Downtown Miami is the city’s central business district, on the western shore of Biscayne Bay and straddling the mouth of the Miami River east of I-95. The core runs from NE 6th Street south to the river; the Downtown Development Authority’s wider Greater Downtown definition takes in everything east of I-95 between the Rickenbacker and Julia Tuttle causeways, which is why population and building counts for the area vary so much between sources.
Development
Miami incorporated on July 28, 1896 with 344 voters, after Julia Tuttle and William and Mary Brickell persuaded Henry Flagler to extend the Florida East Coast Railway to the river. The 1920s boom produced the first skyline and the buildings of the Downtown Miami Historic District. Museum Park, renamed Maurice A. Ferre Park in 2019, brought two institutions to the bayfront: the Perez Art Museum Miami in December 2013 and the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in 2017. Miami Worldcenter, a ten-block development in Park West, has been opening in phases, and residential construction has continued through the 2020s, including the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and Residences on Biscayne Boulevard, planned at 100 stories. Greater Downtown’s residential population rose from about 40,000 in 2000 to roughly 110,000 in 2020.
Parks & Recreation
Bayfront Park, 32 acres opened in 1925, holds the FPL Solar Amphitheater, Isamu Noguchi’s Challenger Memorial and the Torch of Friendship. Maurice A. Ferre Park covers 30 more acres to the north. Lummus Park, on the river, contains two of the city’s oldest structures, and the Miami River Greenway runs west from there. Downtown venues include the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the Olympia Theater, the Freedom Tower, HistoryMiami, Kaseya Center and Bayside Marketplace.
Transit
Downtown has the densest transit service in Florida. Government Center and Brickell are the Metrorail interchange stations for both lines, and the free Metromover covers the district with 21 stations on its Inner, Brickell and Omni loops. Brightline and Tri-Rail both use MiamiCentral at 600 NW 1st Avenue, Brightline since 2018 and Tri-Rail since its Downtown Miami Link opened in January 2024. Several City of Miami Trolley routes converge here, and bus service runs on Biscayne Boulevard, Flagler Street and NW 1st Avenue.