Miami Beach’s hotel year: the Delano returns, and the rest of the class

TRAVEL · MIAMI

Miami renews itself less by building than by restoring. The hotel story of 2026 was not a new tower but an old name: the Delano, back on Collins Avenue after years behind hoardings. Around it, a handful of reworked landmarks and smaller newcomers have changed the texture of Miami Beach, while several of the grander announcements remain drawings on a developer’s desk.

The Delano, white curtains and all

The Delano first opened in 1947 and became, in the 1990s, the hotel that defined South Beach as a scene. It reopened in June 2026 at 1685 Collins Avenue with 171 rooms and suites, including the Poolside Bungalows and two penthouses on the fourteenth floor. Ennismore, working in partnership with Cain International, has kept what people remember: the terrazzo, the white columns, the billowing curtains, the pool.

What is new is the programme. Paris Society brings Gigi Rigolatto, its Italian dining room, to the United States for the first time, with interiors directed by the architect Hugo Toro, and Mimi Kakushi, a Japanese restaurant and cocktail bar on the fourth floor inspired by 1920s Osaka. The Rose Bar returns as an eight-seat room off the lobby under restored Murano chandeliers. Elastic Architects led the restoration, and a members’ club and a spa, The Source, complete the picture.

A modernist landmark, recalibrated

A few blocks up the avenue, The Shelborne by Proper has had a full season to settle in. The building dates from 1941 and was designed by Igor Polevitzky, one of the authors of Miami Modernism, with later additions in the manner of Morris Lapidus. Proper Hotels spent some $100 million on it before reopening in May 2025 with 251 rooms, interiors by ADC Atelier, a restaurant called Pauline and Little Torch, a cocktail lounge reached through a dim corridor. It is the quieter counterpart to the Delano’s theatre.

Smaller arrivals, longer horizons

The rest of the year belongs to more modest openings. Unframed, Autograph Collection, a 150-room hotel near Lincoln Road with a façade by Rudy Ricciotti, opened in April. The Royal Palm in South Beach reopened after a renovation of more than $100 million as a flagship of Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio. The Ritz-Carlton Bal Harbour is scheduled to return in December after a full transformation.

Some names need more patience. Fouquet’s, the Champs-Élysées institution, has signed for a hotel in the Design District within a project designed by David Chipperfield, but the city’s tourism board now lists its opening for 2030. Aman Miami Beach is expected in 2027. A Virgin Hotels project in Brickell, once promised for 2023, still has no confirmed opening date.

Miami will keep announcing towers. This year, though, the city was reminded that its most persuasive asset is memory: an old hotel on Collins Avenue, its curtains moving in the sea breeze, as if it had never closed.

Details: Delano Miami Beach, 1685 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach. The Shelborne by Proper, 1801 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, shelborne.com.

GABRIEL SILVEIRADO, FOR WAYFARER.