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The Related
Group Developing the Viceroy Resorts and Residences
on Miami's Brickell Avenue; Kor Hotel Group to
Operate
the 129 unit Luxury Hotel/Condo
By Douglas Hanks Iii, The Miami
Herald
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Nov. 10, 2005 - Jorge Perez, who
has made a fortune selling condominiums in a market
flooded with high-rise projects, now sees room
in another crowded sector: luxury Miami hotels.
Florida's biggest condo developer
plans to bring a hip West Coast hotel to Brickell
Avenue, where the Four Seasons, Conrad Hilton,
Mandarin Oriental and JW Marriott already compete
for well-heeled business travelers.
But Perez sees his Viceroy at
Icon Brickell creating a new niche by catering
to younger, stylish executives eager for South
Beach chic in the city's premier financial district.
The 129-room Viceroy will have a rooftop pool
and lounge on the 50th floor, a luxury spa, and
interiors by the designer behind the Delano, South
Beach's iconic boutique hotel.
"We want to be able to compete
for the same market" as Brickell's top-tier
hotels, said Perez, chairman of Miami's Related
Group. "We're doing it with a totally different
vibe."
When the Mandarin opened in 2000,
it was considered Miami's first top-tier hotel
since the Grand Bay's slide below five stars in
the 1990s. But the Mandarin quickly found company,
with three Ritz-Carltons and a Four Seasons opening
within 15 miles. The Setai, where rooms go for
$1,000 a night, opened this year in South Beach,
and a luxury hotel is planned for Miami's Watson
Island.
Surging room rates and a year
of low vacancies have kept analysts and developers
bullish on the South Florida lodging market.
But the constellation of ritzy
options (a Ritz-Carlton timeshare has been announced
for Miami Beach, too) have some wondering when
that market will be considered full. And, high
gas prices, slipping consumer confidence, and
hurricanes are prompting worries about some softness
in the travel market, both here and across the
country. And for Brickell Avenue, a slower travel
market could mean even tighter competition for
Viceroy.
"It's going to be tough,
just because of what's going on in Brickell,"
said Scott Brush, a lodging consultant in Palmetto
Bay. "You've got the Four Seasons and the
Mandarin and the JW Marriott. . . "
Last year Related signed a $94
million contract for the 598-room Sheraton Biscayne
Bay, which will be demolished to make way for
the Icon Brickell residential complex. One of
the three Icon towers will be named the Viceroy
Resorts and Residences, and condos there will
have access to Viceroy perks like room service.
Ninety of the 129 Viceroy rooms in the tower will
be sold as condo-hotel units, Related said in
a press release.
This would be the first East Coast
property for Viceroy, though the operator behind
the brand, Kor Hotel Group, also runs the Tides
Hotel, considered one of the hippest boutiques
on South Beach.
Perez has tentative plans to build
a second Viceroy -- this one actually in South
Beach, in parking lots surrounding the Taverna
Opa restaurant on the 100 block of Ocean Drive.
The sister property would give Viceroy's Brickell
guests access to the ocean through the Nikki Beach
Club. Perez hopes that will also give his Brickell
hotel a leg up on the competition.
Robert Thrailkill, general manager
of the Conrad, described the Brickell hotel market
as one that's seen steep revenue growth during
the last two years, but which still has plenty
of down time.
"There's basically six months
of great business, and six months of business
that we're all trying to get," he said.
He thinks the Mary Brickell retail
village opening in the Brickell area next year
will draw leisure travelers. But with many Brickell
buildings, including three of the four luxury
hotels there, pocked with plywood from windows
smashed by Hurricane Wilma, the financial district
suddenly finds itself challenged.
"There's still a lot of questions
out there about what this area might look like
in a few years," Thrailkill said.
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