a full investigation.”
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Miami-Dade County’s Consumer and Neighborhood Protection Division’s unsafe structures team is investigating the Sept. 14 incident, the Miami Herald reported.
“We are grateful that nobody was seriously injured in this week’s incident.” a spokesperson for Ken Griffin said in a statement. “We and our partners are focused on delivering this landmark project for the City of Miami.”
It is unclear what caused the accident and how long the investigation will take.
Until then, the site, which was supposed to begin vertical construction of one of the city’s most anticipated office buildings by the end of this year, is in limbo.
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A drilling rig collapsed at the construction site of Citadel’s future headquarters in Miami, injuring four people.
A Citadel spokesperson directed inquiries to Related Cos., which declined to comment.
Ken Griffin is building a 1.7M SF office on the site at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive — roughly 560K SF of which will be occupied by his hedge fund, Citadel, and market maker, Citadel Securities.
The billionaire spent four years and more than $770M to assemble a full city block in Brickell, which included buying out all of the condos in the 22-story Solaris building at 1155 Brickell Bay Drive, which is now blocked off and surrounded by fencing, aside from an entrance on the side.
Project plans beyond the office building include a 300-unit residential tower and a parking garage, The Wall Street Journal reported, and possibly a hotel.
The waterfront site has also been struggling with stormwater mitigation, which the developer has addressed by installing injection wells to divert stormwater back into the aquifer, but it still needs the permits to activate them, the WSJ reported.
