While move-ins began in Met 1 earlier this year, Met 2 is inching closer to completion. According to the Real Deal, the Miami-based MDM Development Group has topped off construction of its 47-story Met 2 Financial Center office tower, saying that the building will be completed by April 2010.

Met 2, a joint venture between MDM Development and New York City-based MetLife Inc., is comprised of two separate towers connected by a first-floor lobby. The office tower is joined by a 42-story Marriott Marquis hotel and the city’s first Hotel Beaux Arts.

The original plans for Metropolitan Miami, which Haute Living detailed in our cover article on Shaquille O’Neal, whose O’Neal Group is involved in the project, called for a Met 3 residential tower as well. Metropolitan Miami was to be a $1 billion mixed-use project on 9.3-acres of land in downtown Miami. Originally scheduled for completion this year, it was to consist of the 47-story office tower; the 42-story luxury hotel; an entertainment complex called Met Square; restaurant and retail options including the top Zagat-rated Manny’s Steakhouse (which is currently in operation in Met 1); and two residential towers called Met 1 and Met 3. Met 3, the tower in which Shaq has already purchased a unit, was set to be the tallest residential building south of New York City at 76 stories, but the residential portion of the project has been put on hold. Ground will be broken on the parking pedestal and retail space of Met 3 in 2010, and these are projects that will be crucial for the area.

Via Real Deal