Dacra, Fort Partners and their development partners are teaming up with a French hospitality firm on their planned luxury hotel and condo project in the Miami Design District.
Fouquet’s, a brand of over 100-year-old French entertainment firm Barrière, will be the flag for the hotel at Miami Design Residences Designed by Chipperfield and will manage the project’s condos, according to a news release from the developers. The brand also will lead the project’s dining concepts.
It will mark Fouquet’s first Miami outpost and second in the U.S., after opening in New York in 2022.
A powerhouse development team –– Miami Design District Associates, which includes Craig Robins’ Dacra, Nadim Ashi’s Fort Lauderdale-based Fort Partners, New York-based private equity firm Raycliff Capital and Qatari firm Constellation Hotels Holding –– plan the project with a 25-story, 143-unit condo building connected to a 12-story, 85-key hotel building. Miami Design District Associates, which developed much of the Miami Design District as a hub for art and luxury retail and dining, also consists of L Catterton Real Estate and Brookfield.
Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning British architect Sir David Chipperfield and Cube 3, the project is slated for the nearly 2-acre site at 39 Northeast 39th Street.
In January, a Miami projects review board approved Miami Design Residences, with some board members gushing over the design. The project “is raising the bar really for the neighborhood,” board member Gia Zapattini had said.
Fouquet’s also has hotels in Paris, Saint-Barth and Courchevel.
The family-owned company Barrière, founded in 1912 and led by fourth-generation family members Joy Desseigne-Barrière and Alexandre Barrière, is led by CEO Gregory Rabuel. Its portfolio includes 32 casinos, 200 restaurants and bars, an elite gaming club and 20 luxury hotels, according to the release. Fouquet’s, Barrière’s signature brand, opened on Paris’ Champs-Élysées in 1899.
Other developers betting on Miami Design District residential projects include Hunter Pasteur and The Forbes Company, which plan the 20-story, 107-unit Cassi apartment building.
Also, New York-based Helm Equities’ Live Local Act project in the Design District will be a 36-story tower with 278 residential units and an adjacent eight-story building with over 101,000 square feet of offices and some retail.
