Miami’s hotel scene continues to thrive; the city’s hotel pipeline has thousands of rooms coming online over the next few years. Some projects breathe new life into small, historic Art Deco and Art Moderne buildings. Others are part of vast mixed-use complexes with residential components, a portion of the market that is having a major comeback.
Development is spread across town, both along the beaches (South Beach and further up) and in districts such as Brickell and its massive $1 billion+ Brickell City Centre project. We take a look at some (very) new openings and a number of hotels coming soon.
Faena Miami Beach
In late 2015, Argentinian hotelier Alan Faena opened Faena Miami Beach, the revival of the 1948 Saxony Hotel and start of his Faena District. This year’s Art Basel marked the official opening of the next phase of the district, including Faena Forum (an art and event space), Faena Bazaar (a retail space), and a second hotel in Casa Faena, a few blocks further north on Collins and 35th Street. The 1928 former Claridge Hotel, it has 50 rooms and suites surrounding a historic atrium with TASCHEN-curated book collection and small bistro.
Further hotel accommodation may follow in the next few years in the redevelopment of the final Faena District piece: the Versailles Tower. Originally designed by architect Roy France (also responsible for the Saxony Hotel), the exact details for what is now a concrete shell and the surrounding land facing the beach are still to be confirmed, but could include further hotel rooms and residences.
Nobu Hotel Miami Beach
About ten blocks further north, Nobu Hotels is working on the completion of its future flagship property: Nobu Hotel Miami Beach. Like its Vegas sibling, this is a hotel-within-a-hotel concept, with – once finished – 350 Nobu rooms in the historic Morris Lapidus-designed tower and 281 Eden Roc rooms in the Ocean tower. Right now, floors eight through eleven are up and running; the entire Nobu tower should be finished by the end of 2017.
Rooms feature restrained Japanese design, with light wood, lantern-style light fixtures and black and white prints on the wall. Also under construction in front of the Nobu tower is chef Helene Henderson’s Malibu Farm restaurant, due to open in January. Its roof will have a new oceanfront pool exclusive for Nobu hotel guests. Eden Roc rooms will also get a refresh.
SLS Brickell
SLS Hotels opened the first of three additional Miami properties in November with SLS Brickell, offering 124 Philippe Starck-designed rooms on the first ten floors of a 55-story mixed-use high-rise (higher floors are condominiums). Starck is also behind the interactive digital installation in the small lobby, with a group of monkeys in what looks like a giant iPad mirroring the moves of guests.
Outside, the parking structure is clad in Markus Linnenbrink’s brightly striped mural, which is topped by the tenth-floor pool deck. On the ground floor is restaurant Fi’lia by Michael Schwartz and – with its own exterior entrance – Bazaar Mar by José Andrés.
SLS LUX Brickell
Even closer to Brickell City Centre – in fact, across the street from EAST Miami, which arrived just before last summer – SLS is building SLS LUX Brickell, a similar mixed-use high-rise, though besting its sibling by a few floors (at 58 stories) and according to renderings with horizontal rather than vertical colourful stripes on the lower floors. In addition to residences, there will be 100 hotel suites (and only suites) by Yabu Pushelberg, a Katsuya restaurant and SBar. Opening is expected in 2018.
Hyde Suites and Residences Midtown Miami
Finally, near the burgeoning Miami Design District, there is Hyde Suites & Residences Midtown Miami. At 32 floors in total, there will most likely be 60 hotel suites on the first five floors, a Hyde Music Lounge & Piano Bar, as well as a full-service spa and seventh floor pool terrace. Completion will also be towards 2018.
Washington Park Hotel
Four blocks from Ocean Drive, the Washington Park Hotel combines four Art Deco buildings into a 182-room hotel. Martone bicycles are available for guests to explore the area, while an electric tuk-tuk offers a shuttle to the hotel’s beach. It will soon add a location of Employees Only from New York, a speakeasy-style bar and restaurant, in an early 20th century bungalow on the hotel’s property.
The Betsy South Beach
In time for its 75th birthday this year, The Betsy South Beach wrapped up two years of renovations that saw the hotel expand into the Art Deco Carlton Hotel next door. Now at 130 rooms – more than double the original 61 – one of the standout additions is a second pool on a 3,200 sq ft rooftop deck with ocean views. The new wing also has a library and conservatory with espresso and wine bar.
The Plymouth Miami
Just before the holidays, The Plymouth Miami arrived in Collins Park, next to the Bass Museum of Art. Between the four-story Art Moderne Building and a small annexe, there are 110 rooms designed by Fernando Santangelo. The shape of the historic, oval lobby is mirrored in the courtyard pool with on the ground floor an outpost of Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill featuring both indoor and outdoor seating.
Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club
On the northern end of Collins Avenue – at 91st Street towards Bal Harbour – Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club is now accepting reservations from the end of March. The development will bring together the 1930s Russell Pancoast-designed Surf Club and two modern towers designed by Richard Meier.
There will be 77 rooms and a few residential hotel suites, two restaurants, four swimming pools and a spa. Among the accommodation options will be five ‘Cabana rooms’, transforming the original seaside cabanas, with wood deck lanais and direct ocean views. Residences and private penthouses for purchase here number 150 in total.
The Greystone Hotel
Coming back to Collins Park, a block further south than The Plymouth and right on Collins Avenue is The Greystone Hotel, due in December 2017. Here, there will be 92 rooms, another rooftop pool with bar, as well as a basement ‘speakeasy’ lounge. Based on the renderings, some rooms will have private terraces and plunge pools.
Hotel Palomar South Beach
Back in October, Kimpton Hotels announced it will bring its Palomar brand to the Sunset Harbour area of South Beach, close to the Intracoastal Waterway and Venetian Islands. Hotel Palomar South Beach will have 96 rooms surrounding an atrium with rooftop pool, restaurant and fitness centre when it opens in 2018.
Fasano Miami Beach
By then, The Shore Club – currently managed by Morgans Hotel Group – will be reborn as Fasano Miami Beach, the first project in the United States from Brazilian hotelier and restaurateur Rogerio Fasano. Alongside 85 hotel rooms (down from 300+ today), here too there will be condominiums, 67 in total.
A 9,500 sq ft lagoon-style pool should be the largest in South Beach, set within an Enzo Enea-designed garden. Other facilities will include a poolside restaurant, an ocean-facing bar, and spa and fitness centre.
Collins Park Hotel
Opposite The Plymouth Hotel, an entire city block is being repurposed into the Collins Park Hotel, combining both historic Art Deco and Art Moderne buildings with new construction. While the project received approval several years ago, construction is still in the early stages, with not much more than a few original bare concrete façades standing. It will take a number of years to create a 296-room hotel along with a variety of restaurants, bars, and pools.
Yotel
Sometime in 2019, downtown Miami will welcome budget-chic cabin hotel brand YOTEL as part of its significant expansion plans (which also has seen airport properties rebranded as YOTEL Air). The cabins will have the brand’s convertible bed, rain showers and flat-screen TVs. Its ‘Club Lounge’ adds meeting spaces, a restaurant and bar, pool and gym, with the rest of the high-rise being residential.
Paul J DeVries
