These hotel game-changers are remaking Miami tourism

South Florida These hotel game-changers are remaking Miami tourism
Miami's hotel scene is buzzing with transformation and innovation.
The revitalized Shelborne in Miami Beach honors its 1940 roots with renovated rooms, original architectural elements, and a vibrant new lobby bar. In Coral Gables, the newly opened Loews Coral Gables Hotel offers modern luxury with a rooftop pool, wellness-focused amenities, and standout dining options like Americana Kitchen.
Miami International Airport is preparing for the opening of a connected Westin hotel in 2027, featuring a rooftop restaurant and wellness-focused spaces. Meanwhile, Key Biscayne's Ritz-Carlton and the Dream Hotel on the Miami River are embarking on major upgrades, with the latter adding nightclubs, restaurants, a marina, and a raw bar in partnership with Garcia's Seafood Grille & Fish Market.
The view of the ocean at the glamorous Acqualina Resort & Residences in Sunny Isles Beach, which was just named the best hotel in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
NO. 1: LUXURY WATERFRONT HOTELS NEAR MIAMI BEACH JUST NAMED THE BEST IN THE COUNTRY
Miami-area hotels take top spots. | Published February 6, 2024 | Read Full Story by Connie Ogle
The new MIA hotel will be connected by a pedestrian bridge to MIA's North Terminal, Concourse D, where American Airlines is.
NO. 2: A NEW HOTEL IS COMING TO THE MIAMI AIRPORT. WHEN IS IT OPENING AND WHERE WILL IT BE?
What to know about the addition to the terminal. | Published February 22, 2024 | Read Full Story by Michelle Marchante
NO. 3: HEAD TO MIAMI'S CORAL GABLES TO FIND ELEGANCE IN YOUR NEXT FLORIDA GETAWAY
Escape the hustle of Miami and discover the serene charm of Coral Gables. From luxurious stays to top dining spots, your perfect getaway awaits. | Published July 31, 2024 | Read Full Story by Angela Caraway-Carlton
The waterfront terrace at the Peruvian restaurant La Mar by Gastón Acurio at the Mandarin Oriental on Brickell Key in Miami.
NO. 4: THIS BRICKELL HOTEL IS BEING DEMOLISHED. HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ITS POPULAR RESTAURANT
The hotel will close May 31. | Published January 7, 2025 | Read Full Story by Connie Ogle
Rendering of planned Riverside Wharf Miami
NO. 5: IT WAS A SPOT TO PARTY ON THE MIAMI RIVER. NOW A HOTEL, CLUB AND RAW BAR ARE MOVING IN
See new renderings, learn of updated timeline for the new project. | Published February 10, 2025 | Read Full Story by Vinod Sreeharsha
The Shelborne South Beach is undergoing an $85 million renovation. Above: The iconic Miami Modern-style hotel shown on Friday, March 28, 2014. By MARSHA HALPER
NO. 6: AN 85-YEAR-OLD HOTEL IN MIAMI BEACH JUST GOT A $100M UPGRADE. SEE WHAT'S NEW — AND OLD
'Our focus was on respecting the building's storied past.' | Published February 14, 2025 | Read Full Story by Vinod Sreeharsha
The Ritz-Carlton in Key Biscayne opened in 2001. By Chuck Fadely
NO. 7: A MAJOR MIAMI HOTEL IS CLOSING FOR A $100M REMODEL THAT WILL LAY OFF HUNDREDS OF WORKERS
Here's the timeline for the changes to a signature resort. | Published March 5, 2025 | Read Full Story by Vinod Sreeharsha
The summary above was drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All stories listed were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists.

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Yahoo

11 hours ago

• Yahoo

JetBlue is pulling out of the Miami airport, but will remain at FLL. See details

JetBlue Airways will halt service at Miami International Airport, the airline said on Saturday. The Long Island City-based carrier cited poor financial performance. JetBlue has a small footprint at MIA, with one or two daily flights between MIA and Boston. But 'to free aircraft for new routes, we've recently made the decision to end a small number of unprofitable flights including between Boston and Miami,' Derek Dombrowski, director of corporate communications, said in an email statement sent to the Miami Herald. The changes are effective Sept. 3, he said. Travelers booked on cancelled flights 'will have the option to fly via Fort Lauderdale or receive a full refund to their original form of payment,' Dombrowski said. The move was a business decision. 'We continually evaluate how our network is performing and make changes as needed,' Dombrowski said. JetBlue informed MIA of the changes on Friday, Greg Chin, communications director for Miami-Dade Aviation Department, said in a phone call with the Miami Herald on Saturday. He didn't elaborate on other details. JetBlue will continue to fly to Boston from nearby Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as well as West Palm Beach, Dombrowski said. The airline has a strong presence at FLL. In 2024, JetBlue served about 6.8 million passengers at FLL, down 2.1% from 2023 but still the second largest carrier at that airport, only behind Spirit. It carried 19% of all travelers to and from the Broward County airport. This year, JetBlue remains FLL's second largest carrier. Through April 30, the airline had 2.2 million passengers, even though that's down 6% from the same period in 2024. In 2021, to make a larger bet on South Florida as the COVID-19 pandemic was still in full force, JetBlue expanded at MIA, adding as many as 14 daily flights, including as many as four times a day to Boston. The airline also added direct flights between MIA and New York-JFK, Newark, Los Angeles and Hartford. Since then, JetBlue has scaled back service in Miami due to falling demand. It was also slowed down by the 2024 ruling of a federal judge in Massachusetts that blocked an attempted merger with Broward-based Spirit, citing anti-competitive laws. On Saturday, JetBlue had a total of two arrivals at MIA, each one from Boston, according to the airport's flight tracker. And it had one departure, also to Boston.

New York Times

12 hours ago

• New York Times

Forget the football – this is why the Club World Cup really matters

FIFA gave its 32 competing teams a billion reasons to take a revamped Club World Cup seriously when announcing its monstrous prize pot back in March. Each and every club had appetites sharpened by the announcement of a $1billion fund in March, with the lucky winner potentially walking away with up to $125million for less than a month's work. Advertisement The short-term gains have been there for all to see — $2m just for a group game win — yet it is the intangibles, a promise of commercial growth in a largely untapped market, that also ensures no participating club is dismissive of the opportunity presenting itself in the United States. The empty seats at many stadiums, and patchy quality of the football, may have sparked some barbed comments in more established football territories, but to the clubs involved, this is a brand-building moment and a chance to either entrench positions in the market or to spark growth. The European Club Association, which has 11 of its members playing in the U.S., are among those who champion the positives that jar with the ongoing workload concerns of players' unions. 'The ECA has been supportive of this tournament from the beginning,' said the organisation's chairman, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, also president of Paris Saint-Germain — one of the competing teams — on the eve of the tournament in Miami. 'We believe that the FIFA Club World Cup will become a landmark competition and can deliver real benefits for all clubs.' Or, in other words, the chance to swell their coffers. Strip it all back and the Club World Cup in its latest iteration is another money-making exercise for its most high-profile participants. A pre-season tour gilded and rebadged; an introduction to new audiences with cheques banked along the way. FIFA has issued soundbites from players and managers talking up the chance to create history by lifting silverware, but executives will inevitably be viewing it through a different prism for now. One where balance sheets build and their brand finds ballast. 'I know first-hand that the clubs competing in the Club World Cup are hugely supportive of it. They see it as a major opportunity,' Phil Carling, head of football at the marketing agency Octagon and formerly the Football Association's commercial director, tells The Athletic. Advertisement 'It probably goes back for the last 10 years, but at the moment, the scramble to capture, retain and, ideally, monetise international fans is particularly fierce. 'Any platform, like the Club World Cup, that gives you exposure in the right prestigious environment — and even better if you win it — is your opportunity to capture those fans and use that as an equity to build wealth through your commercial programmes. 'Talent follows money, eyeballs follow talent, and money follows eyeballs. Put that together and it helps to understand the commercial model for elite sport.' The revamped Club World Cup, spanning close to a month, is that new chance for clubs to sell themselves. It might lack the prestige and rewards of UEFA's Champions League, but FIFA's summertime competition has the potential to bring layered financial hits. Merchandise can be sold and social media followers gained on the back of exploits in the U.S. 'We can take a sniffy view of this because of long-held legacy attitudes about football and what is valuable in football,' explains Tim Crow, an experienced sports marketing advisor. 'But there's a new generation of fans to be won and that's really the key battleground. It's not about whether the traditional fan is won over, it's a question of whether new fans are won over.' Commercial revenue is the income stream where clubs are most emphatically the masters of their own destiny, and in the modern era, it continues to take on huge significance. Deloitte's annual Money League report, a ranking of the richest clubs in football, found that its top 20 generated £4.2bn of commercial income in 2023-24, which amounted to 44 per cent of the collective turnover. Of the top 10 clubs, only Arsenal had commercial revenues that were eclipsed by either broadcast or matchday income. Advertisement At football's capitalist edge, the scramble is on to secure international fans with money to spend. It is why Manchester United will head to New Jersey, Chicago and Atlanta next month after a post-season trip to the Far East. Arsenal have their own preparatory plans in Singapore and Hong Kong, while Liverpool and Barcelona are both travelling to Japan, among other countries. The suspicion is that Ruben Amorim, Mikel Arteta, Arne Slot and Hansi Flick will all be glad of the rest currently being afforded to their players, but the commercial departments of those teams tasked with raising profiles and enhancing brands and with targets to meet, will quietly be lamenting not being part of the Club World Cup. 'All of the big Premier League clubs not part of this will be wishing they were,' says Carling, who previously headed up Arsenal's first commercial team in the 1990s. 'There wouldn't be a board that got a call from FIFA to step in six months ago who would turn it down. They would've hired a rowing boat to get over the Atlantic. 'The prize money is one thing, but the prestige and where it positions you as a club, as an entity within world football, is very important. I doubt the players and coaching staff will be weeping that they're not involved, but being part of this is huge for the clubs that are going.' PSG's Al-Khelaifi is not the only prominent figure pleased to be spending much of the footballing summer in the U.S. Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano said his club was 'very excited' to be one of the 32 involved. 'I think it's something that was very much needed,' he told reporters this week following their opening game against Wydad AC in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Real Madrid's Florentino Perez was even more ebullient. 'It's a beautiful competition and I'm sure it will be a huge success,' he told DAZN. 'We've come here with great enthusiasm.' Advertisement The comments have the feel of people at a party telling those stuck at home of the fun they are missing, but there is substance to the propaganda. Every elite club remains locked in a battle to grow its brand and the bigger that gets, the more revenues can be generated. Real Madrid, Europe's most successful club, are widely considered to have built the strongest brand in football and in 2023-24, that was reflected in commercial revenues of £410m. 'There are three angles on how clubs can grow their brand (through the Club World Cup),' says Hugo Hensley, head of sports services at Brand Finance. 'One is global. You're going to have global exposure. But that really matters for the big brands that actually can monetise that rate, clubs like Real Madrid. They need to have that to maintain the prestige as being the best in the world. 'There's also local exposure. It's going to be brilliant for the Middle Eastern club who can say we're on this really prestigious stage and build engagement locally. 'And then there's exposure to the U.S. You get that very valuable market that all of these brands are hoping will be monetisable either now, or as a long-term brand growth prospect.' The location of this Club World Cup, played out over 11 host cities in the U.S., has undeniably added appeal to its participants. There might be huge numbers of locals who care little for its presence this summer, but the biggest European clubs concluded long ago that it was the market with the greatest potential to tap. There are, literally, millions without footballing club loyalties. FIFA ran a quiz on their website earlier this week underlining as much, inviting users to answer a series of questions that would help determine the club they should be backing at the tournament. 'If you asked most Premier League clubs to list the top three markets they'd like FIFA to take this to, the U.S. would certainly be in there,' says Crow. 'It's a giant economy. Forty cents in every dollar spent on sports marketing around the world emanates from the U.S. It makes a lot of sense to go there and try to tap into that engine. For big European clubs, they have been steadily working away at the American market for a long time.' Carling is in agreement. 'It is a $20trillion market and the richest domestic market in the world,' he says. 'Therefore, the consumers might be smaller in number, but their economic weight is much heavier than, say, India or China, where clubs used to feel they should be targeting. 'The pivot towards the U.S. is becoming very important in a lot of clubs' strategies. There are fans in the States who haven't made up their minds on who they should follow and here's an opportunity to capture those fans. And economically significant fans. You'll have those people then potentially going out to buy merchandise, follow the team in the future and subscribe to digital channels. More importantly, they'll be interested in brands that are associated with those clubs.' 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Chicago Tribune

a day ago

• Chicago Tribune

Pet hotel dubbed Ritz-Carlton for dogs to open in Deerfield

A luxury hotel is coming to Deerfield and its guests may be among the most exclusive on the North Shore. To start with, they'll need four paws and a tail, and perhaps a well-heeled owner. K9 Resorts, a national pet hotel chain which bills itself as the Ritz-Carlton for dogs, is opening its first Illinois location Monday in Deerfield. The facility features individual suites with high-definition TVs tuned 24/7 to DogTV and Animal Planet, premium shampoos in its bathing salons, antimicrobial play areas, an air purification system and of course, room service. 'We believe in elevating pet care to almost human-grade hospitality, hotel quality,' said Nehme Abouzeid, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Luxury Pet Hotel Investments, a K9 Resorts investor and franchisee launching the Deerfield location. 'We like to say that we're a hotel, and our guests just happen to be dogs.' Located in a former Mexican restaurant on a Home Depot outlot by the Metra station along Lake Cook Road, the Deerfield K9 Resorts underwent a four-month, multimillion dollar buildout to transform into a luxury pet hotel. Out went the kitchens and in went high-end accommodations for hounds that at first glance, might beckon their human companions to check in as well. It has a glitzy lobby adorned with chandeliers, ornate columns, tasteful artwork and a regal front desk. The inviting hotel rooms are numbered, set off by wall sconces, giving the ambience of a high-end resort for people, who of course, are paying the tab for their furry family members. 'I think that the attention to detail that we put into each resort is so obvious that it makes the customer, the two-legged customer, feel good,' said Jason Parker, 38, co-founder and co-CEO of New Jersey-based K9 Resorts. 'The dogs are very happy customers, because they're in a five-star hotel.' Started as teenagers in 2005 by brothers Steven and Jason Parker, K9 Resorts has grown to 45 locations in 28 states, including the new Deerfield pet hotel. Five locations are corporate-owned with the rest franchised. The dog hotel magnates have certainly elevated the traditional boarding experience, from cage-free lodging options and air purification systems to prevent kennel cough to offering individual or group play sessions coordinated by a trained staff of dog concierges and attendants. K9 Resorts doesn't offer potentially stressful activities such as grooming, focusing on amenities that dogs enjoy during their staycations. Allowing them to wind down at the end of the day with a TV in their own rooms is part of the luxury treatment. 'When they're relaxing after a day of doggy day care, and there's nothing better to have them on a very premium dog mattress, relaxing, having their own private space and watching some television,' Parker said. While the privately held K9 Resorts doesn't disclose systemwide revenue, each location generates between $2 million to $3 million per year, Parker told the Tribune. Meanwhile, the chain is poised for significant growth through franchising, driven in large part by Luxury Pet Hotel Investments, a group with extensive human hospitality experience. Last year, Luxury Pet Hotel Investments invested $10 million in K9 Resorts and secured exclusive regional development rights in Illinois and beyond. The investment group is headed by longtime hospitality executive Alan Leibman, former CEO of Kerzner International, which developed the Atlantis resorts. LPHI has raised $53 million in equity and currently operates eight pet hotels, with plans to build 50 more, including up to 11 in Southern California, 13 in Florida and eight in the Chicago area by 2029. Most recently, LPHI opened a K9 Resort near the Los Angeles International Airport in March. Choosing Deerfield for the first Illinois location, the investment group obtained a 10-year lease on the former El Tradicional Mexican Restaurant in July 2024, converting the 6,200-square-foot building to a luxury pet hotel after getting special use approval from the village. The location has housed a succession of restaurants, starting with a Bennigan's at the dawn of the new millennium. Other buildings on the sprawling Home Depot outlot include a Curaleaf cannabis dispensary and an empty McAlister's Deli, which closed its Deerfield location in April. Accommodations at the pet hotel run from $59 a night in the compartment wing of the hotel, bilevel crates with memory foam beds. The executive rooms run $89 per night for 4-by-6-foot enclosures and the top-of-the-line luxury suites are $109 per night. The 8-by-8-foot luxury suites include a premium couch or Kuranda bed. There is no mini-fridge or Wi-Fi, but each of the six luxury suites has its own 32-inch TV for the dog's viewing pleasure. 'We do put on DogTV and Animal Planet for a calming presence,' said Zack Nisbet, executive vice president in charge of the Chicago region for the investment group. In addition to extensive work within the building, the Deerfield K9 Resorts features a walled-in, 2,300-square-foot outdoor play area with artificial antimicrobial grass where diners once sipped margaritas on the restaurant's patio as trains rumbled by on the nearby tracks. While the Home Depot outlot has not necessarily proved fertile ground for restaurants, Nisbet said the high-traffic location should help drive business to the pet hotel. The pet hotel offers both day care and overnight stays, and can accommodate up to 150 dogs, with family multidog stays. It's located just west of a competing facility, The Dog Stop, which is on the other side of the tracks from K9 Resorts. 'The Dog Stop being across the street, actually excited us,' Nisbet said. 'That's proof of demand, proof that there's a lot of dogs in the area. We knew we could provide an upgrade to the region.' Chicago is a key expansion market for K9 Resorts and the investment group, which is currently scouting out potential locations in a number of areas, including Palatine, Libertyville and the city itself, Nisbet said. Nationwide, the luxury pet hotels have opened up in everything from a former Wells Fargo bank branch to a converted CVS pharmacy. One is even housed in a former Old County Buffet, the now defunct all-you-can-eat restaurant chain which closed its last Illinois restaurant five years ago. While most dogs probably would have been very content to stay at an Old Country Buffet without the renovation, after a lengthy multimillion dollar redevelopment in Deerfield, Nisbet said turning a restaurant into a luxury pet hotel would not be his first choice for the second Chicago-area location. 'This definitely was a fixer-upper,' Nisbet said. 'We had to auction off all the old restaurant equipment. I don't know what our best former use would be, but I wouldn't say it's a restaurant.'