This particular project, from a development standpoint, is extraordinarily unique,'' said Edie Laquer, a real estate broker and one of the project's four partners. It's rare I ever participate in deals, but I could not say no to this.''

Neither could the Miami-Dade Transit Authority.

We're delighted to have development take place,'' said Danny Alvarez, the agency's director. Whatever takes place near a Metromover will increase ridership. The fact that it will straddle a Metromover line makes it more exciting.''

Bound by Brickell Plaza, Southeast 11th Street and South Miami Avenue, and bisected by the Metromover, the Flatiron building will sit on 0.8 acres of land, house about 450,000 square feet, Laquer said, and cost between $75 million and $100 million to construct. Laquer's partners on the project are restaurateur Steven Perricone, trial lawyer Jay Solowsky and Turner Construction's senior vice president, Michael Smith. The team closed on the parcel's northernmost chunk of land, bought from off-shore interests,'' late Tuesday and plans to court top-tier developers. Terms were not disclosed.

Boutique hoteliers have come knocking, Laquer said, and the county, long aching to get Brickell Village up and running, has pledged its support.

It's one of the many components showing the rebirth of the Brickell area,'' said County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro. A great addition to what's going on.''

Once a developer is on board, and a final architect selected -- Borges + Associates did the preliminary design -- the project needs the nod from the city's architecture, development and urban design boards, a process that takes between six and eight months. It will be about 2 1/2 years until it's delivered,'' Laquer said.

Real estate insiders are divided over whether the Brickell corridor can absorb the number of residential units coming online in the next few years. Nearly 9,000 condo and rental units are currently in various planning stages in the area, a figure that includes 2,500 in construction, according to Michael Cannon, managing director of Integra Realty Resources-AREEA/South Florida, a real estate analysis and consulting firm.

There is an aura of speculation, no matter what study has been done, if demand is greater than supply,'' Cannon said. The jury is still out.''

But the Flatiron's proposed loft spaces could muscle it ahead of the pack by catering to buyers who itch for trendy, spacious abodes. The South Florida apartment design layout has not kept up pace with the changing demographics that we are experiencing,'' Cannon said. Projects with a loft design will cater to young professionals.''

The project's shape and doughnut-hole train track also ratchets up its allure.

We don't really need more [product], but if you make it significant, especially with a Metromover, and go out of the box, like you do with loft-type units, then I think there's a market,'' said Lew Goodkind, a real estate analyst.

The segment of the Metromover line slated to run through the building runs East-West along 10th Street, just Southeast of the 10th Street/Promenade station. The line bisects the Flatiron parcel, which used to house the Martina Apartments on the north side of 10th Street and the now-shuttered Brickell Emporium restaurant to its south.

Trains will pass through the every 2 1/2 minutes. The building will be fully insulated against noise, Laquer said.

The Flatiron project was the brainchild of Smith -- Laquer's boyfriend -- who sketched his idea on a napkin at Coconut Grove's News Café one day in October 2000.

At that time, Laquer, a real estate diva who says she has closed nearly a billion dollars worth of property sales in Miami, was brokering the Martina Apartments. Perricone and Solowsky had already bought the parcel's southern tip and submitted plans to the city to reopen the restaurant.

When Laquer called to pitch the idea, they stopped in their tracks. We were getting ready to go in for a permit, but because of the excitement of this new deal, we decided to take a chance,'' said Perricone, owner of the bustling eatery Perricone's, a few blocks north of the proposed Flatiron.

Perricone plans to put one or two restaurants into the Flatiron and shops selling regular, everyday stuff that people need.'' Laquer has been pushing for years to transform Brickell Village into a vibrant 24-hour restaurant-and-nightclub mecca, and stemming the nightly outflow from Brickell's legions of condos to Miami Beach, Coral Gables and Coconut Grove.

At the end of the day, people will leave the [Brickell] area not by choice but by necessity,'' she said. Miami didn't have the luxury of planning the city as we needed. Since we missed the boat with Brickell, we can pick the boat up on Brickell Plaza.''