The Downtown Miami Areawide DRI was the first of its kind in the state of Florida.  The concept was the blanket approval of certain levels of expected development in order to plan the needed improvements in a comprehensive manner, while at the same time facilitating the approval of major development projects.  These objectives were met for an area that is two square miles of the most intense development in the state and the southern United States.  The approval included 7.4 million square feet (msf) of office, 1.0 msf of retail, 1.0 msf of wholesale/ industrial space, 500,000 square feet (sf) of convention space, 300,000 sf of institutional uses, 1,000 hotel rooms, and 3,400 attraction seats.

DPA coordinated the entire approval process and performed all the required traffic studies.  DPA created the concept of a land use exchange matrix that provided for increasing the allowed amounts of certain uses by balancing them, from a traffic standpoint, with reductions in the expected levels of other land uses.  The matrix has been used to modify the original approvals extensively in order to accommodate the unique needs of new development being attracted to downtown Miami.