The Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board is keen on Keyah Real Estate Group’s plan to reshape nearly an entire Art Deco block between Washington and Collins avenues.
On Feb 11, the seven-member body unanimously approved a new 262-key hotel project by Aventura-based Keyah and Grup Peralada, a family office based in Barcelona, Spain.
The planned redevelopment entails the partial demolition of the historic Haddon Hall hotel at 1500 Collins Avenue, as well as completely tearing down a pair of commercial buildings completed in 1948 and 1949 at 1509-1515 Washington Avenue, according to city documents and video of the board’s meeting.
In June, Keyah paid Miami Beach real estate investor Jimmy Resnick $20 million for the site on Washington Avenue. Grup Peralada bought Haddon Hall in 2018 for $58.2 million, records show.
Led by Xaver Kriechbaum and Gavin Crescenzo, Keyah would develop a new seven-story building connecting to the untouched portion of the Haddon Hall via a new courtyard and pool deck on the ground floor, renderings and plans show. Originally designed by one of Miami Beach’s pioneering architects, Lawrence Murray Dixon, The 115-room hotel is currently branded as the AxelBeach Miami South Beach, which focuses on room accommodations for the LGBTQ+ community.
The structures on Washington Avenue, consisting of a single-story retail building and a 13-unit apartment building, were designed by two other famous Miami Beach architects, Albert Anis and Henry Hohauser, respectively.
“One of the coolest things about this development is that we have basically unified three sites between Collins and Washington,” Kriechbaum said. “We are going to demolish the Washington Avenue buildings, but we came to a compromise with city staff.”
The compromise requires Keyah to reconstruct architectural elements of the two buildings slated for demolition into the new structure, as well as constructing the foundation on higher ground to account for sea level rise, said Crescenzo, Keyah’s other principal.
Designed by Los Angeles-based Rottet Studio, the new building will blend elements of Streamline Moderne, Spanish Mediterranean Regionalism and Miami Modern styles, a press release states. The project will also feature a rooftop pool and restaurant, a ground-floor restaurant, a 7,000-plus-square-foot ballroom and event space and a 10,000-square-foot spa and wellness center.
In addition to catering to regular tourists, the reimagined Haddon Hall hotel would target business groups and conferences in the arts, culture and entertainment industries, according to Crescenzo.
“There’s a huge shortage on Miami beach for meeting and event space,” he said. “Between the art world and music world, we are creating a space that would help bring in quality travel groups.”
