(Bloomberg) -- If a few blocks of Collins Avenue in Miami Beach are currently commanding some $2.5 billion in hotel investment, it doesn’t take a lot to imagine how much more money is being pumped up and down the south Florida coast.
Include hospitality-driven real estate developments slightly farther inland from the A1A coastal highway, and the total likely reaches 11 figures. New builds in the area have come fast and furious in recent years, catering to a wealth boom that has made south Florida a national power center. As a result, the boundaries between neighborhoods have blurred, with Miami, Bal Harbour, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Palm Beach now forming an almost continuous (and continuously luxurious) seaside strip.
But one key difference between the southern and the northern ends of it is that several of the Miami projects will be under construction for years to come, while Palm Beach is preparing to cut ribbons on most of its notable openings this winter.
Here, a look at five new and recently renovated escapes “up north” worth adding to your next visit.
Palm House
London-based Iconic Luxury Hotels (whose grand UK properties include the stately Cliveden House and Chewton Glen) is crossing the pond and heading straight for Florida, where it’s reinventing a long-shuttered 1960s icon on Royal Palm Way. The 79-room property—expected to open in January—is done up in classic Palm Beach style, with floor-to-ceiling seashell tapestries in the lobby, Slim Aarons photographs lining the hallways and frilly pink umbrellas and striped cabanas surrounding the pool. The guest rooms further honor the Palm House’s heyday with plenty of coral-and-green art deco touches. But the food options promise to be more global, with a Nikkei (Japanese-Peruvian) restaurant set to fill the old Palm House Dining Room.
The Vineta
This Mediterranean revival building is nearly a century old, but now the Palm Beach landmark is getting a new lease on life as an Oetker Collection hotel, making it a sibling to the decadent Le Bristol in Paris and Eden Rock in St. Barts. It will reopen in the first quarter of 2025 with carefully preserved details—especially in the revived Leopard Lounge, a favorite celebrity haunt of the 1950s—and 41 refreshed guest rooms. The company has been tight-lipped about details, resting on its sterling reputation to build buzz, but one thing is for sure: A Mediterranean-inspired restaurant will add a little extra glitz to the original palm-lined pool. And it’s all a stone’s throw from tony Worth Avenue.
The Breakers
Palm Beach’s old-money mainstay has invested in a handful of updates of its own, adding a new $12 million recreation facility for tennis, padel and pickleball and reopening its exclusive hotel-within-a-hotel, the Flagler Club. The latter will have 21 guest rooms renovated by Tihany Design, which is adding details such as embroidered wall coverings, trompe l’oeil-style moldings and a coastal color palette to bridge the Breakers’ iconic Italian Renaissance architecture with the resort’s breezy beachfront location.
The Boca Raton
It technically isn’t Palm Beach, but it sure is close. And in December, Boca Raton’s legendary private club will introduce a $120 million transformation of its Beach Club resort with 210 marble- and velvet-clad guest rooms. It’s the last part of a four-year renovation to the broader Boca Raton resort complex—356 acres in all—which has cost some $300 million and aims to emulate the mega success of Bahamian tourism juggernaut Baha Mar. At the Beach Club, three new restaurants will include Mediterranean all-day concept Marisol and the toes-in-the-sand Onda. Guests will also be able to take pink Vaporina-style long boats across the Intracoastal Waterway to the Boca Raton’s main campus, which has 706 rooms and suites across four hotels, plus a golf course, 14 restaurants, a racquet club and a sprawling pool complex with a lazy river.
One to watch: Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa
This 1950s icon was recently acquired by billionaire Larry Ellison, whose growing hotel portfolio includes Nobu Ryokan Malibu and Four Seasons Resort Lanai. The Oracle Corp. co-founder bought the resort for an undisclosed amount, according to a statement. Though it appears to be business as usual for now at the seven-acre beach resort, Ellison has brought in a Nobu pop-up for the winter season. More updates are surely on the way for 2025.
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