Walk south along the water from the Pérez Art Museum on a Tuesday evening and the path just stops. Not fades, not narrows. Stops. You're standing under the MacArthur Causeway looking at the old Miami Herald site, and the promenade that's supposed to carry you along Biscayne Bay simply isn't there yet. If you live in this corridor, you already know this. You've probably rerouted around it a hundred times.
What you might not know is that the gap finally has a price tag, a design, and a timeline attached to it this year, while three restaurants that didn't exist twelve months ago have already opened along the same stretch of waterfront. That's the real story of Brickell and downtown Miami in 2026: the promises about connectivity are becoming specific enough to evaluate, but the dining scene got there first.
A Bridge Almost 50 Years in the Making
The idea that Miami's waterfront should be walkable isn't new. It dates to a 1979 city ordinance requiring new buildings along Biscayne Bay and the Miami River to set back from the water and maintain a public promenade. What that ordinance didn't specify was any design standard, so for four decades the Baywalk grew as a patchwork, a stretch of pavers behind one condo, a gap behind another, depending on when each building went up and whether its developer felt like cooperating.
The stretch beneath I-395, between Maurice A. Ferré Park and the old Herald site, has been the most stubborn piece of that patchwork. On March 12, Miami city commissioners approved the design for what's now called the I-395 Baywalk Pedestrian and Bikeway Bridge, selecting a concept known as the Bay 2-Enhanced Connector. The bridge will run roughly 600 feet over the bay, threading through the second bay of the causeway's support columns, and the first phase carries an estimated budget of about $2.14 million, according to Miami Today's coverage of the vote. City projections tied to the completed bridge estimate it could generate somewhere between $1.46 million and $1.95 million in additional annual property tax revenue once the surrounding waterfront is fully connected.
That's a meaningful number against a small first-phase spend. But the vote didn't build the bridge. It authorized staff to chase grant funding, secure permits, and start procurement. Neal Schafers, head of urban planning at the Miami Downtown Development Authority, put the current situation to the Miami Herald editorial board in blunt terms:
"People going north are taking their life into their own hands."
That's the state of the Baywalk today. The design is locked. Construction isn't.
The Underline's Bill Keeps Climbing Too
A few blocks inland, a second long-promised connector is closer to done but has its own complications. The Underline, the linear park running under the Metrorail from the Miami River to Dadeland South, has two segments already open: Brickell Backyard from the river to SW 13th Street, and the stretch reaching SW 19th Avenue near Vizcaya station. The third and final phase, 7.36 miles running from there to Dadeland South, is the piece that's supposed to finish this year, according to Miami-Dade County's own project page.
"Supposed to" is doing some work in that sentence. An August 2026 report from Miami Today shows county commissioners approving another $2.25 million increase to the engineering contract for that final leg, pushing the total contract with Calvin, Giordano & Associates to $8.25 million and extending the construction timeline another 270 days. Commissioner Oliver Gilbert voted against the increase, one of three no votes, arguing the county keeps funding an asset it won't ultimately manage. It's not the first cost jump. The whole Underline project was pitched at roughly $100 million back in 2016 and called fully funded at $140 million by 2022. The number has kept moving since.
Here's what that looks like side by side:
| Project | Segment | Cost detail | Status as of August 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| I-395 Baywalk Bridge | Ferré Park to old Herald site, ~600 ft | ~$2.14 million (Phase 1 estimate) | Design approved March 12; grant application and permitting underway |
| The Underline, Phase 3 | SW 19th Ave to Dadeland South, 7.36 miles | Engineering contract alone now $8.25 million, up $2.25 million this year | Under active construction; 270-day extension just approved |
Neither of these is a reason to distrust the projects. Both are reasons to hold the "finished by 2026" framing loosely if you're planning your own routine around it.
Dinner Got There First
While the concrete and permitting moved at government speed, the restaurants meant to greet the people who'll eventually use these paths didn't wait around.
Atop 830 Brickell, the city's first purpose-built Class A-plus office tower in more than a decade, a new restaurant called Seia opened on March 14. It's a two-floor concept from OKO Group and the Bastion Collection, the same group behind Le Jardinier and Miami's only two-Michelin-starred L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. The 54th floor is open to the public; the 55th floor operates as a private members' club. It's the kind of opening that only makes sense once you already have the density and daytime foot traffic Brickell's office towers now generate.
Down on Brickell Key, a different kind of gap got filled. La Mar closed when the Mandarin Oriental Miami began a major renovation in May of 2025, leaving the island without an obvious dinner answer for the better part of a year. That changed on April 9, when The Mexican, a Dallas import from entrepreneur Roberto González Alcalá, opened its doors on the waterfront. The space runs more than 10,000 square feet and seats over 330 people across a tequila gallery, two private dining rooms, and a lower terrace that steps down toward the water. For a small, mostly residential island that's historically been better known for its jogging path than its dinner reservations, that's a real shift in what a Tuesday night there can look like.
A few blocks over at Mary Brickell Village, Hai Hospitality, the Austin-based group behind Uchi and Uchiko, brought its third concept, Uchibā, to the neighborhood this spring. It's a smaller, bar-forward Japanese spot, roughly 3,500 square feet with a 56-seat dining room and an 8-seat sushi bar, joining the group's existing Wynwood and Miami Beach locations.
Three different scales of restaurant, three different corners of the same corridor, all open before the bridge that's supposed to connect them.
What's Actually Open Right Now
If you live here and want to use what's already built rather than wait for what's still coming, the open sections of The Underline carry a real weekly calendar. As of this writing, that includes:
- A Saturday farmers market beneath The Underline in Brickell, running weekly through October 10, 2026
- A free weekly yoga class at the Inter Stage, running through December 18, 2027
- A community fitness class combining strength training with a guided group run, through October 18, 2026
- A monthly night run on the third Wednesday of the month, through September 16, 2026
Worth knowing too: access along the existing Baywalk isn't always guaranteed. The gates at the Four Ambassadors building marina, near the foot of the Brickell Key bridge, are sometimes closed, which can block a stretch of the path that's technically open on paper.
The Actual Shift Here
None of this means the neighborhood's connectivity promises are empty. The Baywalk bridge has a locked design and a funding pathway for the first time in years. The Underline's final phase is genuinely under construction, not just planned. But if you're timing your expectations to press releases that say "2026," the honest read is that the paved half of this story is running behind the poured-concrete-and-white-tablecloth half. The restaurants beat the sidewalks.
For residents, that's not bad news. It means you can eat well on this corridor tonight without waiting on a bridge vote. It just means the fully connected waterfront walk you've been hearing about is closer than it's been in nearly 50 years, and still not quite here.
If you're weighing what any of this means for property values along the corridor, or you're simply curious how these projects tend to move once funding clears, the Hidy Homes Team tracks this kind of neighborhood-level change as part of how we work Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, and the greater Miami market every day. Reach out anytime you want a local read on what's actually happening on the ground, not just what's on the agenda.
