Hyatt Hotels is launching its new Hyatt Centric brand in April, and one of the first two hotels is opening in South Beach.
Hyatt Centric South Beach Miami, at 1600 Collins Avenue, was designed by Kobi Karp and developed by Robert Finvarb Companies.
The 10-story glass tower will have 105 rooms, 700-square-feet of meeting space and a lounge bar.
A Mediterranean-inspired restaurant, Deck 16, will be on the third floor next to the hotel’s pool deck. Chef William Milian, who has worked at the Viceroy, the Delano, Mondrian South Beach and Bazaar at SLS South Beach, will be the restaurant’s executive chef.
Brian Vujnovic, vice president of the Robert Finvarb Companies, said the hotel’s excellent location and unique design are sure to set it apart from others in the area.
“It’s the area’s first branded Hyatt in the history of Miami Beach,” Vujnovic told The Real Deal.
The first two Centric hotels, including one in Chicago, are adaptive reuse projects, meaning they re-purpose existing buildings. The South Beach hotel mixes modern and Art Deco architecture by retaining the front of a historic apartment building. The hotel replaced the Tropical Gardens apartments, located at the corner of 16th Street and Collins Avenue. Miami Beach’s Historic Preservation Society approved the demolition of the building’s rear in September.
The building’s old protruding eyebrows and windows mesh with the sleek design of the hotel’s tower, Karp told TRD. The new feature float above an original mid-century exterior. There is a gap between the tower and the bottom two floors, which is filled by the restaurant and pool deck.
“We had a unique opportunity to use a historic design as inspiration,” Karp said.
Robert Finvarb Companies took out a $29 million loan in November to build the hotel.