citizenM hotel breaks ground at Miami Worldcenter and eyes further expansion
A European hotel brand entering the South Florida market broke ground on one of its three forthcoming locations.
And more may be coming.
The Netherlands-based citizenM broke ground on Thursday at the Miami Worldcenter. The 128,000-square-foot hotel at 700 NE Second Ave. will rise up to 12 stories with 351 rooms. It will cost more than $100 million to build, said Craig Kinnon, citizenM project director.
The company will have two other hotels in the Magic City, one at the former Perricone’s restaurant in Brickell and another near the Lincoln Road Mall.
The hotel brand made its U.S. debut in New York in 2014.
“Who’s to say in time we won’t be in Wynwood?” Kinnon said about the possibility of future expansions in Miami.
The multiple spaces in Miami will allow guests to select a spot near the amenities they most want to visit, said Kinnon. “Do I want to go to the beach? Do I want to be near the buzz? Am I coming for business?”
The hotel has three other locations in New York and Boston. It will open another in Seattle in 2020, and break ground on other sites in Chicago and Washington, rounding out its U.S. locations to nine offerings.
The Miami Worldcenter location will be completed in mid-summer 2021, according to the project’s general contractor Suffolk Construction’s Project Executive Alex Suarez.
The other two citizenM projects will also be completed in 2021, said Kinnon.
citizenM is the first of three planned hotels to break ground at the $4 billion mixed-use project Miami Worldcenter spanning 27 acres. A 220-room hotel and 240 condo-hotel Legacy Hotel & Residences is in the pipeline, according to the Next Miami. A 1,700-room Marriott Marquis hotel is also planned.
The former will cater to the luxury market and the latter to the business traveler, said Miami Worldcenter Associates Managing Partner Nitin Motwani.
citizenM will cater to a wide demographic with more affordable pricing, said Motwani. The price range hasn’t been set, according to Kinnon, but prices at other citizenM locations range from the mid-$200s up to the mid-$400s.
Building a city within a city, said Motwani, it’s important to cater to as many demographics as possible.
And more lodges may be coming to Miami Worldcenter.
“Are more hotels in the pipeline? Time will tell,” he said.
Other hospitality brands are also entering or expanding in the market with spots near Downtown Miami, including Virgin Hotels and AC Hotel by Marriott alongside Element by Westin.
“It’s exciting the vibrancy in downtown with the Design District, Wynwood and Edgewater. I’m excited about the different hotel brands coming into Miami,” said Wendy Kallergis, president and CEO of the Greater Miami & the Beaches Hotel Association.
