MIAMI -- Four Marriott brands -- Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance,
Residence Inn and Fairfield Inn & Suites -- will be among chain
properties expanding their presence in Greater Miami between now
and early 2003.
Joining them will be hotels associated with Sonesta, Crowne
Plaza, Four Seasons, W (Starwood) and some independent
operations.
Ritz-Carlton will open its second hotel in the area in April,
the 115-room Ritz-Carlton, Coconut Grove, and its third one, the
375-room Ritz-Carlton South Beach, in the summer.
The Coconut Grove property will have a club-level operation, a
restaurant with a private dining room, a cigar bar, a cafe, a pool
grill, a fitness center, a business center and 5,000 square feet of
meetings space.
Guest rooms will have high-speed Internet access, dataport
connections and dual phone lines.
The South Beach project is a $100 million renovation of the
former DiLido Hotel.
Upon opening, Ritz-Carlton will have restored the DiLido's 1950s
Art Moderne style.
Features include a cafe, an outdoor terrace and private dining
room, a pool bar, a specialty restaurant, the Lobby Lounge (with
outdoor seating), a club level, a 13,000-square-foot spa and
fitness center, poolside cabanas and 20,000 square feet of meetings
space.
Overseeing sales of these properties as well as the 352-room
Ritz-Carlton, Key Biscayne, which opened last July, is Chris
Hamaway, area director of business travel.
Renaissance Miami Biscayne Bay is the new name of the 528-room
Wyndham Miami Biscayne Bay Hotel, which will launch a $12 million
overhaul during the first quarter of 2002, to be completed by late
2003.
The project involves 43,000 square feet of meetings space
(comprising 21 rooms on one level); new lobby and room designs
inspired by the planned Miami Center for the Performing Arts, and a
new restaurant.
The new management team includes Richard Morse, general manager,
who formerly held the same post at the New York Marriott East Side,
and Bob Loughran, director of marketing, formerly sales director at
the Ritz-Carlton, San Juan.
Meanwhile, the Dupont Plaza Apartments are being converted into
the 142-room Residence Inn Miami Downtown. It will open during the
second quarter of 2002.
The debuts of the three Marriott brands follow the Nov. 5
opening of a fourth brand -- the 182-room Miami Beach Fairfield Inn
& Suites. It completed a major overhaul when it was the Lucerne
Hotel.
The franchise is owned and managed by Charles Group Hotels,
Miami Beach, and offers 3,200 square feet of meetings space and an
art deco theme.
Sonesta will be involved in two new hotels.
Set for a spring debut is the 224-unit Sonesta Hotel &
Suites Coconut Grove. The property will have a fitness center,
8,000 square feet of meetings space, a business center and a
restaurant. The property is owned by Mutiny in the Park.
The 40-story Ocean Grande Resort Hotel Condominium, also managed
by Sonesta, will open in Sunny Isles Beach in late 2002.
The $100 million, 40-story project will have 362 units.
The Royal Palm Crowne Plaza, with 442 rooms, will open in Miami
Beach on Jan. 14 as a project of Peebles Atlantic Development
Corp., Miami.
As reported, the property will be the first and largest
African-American-owned and developed, full-service beach-front
resort, according to Six Continent Hotels, parent of Crowne Plaza
Hotels.
The property is a blend of two former art deco hotels -- the
Shorecrest and Royal Palm -- and new construction, such as an
all-suites poolside lanai building.
The hotel will have more than 150 suites and 6,000 square feet
of meetings and banquet space.
The Four Seasons Hotel and Tower postponed its opening in
Miami's financial district from spring 2002 to spring 2003.
When the $350 million mixed-use structure opens, it will be the
tallest building south of Atlanta.
The property will be 70 stories high and offer 222 hotel units
and 84 condo units, some of which will be in the rental pool.
Starwood's W brand is to arrive in the form of the 132-room W
Miami-South Beach, possibly during the first quarter of 2002. At
present, the property operates as the Ritz Plaza Hotel.
The $100 million Bentley Beach Condo-Hotel in South Beach, an
independently run property, will offer 110 luxury suites when it
debuts in the spring.