1. PHOTOGRAPHYBYCOMOHOTELSANDRESORTS
The hydrotherapy pool at
Metropolitan by Como,
the first US hotel for the
Singaporean luxury
hospitality firm and one
of the first ripples in the
current wave of Miami
hotel debuts.
HOTEL
HEAVEN
MIAMI IS EMERGING AS THE
EPICENTER FOR NEW HOTEL
LAUNCHES AND BRAND
EXPANSIONS FOR THE
GLOBAL HOSPITALITY TRADE.
BY MARCELLE SUSSMAN FISCHLER
It’s no secret that the industry
driving South Florida’s billion-
dollar tourism business is
hospitality. On and off the
beach, Miami is teeming with
new hotels—some of them global
brand expansions, some of
them North American debuts.
Attracted by the city’s demo-
graphics (including its diversity),
many luxe international brands,
such as Argentina’s Faena,
Spain’s ME by Meliá,
Singapore’s Como Hotels and
Resorts, and Swire’s Hong
Kong-based East, have recently
made their US debuts in Miami.
Hotels are “just exploding
right now,” says Paul Gray,
founder and managing director
of Cube, The Hospitality
Group. “Many brands have
launched here.”
East (788 Brickell Plz., 305-
712-7000; east-miami.com), a
40-story tower with a Zen-like
aura at Brickell City Centre,
boasts 352 rooms, three floors of
event spaces, the Asian-inspired
rooftop bar Sugar, and the
Uruguayan restaurant Quinto
La Huella. “We brought a brand
to the US,” says Laurent
Fraticelli, East’s general man-
ager, whose company saw a
need for hotels close to Latin
American banks and businesses,
“for those who balance their
lives between South America
and Miami.”
The eco-chic flagship 1 Hotel
South Beach (2341 Collins
Ave., Miami Beach, 305-604-
206 OCEANDRIVE.COM
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2. 1000; 1hotels.com) debuted
last year, unexpectedly ahead
of the brand’s New York City
outpost. “With such a global
community and a thriving art
and culture scene, Miami is
an ‘it’ city for new hotels to
make their mark,” says Barry
Sternlicht, CEO and chairman
of 1 Hotels.
At the lavish 169-room
Faena Hotel (3201 Collins
Ave., Miami Beach, 305-534-
8800; faena.com), where
oceanfront suites go for $1,899
a night during high season,
the lobby—known as the
“Cathedral”—wows with gold
columns and colorful murals.
Heralding what some are
calling the city’s first South
American district, the
Argentinean hotel has a plush
French-style cabaret, with an
arts forum and bazaar set to
open across the street.
Meanwhile, the oceanfront
Miami Beach Edition (2901
Collins Ave., Miami Beach, 786-
257-4500; editionhotels.com),
a 294-room boutique hotel
from Marriott, has “exceeded
expectations” since opening in
December 2014, says Ben
Pundole, vice president of
brand experience for
Marriott’s Edition Hotels.
Building in Miami was an easy
choice, he adds, as the United
States has now become “tri-
coastal—Los Angeles, New
York, and Miami.”
Two years ago, the 75-room
Metropolitan by Como
(2445 Collins Ave., Miami
Beach, 305-695-3600, como
hotels.com), from Como Hotels
and Resorts, nattily reinvented
the Art Deco vibe of the
Traymore, while Nobu Hotels
is revamping 210 guest rooms
on one side of its reimagined
Eden Roc Miami Beach
(4525 Collins Ave., Miami
Beach, 305-531-0000; eden
rocmiami.com). And this sum-
mer, ME by Meliá (1100
Biscayne Blvd., 888-956-
3542; www1.melia.com)
made its US premiere with
ME Miami, a 129-room down-
town luxury-lifestyle hotel.
“Miami is a key destination on
the global road map of the
stylish urbanite that ME
attracts,” says Meliá Hotels
International’s Tony Cortizas,
vice president of global
brand strategy. Already in
London, Ibiza, Cabo San
Lucas, and Milan, the com-
pany saw Miami as “a natural
next step,” with Cortizas call-
ing the city a hospitality
trendsetter “like Shanghai,
Dubai, and London.”
Last year, Lionstone
Development opened the
Ritz-Carlton, Bal Harbour
(10295 Collins Ave., Bal
Harbour, 305-455-5400;
ritzcarlton.com). “Miami is on
par with larger markets, like
New York and London, as a
showcase of innovation in the
hospitality space,” says CEO
Diego Lowenstein. “Brands
that are conceived in South
America, or for that matter
Europe, can use Miami to
springboard into the US.”
With art districts, acclaimed
restaurants, and a renovated
convention center set to open
in 2018, “Miami transformed
itself into more than just a
fun-in-the-sun destination,”
he adds. Growth and maturity
in financial services and tech-
nology and a burgeoning
start-up scene promise “to
attract a greater number of dis-
cerning business travelers,”
with European and Asian visi-
tors adding to a tourist mix
that was once heavily depen-
dent on the Northeast and
Latin America.
Emerging as one of the big-
gest players in town, the Los
Angeles-based SBE Hotel
Group entered the Miami
The acclaimed
Mandarin Oriental,
which opened in 2000,
presaged Miami’s
current hotel boom.
below: The Style Suite
at ME Miami, the US
debut of ME by Meliá,
a brand of luxury-
lifestyle hotels from
the Spanish firm Meliá
Hotels International.
oceandrive.com 207
“MiaMi is a key destination
on the global road Map of
the stylish urbanite that
Me attracts.”
—tony cortizas

3. photographybyrobinhill(1hotel)
market four years ago with the
playful yet sophisticated 140-
room SLS South Beach
(1701 Collins Ave., Miami
Beach, 305-674-1701; sls
hotels.com), but recently it
acquired the Morgans Hotel
Group’s Delano (1685
Collins Ave., Miami Beach,
305-672-2000; morganshotel
group.com) and Mondrian
(1100 West Ave., Miami
Beach, 305-514-1500;
morganshotelgroup.com).
“Miami is a great market, a
very affluent travelers’ desti-
nation,” says Thomas
Meding, a senior vice presi-
dent with SBE. Its upcoming
58-story SLS Lux will have 84
hotel suites and 450 condo-
miniums, while three blocks
away, the 52-story SLS
Brickell (1300 S. Miami Ave.,
305-533-1350; slsbrickell.com)
will have 124 hotel rooms.
While upscale visitors have
an abundance of new choices,
frugal travelers needn’t feel
left out. Next year, Generator
Hostels will open a 360-bed
“experience-based shared
accommodation” in South
Beach for “style-savvy and
progressive travelers,” says
Fredrik Korallus, CEO of the
London-based brand.
Value-minded guests
seeking a “very ’50s” mom-
and-pop-style hotel can opt for
the South Beach Group’s new
50-room Oceanside (6084
Collins Ave., Miami Beach,
305-763-8125; oceanside
hotelmiamibeach.com). The
opening rate of $99 a night
will escalate to $200 in
season, says owner Nathan
Lieberman, who has capital-
ized on the South Florida
hotel boom with a number of
hospitality projects in and
around town.
Meanwhile, hospitality
giants are entering the bou-
tique business. Hyatt bought
the Thompson and has trans-
formed it into the Confidante
(4041 Collins Ave., Miami
Beach, 305-424-1234;
theconfidante.unbound.
hyatt.com), just blocks away
from the new Hyatt Centric
(1600 Collins Ave., Miami
Beach, 305-428-1234;
southbeachmiami.centric.
hyatt.com), while Sixty Hotels
has added the Nautilus
(1825 Collins Ave., Miami
Beach, 305-503-5700; sixty
hotels.com) to its growing
roster in New York and LA.
And Virgin Hotels even
calls the Magic City home.
“Miami’s international flair
and diverse community make
it the perfect location for our
headquarters as we branch
out to Europe and Latin
America,” says CEO Raul
Leal, who brought his entire
team here and expects to
build a Virgin Hotel or two in
Brickell or Miami Beach
within two years. .
A rendering of SLS
Brickell, scheduled to
open in October, one
of two new SLS hotels
arising in Brickell,
joining Miami Beach’s
SLS South Beach.
The Presidential
Suite at 1 Hotel
South Beach, the
flagship location
of the eco-luxury
brand 1 Hotels.
208 oceandrive.com
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