Crane Index

The Crane Index maps active tower construction sites onto every condo building on own.miami. For each building it shows how many sites sit within 250 m, 500 m and 1 km, and which one is nearest. It is neutral information, not a score and not a ranking: a crane next door can mean a blocked view, noise and closed lanes for a few years, and it can also mean a neighborhood that is growing. Which matters depends on the buyer.

What counts as an active tower site. Two sources, merged into one list.

1. City of Miami building permits (the City's open dataset "Building Permits Since 2014", CC BY 4.0). A project counts when it is new construction that needs a certificate of occupancy, measures at least 150,000 square feet (the file has no story or unit count, so floor area stands in for a tower), has no certificate of occupancy, temporary certificate or final building inspection on record, and had a permit issued in the last 36 months. Rental, office and hotel towers count as well as condos: a crane is a crane.
2. own.miami's new developments: published projects that are not delivered, with 8 or more floors (or 100 or more residences when the floor count is unknown) and an expected completion no more than three years out. A development whose own address already has a certificate of occupancy in the City file is left out.

A development and a permit project at the same address, or within 40 m, are one site. Each site is labelled under construction (a matching active City of Miami permit, or the developer lists it as under construction) or pre-construction (marketed before completion, no matching City permit found; the City file does not cover Miami Beach, Surfside, Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles Beach, Coral Gables or the other municipalities, so sites there are always shown as pre-construction).

What we measure. Straight-line distances from the building's coordinates to the site's point, not walking or driving distances. A building that is itself under construction counts its own site. The list is rebuilt by hand from both sources about once a month; a site that finishes or goes quiet drops out at the next rebuild.

Permit data: City of Miami, Building Permits Since 2014, licensed CC BY 4.0. own.miami is not affiliated with the City of Miami.