The Raleigh Hotel in the
South Beach
South Beach, also nicknamed colloquially as SoBe, is a neighborhood in Miami Beach, Florida. It is located east of Miami between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The area encompasses Miami Beach south of Dade Boulevard.
This area was the fi ...
section of
Miami Beach
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
is an
art deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
building designed by
L. Murray Dixon. It is located at 1775
Collins Avenue
Collins Avenue, partly co-signed State Road A1A, is a major thoroughfare in South Florida, United States. The road runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean in Miami Beach, Florida, one block west. It also runs through the cities of Surfside and S ...
. The hotel was closed in 2017 after damage from
Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two ...
.
In 2019 it was purchased by a group of developers including
SHVO and Deutsche Finance America.
In March 2022, it was announced that the hotel would be restored and operated by
Rosewood Hotels
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts is an international luxury hotel and resort company operating 28 hotels in 16 countries, currently owned by Hong Kong-based Rosewood Hotel Group (formerly New World Hospitality and rebranded in May 2013). It was founde ...
, reopening in 2025 as Rosewood The Raleigh Miami Beach.
History
Raleigh Hotel was designed by
Lawrence Murray Dixon
Lawrence Murray Dixon (February 16, 1901 - October 8, 1949) was an architect in Miami Beach, Florida. He was born in Live Oak, Florida, attended the Georgia School of Technology (1918-1919) and worked in New York for Schultze and Weaver from 1 ...
and opened in 1940.
Original construction cost for the property was $225,000.
The first ownership change for the hotel came in 1941 when Max Marmerstein purchased a half interest in the amount of $90,000. In 1946, the hotel was purchased for $1 million by a group of investors from
Boston, Massachusetts.
In 1979, the hotel became listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
as a
contributing building
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...
in the
Miami Beach Architectural District
The Miami Beach Architectural District (also known as Old Miami Beach Historic District and the more popular term Miami Art Deco District) is a U.S. historic district (designated as such on May 14, 1979) located in the South Beach neighborhood o ...
.
[ 1042 searchable pages of materials from 1979 to 2012. Includes a series of 37 black and white photos, a series of 57 b&w photos from 1978, correspondence, maps, newspaper clippings, additional documentation and a 2012 amendment with 15 color photos from 2010-12.]
The hotel was purchased by the Brilla Group in 2009 for $30 million. It was sold again in 2012 to
David Edelstein
David Edelstein (born 1959) is a freelance American film critic who has been the principal film critic for ''Slate'' and ''New York'' magazine, among others, and has appeared regularly on NPR's ''Fresh Air'' and ''CBS Sunday Morning'' programs. O ...
and
Sam Nazarian
Sam Nazarian (; born 1975) is a Persian-American businessman, investor and philanthropist. He is the founder, Chairman and CEO of SBE Entertainment Group.
Biography Early life
Nazarian was born to a Persian Jewish family in Tehran in 1975. The ...
for $55 million.
It was the purchased by
Hilfiger Hospitality in $56.5 million in 2014.
In 2015, Hilfiger was approved by the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board to renovate the hotel.
The hotel was closed in 2017 after damage from
Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two ...
prior to completion of the proposed renovations.
The hotel was again sold in 2019 for $103 million. This time, it was purchased by a partnership of developers which included
SHVO and Deutsche Finance America.
In March 2022, it was announced that the hotel would be restored and operated by
Rosewood Hotels
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts is an international luxury hotel and resort company operating 28 hotels in 16 countries, currently owned by Hong Kong-based Rosewood Hotel Group (formerly New World Hospitality and rebranded in May 2013). It was founde ...
, reopening in 2025 as Rosewood The Raleigh Miami Beach.
Design
The original design of the hotel included 113 rooms. The entrances were decorated with polished stone and the lobby illuminated with recessed neon.
The hotel included a lounge, known as the Raleigh room, as well as a dining room, cocktail lounge, barbershop, beauty parlor, and eight penthouses.
The Raleigh Hotel has an "iconic pool" which was used in several movies.
It was featured on the cover of
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
in the 1940s and featured in films that include
The Birdcage
''The Birdcage'' is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Mike Nichols, adapted by Elaine May, and starring Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, and Dianne Wiest. Dan Futterman, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria, and Christine Baranski app ...
,
Bad Boys, and
Up Close and Personal.
References
External links
Rosewood The Raleigh Miami Beach official website
{{Coord, 25.79372, -80.12902, type:landmark_region:US-FL, display=title
Hotels in Miami Beach, Florida
Hotels established in 1940
Hotel buildings completed in 1940
Art Deco hotels
Art Deco architecture in Florida
Miami Beach Architectural District