It was a happy new year in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, mostly because the old year was so good. With Fort Lauderdale reporting record hotel occupancy and Miami’s development in overdrive, not to mention transportation options on the move, it looks like a bright 2015 on the southern tip of Florida. Sunglasses recommended.
Miami
You know something amazing is coming when a slew of new hotels in 2014 and 2015 aren’t the big news in Greater Miami. And fittingly, it’s all happening downtown, Miami’s original epicenter before South Beach and the suburbs emerged, a place that—two decades ago—closed its doors at 5 o’clock and yielded the night to its glittering neighbor across the bay.
No more. Downtown Miami, including the business district to the south and the art and entertainment center to the north, has resumed its position as the heart of the city, where a new beat has been set by dazzling sports and entertainment palaces, breathtakingly beautiful new museums, soaring hotel towers geared for business and apres-business travelers, and scores of cutting-edge new restaurants.
Several of those elements will combine at the Brickell City Centre complex, which will take over six city blocks of the Brickell financial district just south of the downtown core and fill it with shopping and dining, two mid-rise office towers, two residential towers and the 263-room East Hotel. Already under construction and directly next door to Mary Brickell Village–which until now had been the Brickell area’s newest dining and entertainment center–the project is slated for completion in 2016.
“They’re creating a city within a city,” says Barry Moskowitz, vice president of sales for the Greater Miami CVB. “And the East will be a five-star hotel.”
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But Miami’s appetite for construction, and cities-within-cities, hasn’t been sated quite yet. Breaking ground in January with an expected completion date of January 2018 is the Miami Worldcenter, a massive mixed-use development set on 20 acres of prime downtown land that will include a luxury mall anchored by Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s as well as a pedestrian thoroughfare of shops, cafes and nightlife venues enhanced by 4.5 acres of landscaped open spaces. And then there’s the meeting element: an 1,800-room Marriott Marquis hotel, touted as the largest hotel in Miami, connected to a 100,000-square-foot convention center.
“It boggles the mind,” Moskowitz says. “All of the streets are going to be intertwined with this project. It’s all about accessibility.”
Speaking of accessibility, Worldcenter’s western edge will be adjacent to the upcoming central station of All Aboard Florida, a new high-speed rail that will connect Miami to Orlando in three hours, including stops in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
“It’s going to be a completely hassle-free experience, and incredible for the convention market because it keeps the group together and allows them to add a pre or post trip if they want,” says Julie Edwards, All Aboard Florida’s chief marketing officer. “We’ll have 16 trains a day going north and 16 going south, with hourly departures.”
Edwards says the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach link will be complete by December 2016, with the full Orlando segment scheduled for the first quarter of 2017.
As if all that weren’t enough, Miami is adding still more hotels in 2015, including 1 Hotel & Homes South Beach, scheduled to open in March with 426 rooms and suites. Meanwhile, the “city” concept is making its way to Miami’s hotel scene as well, thanks to the Faena Miami Beach, which will restore the vintage Saxony Hotel while creating a neighborhood of residences, a theater and a cultural center. Slated to start opening in stages by fall 2015, the project is the brainchild of Argentine developer Alan Faena, who has assembled an all-star design team that includes film director/producer Baz Luhrmann and two-time Academy Award-winning production and costume designer Catherine Martin.
And for meetings and conventions, there is a final exclamation point: a $500 million re-do of the Miami Beach Convention Center, which over the years has hosted everything from a heavyweight boxing championship to a Democratic National Convention and, following a 1989 overhaul that doubled its size, major conferences, art events and trade shows.
“It’s going to be totally renovated, enhanced and expanded to become one of the country’s most important convention facilities,” Moskowitz says. “It will also be connected to an 800-room hotel.”
Construction on the new center is slated to start in January 2016.
Fort Lauderdale
Miami’s neighbor to the north also enjoyed a 2014 room boom, with full hotels, new and enhanced properties and healthy group bookings into summer 2015.
“In November, we were at 78.2 percent occupancy, the highest in the state of Florida,” says Christine Roberts-Tascione, vice president of convention sales and services for the Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB. “December was a strong convention month, with the Orange Bowl played here on New Year’s Eve, so the anticipated occupancy is that we’ll hit 79 percent. A lot of hotels are reporting presell bookings of 10 percent higher than where they were last year,” she adds.
With visitor numbers on the rise, Greater Fort Lauderdale is gearing up to meet them with a host of new properties as well as reflagged and renovated hotels.
“2014 was the year of the refresh,” Roberts-Tascione says. “Because of the economy and occupancy and months of continuous growth, a lot of investors have come looking to buy property.”
Among those transactions was the recent acquisition by Thayer Lodging Group of the 998-room Westin Diplomat Resort, which is now the Diplomat Resort & Spa Hollywood, Curio Collection by Hilton, with a $100 million enhancement on tap.
Meanwhile, the B hotel has gone through a revolving door of transitions and locations, with the original B Ocean Fort Lauderdale officially becoming the Sonesta Fort Lauderdale, the city’s first Sonesta property, and the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort now reflagged as the B Ocean Fort Lauderdale.
Whew. But there’s much more on the horizon, Roberts-Tascione says, including Greater Fort Lauderdale’s first Melia hotel, which will be the second Melia property ever in the U.S. (the first being in Orlando). Set for a September opening, the Melia Costa Hollywood Beach Resort will overlook the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway and will offer 304 fully furnished hotel and residential “smart units” ranging from studios to three-bedroom units as part of a new six-story Costa Hollywood Beach resort community.
Hollywood Beach also will be home to the 349-room Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort, opening this summer on the Broadwalk—Hollywood Beach’s famed 2.5-mile oceanside promenade—with seven restaurants and bars, multiple pools, extensive water recreation, 30,000 square feet of flexible function space and a laid-back vibe inspired by the Jimmy Buffett song, Margaritaville.
“We’re giving people a ‘license to chill,’ offering a casual atmosphere that’s all-Florida, with something for everyone,” says Manny Corral, Margaritaville’s director of sales andmarketing. “You can have your meeting and be as active or relaxed as you want to be.”
On the transportation front, Fort Lauderdale is also buzzing about the upcoming All Aboard Florida rail service, which Roberts-Tascione says will help travelers navigate their way from city to city, noting that European visitors in particular may find the train appealing.
“Europeans are used to traversing their entire area easily by train, and they’re often surprised when they come to Florida and find out they have to rent a car,” she says. “So this rail system is going to help.”
International travel has also prompted major renovations at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, which is in the midst of an upgrade that includes a new runway and concourse, new restaurants, renovated terminals and a skywalk designed by a local artist. International flights now total 17 percent of traffic to the airport, a direct result of new service launching from Latin America and the Caribbean via JetBlue, as well as increased service on Spirit Airlines to the Dominican Republic and new service from Panama City, Panama, on Copa Airlines. In addition, other international carriers, including Azul Airlines and TAME Airlines, have added new service from Brazil and Ecuador, respectively.
“We’ve increased domestic service as well, which is important to meeting planners,” Roberts-Tascione says.
Meanwhile, with Fort Lauderdale kicking off its 100th birthday celebration last October, visitors can look forward to a year of art and performance projects, culminating in Duende Oct. 2-4, billed as a mosaic of art, culture and entertainment. See www.broward.org for details.
