Live at the landmark Miami hotel once admired by Karl Lagerfeld

The Raleigh is being restored to its art deco glory with a revamp of the iconic pool and a new tower of luxury residences — including $150m penthouses

From a balcony overlooking sunny Miami Beach, the American developer Michael Shvo is contemplating his latest project, the Raleigh, a beachfront hotel built in 1940. Shvo’s track record includes Mandarin Oriental Residences, Beverly Hills; Aman New York; and office and commercial projects in Miami, where several signed leases set city records. The Raleigh, however, seems especially personal.

“I tried to buy the Raleigh twice before finally securing it — first in 2012 and then in 2014, when Tommy [Hilfiger] bought it,” Shvo says. “When I successfully acquired it in 2019, I ended up buying the two adjacent hotel properties as well, the Richmond and the South Seas, creating a three-acre site with 215 linear feet of beachfront. I’ve been mesmerised by the Raleigh and its pool since first seeing it around 20 years ago.”

The pool is indeed legendary. The hotel is named after English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh and the boldly outlined fleur-de-lys-shaped pool — which is said to have been based on Raleigh’s coat of arms — is surrounded by dense tropical shrubs and trees. Life magazine called it the most beautiful pool in the US in 1947, and in 2009 Karl Lagerfeld used it as the backdrop for his Chanel Cruise collection, with a finishing flourish from the (Chanel-clad) US synchronised swimming team. The Raleigh, the Miami media claimed at the time, “has evolved into one of the sexiest destinations on earth”.

The Raleigh is indeed a Miami Beach landmark: an eight-storey, 114-room, six-suite style-setter among the rush of art deco-inspired hotels built in the first half of the last century. Its Martini Bar and Tiger Room were chic hangouts right up until 2017 when Hurricane Irma swept through and the doors closed.

Now Shvo, working closely with the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board, plans to restore the Raleigh to its original glory, removing all the additions made over the years to create a 60-suite hotel operated by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts. A new, contemporary 17-storey tower will have 40 private homes — branded residences overseen by Rosewood — all with direct ocean views. Prices for the Rosewood Residences, two to five-bedroom apartments and five four to seven-bedroom penthouses range from $10 million to $150 million.

Alongside Rosewood, Shvo’s development company, SHVO, has assembled a crack team, including the leather-clad architect Peter Marino and the Miami landscaper Enzo Enea — a favourite with five-star resorts. The facilities, spa, gym, numerous pools, restaurants and beach clubs, will be lavish and numerous, to ensure exclusivity for property owners.

Shvo acknowledges that the Rosewood Residences set a new price point for Miami Beach, but says this is part of the city’s transition from “vacation destination to world-class urban resort”, helped by the recent relocation of many wealthy New Yorkers to south Florida.

“Miami has become the sixth borough of New York,” he says. “We’re bringing substantially elevated design, service and quality that doesn’t exist at present to arguably the most important property on the beach, under Peter Marino, one of the greatest living architects. When I bought the property my vision was to create a new market in Miami by the end of the development. But what happened in the meantime, helped by lockdown, was that that market is already here. Today demand for prime property in Miami is the strongest in the USA.”

Construction is underway and the project is set for delivery in 2026. What aspect is Shvo most looking forward to seeing on completion?

“Watching my children, Emma and Judah, now eight and four, swim in that famous pool,” he says, gazing off into the Atlantic. “Everyone has a memory of the Raleigh. It’s where they got married or met their partner or had a big birthday party or holidayed. And the pool is at the centre of it all.”

Prices for the Raleigh

The boom in Miami Beach prices can be tracked in the sales price of the Raleigh as it traded hands over the years. It cost $225,000 to build in 1940, according to the City of Miami Beach Building Card, then sold for a reported $25 million in 2002 to the hotelier Andre Balazs, $30 million in 2009 and $56.5 million in 2014 to Tommy Hilfiger. He had permission to turn it into a private members’ club, but the proposed renovations weren’t completed. With investors, SHVO paid $103.5 million for the Raleigh in 2019.