The Sunshine State is absolutely fabulous for shopping, and for us here in Jamaica it is about two hours away.

A standout has to be the Brickell City Centre, which is a veritable mecca for shopping in the vibrant cosmopolitan city of Miami.

Recently, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau’s Director of Communications (Latin America& Caribbean) Melina Martinez and Jeanette Lewis arranged a tour of Miami for journalists, which was delightful.

Our first stop was the Brickell City Centre with its iconic double-decker open-air pedestrian skybridge. 

Now don’t worry, the bridges are engineered with intentional structural flexibility, allowing it to absorb weight in such a way that the sensation of the skybridge swaying does not give you the jitters.

Last year, The Simon Property Group acquired Miami’s Brickell City Centre for US$550 million from Hong Kong-based Swire Properties. The Simon Property Group previously held a 25 per cent share, and such is its faith in this iconic landmark, it decided to own and run the entire show.

The Brickell City Centre is a five million square foot mixed-use development complex housing residential towers, boutique hotels, restaurants, bars, entertainment spaces, a cinema and the piece de résistance – a 500,000 square foot vertical shopping experience with 100 retail stores. This building was completed in 2016 and is located in the heart of the Brickell district of downtown Miami, with four levels.

Here you can find Nike, Apple, Saks Fifth Avenue, Chanel, lululemon, Zara, Richard Mille, Sandro, Kirk Jewellers, Mango, Dior and many more high-end stores. 

The Brickell City Centre is about luxury and elegance.  An apartment here may set you back around US$1 million, and that’s the entry sum.

This is a 5 million square foot utopia where retail therapy is encouraged and celebrated. 

A feature that will be introduced and Jamaicans will love is to shop to your heart’s desire, with all your goodies sent directly to the airport as you fly back home.

Brickell City Centre will definitely put your credit card to work. If shopping makes you happy, well, this is your happy place. The view from it is spectacular, and one can take in Miami’s quixotic glory. 

After some shopping, we grabbed a bite at “The Henry”, and I did wet my beak with a couple of Stellas (Artois) on a hot summer’s afternoon.

I’ll be back, and I’ll probably max out my credit card limit!