The Real Deal South Florida
Rosewood Hotels to brand Michael Shvo’s Raleigh development in Miami Beach
Katherine Kallergis and Keith Larsen, May 03, 2022Shvo-led partnership paid $243M for the three hotels in 2019
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts will brand Michael Shvo’s Raleigh development in Miami Beach.
The brand announcement marks a milestone for the project planned for 1751, 1757 and 1775 Collins Avenue, which has been in the works for years. Rosewood will manage the 60-key oceanfront hotel and brand the 17-story, 44-unit condo tower that Shvo plans to build, according to a press release.
Cheval Blanc, a luxury hotel group owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, was expected to brand the hotel, but that deal fell through, sources told The Real Deal.
In addition to the new 175-foot tower, Shvo plans to restore the Raleigh, South Seas and Richmond hotels. New York architect Peter Marino designed the plans along with Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design. In March, the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board approved changes that allow for a deeper underground garage.
The historic Raleigh, built in the 1940s by Miami architect Lawrence Murray Dixon, is known for its iconic pool that was built for actress Esther Williams, as well as other Art Deco designs. The hotel closed in 2017 because of damage from Hurricane Irma. The waterfront property has been a vacant shell of a building for years.
The restoration of the Raleigh will include the Martini Bar and Tiger Room, and the overall project is expected to have a private member’s club with beachfront dining, according to the release.
Hong Kong-based Rosewood manages 29 hotels and residential properties in 17 countries and has 24 properties under development, the release states. The Miami Beach property will be its first in Florida. Together with the South Seas and Richmond hotels, the assemblage totals about 3 acres with 220 feet of ocean frontage.
Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger and Dogus Group bought the Raleigh in 2014 for $67.5 million. They planned to turn it into a private club, but ended up selling the hotel to Shvo and his partners in 2019 for $103 million, or over $1.2 million a key. That deal marked one of the highest per-room sales in Miami-Dade County.
The hotel is a key piece in Shvo’s real estate empire. Shvo, Serdar Bilgili’s Bilgili Holdings and Deutsche Finance America paid about $243 million for all three South Beach hotels in 2019. The three also partnered to buy the former Coca-Cola building at 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan for $937 million.
But Shvo and Bilgili split, leading to heated litigation that was ultimately settled. Shvo and Deutsche Finance remain in the Raleigh project.
The oceanfront development is the latest in South Florida to partner with an upscale brand. It joins Dezer Development’s planned Bentley Residences in Sunny Isles Beach, the Related Group’s Baccarat Residences in Miami’s Brickell, and Mast Capital’s Cipriani Residences also planned for Brickell, though Shvo’s development has fewer condos than each of those projects.
Farther north in Mid-Miami Beach, developer Vlad Doronin and Len Blavatnik are planning the Aman-branded hotel and condo project at the Versailles property in the Faena District. Doronin heads OKO Group and owns the Aman brand, and Blavatnik, founder and chairman of Access Industries, backed the development of the Faena District with Alan Faena, who is not involved in the Aman.