A popular Miami luxury hotel will be demolished soon. See what's coming next
In a city where towers come down as easily as they go up, a 25-year-old luxury hotel in Miami is closing and will be demolished. Even Will Smith and Penelope Cruz weren't enough star power to keep it going.
The Mandarin Oriental on Brickell Key, which opened in 2000 and known as one of the fanciest places of its time, will shutter May 31, 2025. Construction of a new hotel by the same owners will begin next year after the demolition in the first half of 2026. A residential tower will also be built on the property.
Plans call for The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Miami, to open in 2030. The complex will be a mix of hotel rooms and private residences. with the developers catering to the high-end luxury condo market and the super wealthy.
The north tower will include the new Mandarin Oriental hotel. That building will have 121 guest rooms and suites, about a third of the 322 rooms in the hotel that will be demolished.
'For an urban luxury resort, 110-150 [rooms] is the sweet spot,' Henry Bott, president of owner and developer Swire Properties, said in an interview with the Miami Herald. 'Larger than that, it becomes a more conventional hotel.'
The hotel tower will also have private residences: 66 condos and another 28 fully furnished units that the buyer can put back in the rental pool with the Mandarin and share revenue with the company.
Focusing on adding private residences and reducing number of hotel rooms 'creates a more luxurious product,' Bott said.
Travelers can expect new amenities including large pools with cabanas; a three-level, 100,000-square-foot outside area connecting the two towers called The Podium; and a spa.
'We'll have a signature spa with all the latest elements of wellness,' Francesco Cefalu, chief development officer for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, said in an interview with the Herald. The Mandarin worldwide is known for its spa service. But it's also known for its cake shop in the lobby.
The south tower, which will rise at the same time, will have 228 condos that are already for sale. Price ranges from $4.9 million to $100 million for the penthouse. About half the units have been purchased, surpassing a $1 billion in sales, Bott said.
Amenities for residential owners are plentiful and include a private movie screening room and sports for children.
The future and the past of the Mandarin Oriental
The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Miami is a joint project between the Mandarin Group and Swire Properties, which is the hotel operator and majority shareholder. The two are putting a combined $1 billion into the project.
Swire, owned by a British family and based in Hong Kong, started buying land on Brickell Key in 1979 and owns several high-rises there today. The site of the future two towers is the last five-acre lot the firm owns on Brickell Key. The company also built the nearby Brickell City Center shopping mall.
The Mandarin Oriental has been a top luxury destination for travelers, diners and celebrities through the years.
Will Smith, Chrissy Teigen, Penelope Cruz and the Real Madrid soccer team have visited. Peruvian tapas and ceviche restaurant La Mar was led by famed chef Gaston Acurio. And the hotel's signature restaurant Azul, which closed in 2019, was once helmed by Miami celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein.
In 2024, the Mandarin Oriental received one Michelin key, one of 10 hotels in Miami-Dade County to get the honor in the French guide's debut ratings of hotels. Michelin had previously long been watched for its assessment of restaurants. The hotel spa got five stars, the maximum, in the Forbes Travel Guide Star Awards. The hotel's spa license was temporarily suspended in August 2024 due to the lack of a designated establishment manager, according to the Florida Department of Health's suspension order, the Miami Herald reported at the time.
Popular high-end hotels have been moving toward the hybrid housing model. The Ritz-Carlton in Key Biscayne was among the first to build a block of private condos alongside hotel rooms. The Four Seasons hotel has a similar set-up. The Gale Miami Hotel and Residences opened in 2024.
Hotel demolitions also have been part of the South Florida cityscape in recent years, including the Deauville in Miami Beach and Dupont Plaza in downtown Miami. Next up could be the Hyatt Regency at the Brickell bridge along the mouth of the Miami River.
'The city has evolved enormously in 25 years,' since the Mandarin was first built, said Cefalu, the hotel executive. 'The market has become much more competitive,' driving the reduction in hotel rooms.
Bott, the Swire executive, acknowledged that since 2023 at the hotel, occupancy, average daily rate and revenue generated per room have not been great.
'Those rates are not trending upwards the past two years,' the Swire executive said. 'We're missing out on maximizing the full potential.'
Going smaller allows higher rates, he said, and 'makes it a more profitable product.'
The 'very high-end market' is where the executives think they offer advantages. That's in part because the Mandarin has grown a lot, too. When the hotel in Miami first opened 25 years ago, it was only the second Mandarin Oriental in the United States and one of just about 10 worldwide, said Cefalu. 'We were just a small company.'
Today, the Mandarin chain has 43 hotels and a pipeline of over 30 projects globally, he said. Once open, the new Miami hotel will be the North American flagship for the hotel brand.
In the U.S., hotel executives see growth ahead in the luxury market.
'In the high-end hospitality space, the economics are pretty solid,' Cefalu said.
He also said the hotel's location also offers something unique: 'An island secluded from Brickell and yet at the gate of everything the city offers.'
What the new Mandarin will look like
Here are developer renderings of the new Mandarin:
Amenities for hotel guests
▪ Signature Mandarin Oriental cake shop in lobby
▪ Spa with personalized treatments
▪ Beauty salon
▪ Outdoor vitality pool
▪ Wellness lawn, an outdoor area to conduct physical exercises
▪ Outdoor activity pavilion for outdoor training, yoga or spa treatments
▪ Grand ballroom with break-out spaces
▪ Three private meeting rooms equipped with conference and presentation technology
▪ Events terrace and lawn
▪ At top of hotel, an open-air rooftop pool and bar
Amenities for condo owners
▪ Eleven swimming pools
▪ Poolside lounge served by the hotel
▪ Ocean-facing pool with five cabanas and lounges offering views of Fisher Island, Key Biscayne and Biscayne Bay
▪ Lagoon Pool with six private villas with kitchenettes, en-suite bathrooms, outdoor shower, sun deck and infinite water view
▪ Wellness deck with hot tub, cold plunge and waterfront private cabanas allowing for outdoor treatments
▪ Hammock garden within a series of gardens
▪ Art walk featuring rotating exhibitions
▪ Indoor golf simulator with lounge seating
▪ Game room simulator with billiards table
▪ Private screening lounge for up to 14 guests
▪ Dedicated kids' club with an activity center
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