Published: April 12, 2026 at 7:33 AM
Brickell Key Bridge closes from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
WATCH LIVE: Miami Mandarin Oriental to implode at 8:30 a.m.
MIAMI — If all goes as planned, engineers will implode the Mandarin Oriental Miami, a 26-year-old 23-story hotel in Brickell Key, in 20 seconds at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday. Engineers said it will collapse inward.
Swire Properties, a real estate developer, worked with BG Group personnel and Miami police officers to close the Brickell Key Bridge, which connects the man-made, triangular-shaped island to Brickell.
The bridge will reopen at 1:30 p.m. The deadline for residents to leave Brickell Key was 7 a.m. The BG Group personnel asked residents to keep windows closed and turn off their air conditioning units during the implosion.
Emergency vehicles were staged at 6:30 a.m. The vibration monitors were installed at 6 a.m.
The final setup of barricades and signage to secure the “exclusion zone” on both land and water was at 4 a.m.
The implosion will make way for the two-story The Residences at Mandarin Oriental that Swire Properties expects to complete in 2030.
Crowd gets last pictures of building
Crowd gets last pictures of Mandarin Oriental Miami
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Hannah Yechivi
Andrea Torres
