Swire Properties Launches ‘Home Grown’ Creating Community-Focused Initiatives
Swire Properties Inc, one of South Florida’s leading international developers of urban real estate, will continue its long-standing commitment to the community and sustainable development with the launch of Home Grown this November – a multi-dimensional platform created to showcase the developer’s present and future facing commitments for the community. Through Home Grown, Swire Properties will create meaningful partnerships, charitable contributions with unique activations and experiences to expand its philanthropic scope throughout South Florida. Home Grown also supports the company’s ambitious Sustainable Development 2030 (SD2030) commitment to be a leader in sustainable development by 2030.
“Swire has been a longtime patron of sustainable and conscious living, and we are always looking for new ways to make a positive impact locally,” said Kieran Bowers, President of Swire Properties Inc, the developer behind Brickell Key and Brickell City Centre. “Our vision for Home Grown is to utilize this new platform to unify and inspire our community members to help underserved neighborhoods, the homeless and youth who all need a vital support system. By creating these ongoing sustainable campaigns and efforts for residents to partake, we are naturally creating a more responsible future for the next generation.”
To reinforce Swire’s commitment to sustainable development, the Hong-Kong-based company developed its SD 2030 vision to identify the full spectrum of its environmental, social and economic impacts. The initiative identifies opportunities for the company to decrease current and future energy consumption in its developments through long-term, community-focused projects, implementing design and architecture features that reduce energy use, and more. In recognition of Swire’s sustainable development work, in 2017 it was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.
With Home Grown, Swire Properties will launch the following three programs with local partners in 2020:
Home Grown at The Village: In partnership with The Lotus House, Swire Properties will support The Working Classroom Kitchen Culinary Program by providing kitchen training and meals with star-studded chefs for the residents of the Lotus House Village. To launch the activation, Chef Marcello Florio from Casa Tua will host a cooking class and dinner on November 17, 2020 for the women and children in the local shelter in celebration of Thanksgiving. The next series will take place on International Women’s Day (March 8, 2021) and Summer 2021.
Holiday Tech Drive: From November 18 – December 20, Swire Properties will partner with Overtown Youth Center (OYC) to ensure that students have access to digital devices, and robust internet connectivity. Entitled, the “Gift a Connection” initiative, which supports youth and families facing significant challenges during this novel Covid19 (Coronavirus) pandemic and beyond, the program ensures that students have access to robust internet connectivity. Swire Properties’ and its community members’ financial donations (https://overtownyouth.org/donate/) will support families in need with one (1) year fully paid internet/ Wi-Fi service, which will help in closing the digital divide in the neighborhood. OYC provides comprehensive services to at-risk-youth from kindergarten to 25-years-olds and their families, all of whom live in some of the most underserved neighborhoods in South Florida.
Christmas Tree Recycling Lot: Swire Properties will partner with the Miami Dade-County and Solid Waste Management to collect and recycle used Christmas trees from the residents of Brickell at Brickell City Centre’s North Square (6th Street between 1st Ave. and South Miami, across from Luna Park). The goal of this initiative is to encourage the Brickell community to recycle their real trees, as they are biodegradable to transform the materials to ready to use mulch, compost and woodchips from the trees. Swire will look to utilize the community donated recyclable materials for a future placemaking project with local partner organizations that deliver value and use back to the Brickell Community.
Additionally, as a long-term commitment to the community, Swire recently announced an additional contribution of $500,000 to fund The Underline over the next five years. The Underline is the proposed 10-mile linear park that aims to transform the underutilized land below Miami’s Metrorail. Similar to the concept of New York City’s High Line, The Underline will focus on transforming the space around Miami’s urban infrastructure and is set to be one of the city’s most ambitious projects. In May 2016, Swire Properties donated $600,000 to the urban trail.
Swire Properties is committed to transforming places they develop, while retaining their character to support communities and enhance people’s lives.