"The mayor says Miami Beach is going to be the next Monaco," Nathan Lieberman tells me as we zip around the city's Design District in his Porsche and take in all of the new construction that will soon be home to luxury stores like Dior, Valentino and Louis Vuitton. Lieberman, who, along with his father, Alan, runs a growing empire of boutique hotels and restaurants through their company, South Beach Group, brokered his first hotel deal before graduating from college at NYU. He hasn't slowed down in the decade-plus since. Before we meet around 2pm, he's just finished personally delivering about $2500 worth of sushi from one of his restaurants to a private party on the Venetian Islands. And as we ogle all of the brand new development in the Design District, indicative of the city's larger revitalization -- a revitalization that has also extended into areas like Midtown, Brickell and its own Bushwick-meets-Venice Beach creative hub, Wynwood -- Lieberman's eyes light up when talking about all of the opportunity his city has to offer.
But as exciting as the high-end stores are, the young hotelier is not as interested in the jet-set crowds they'll attract as he is in what he describes as the "new 80%." If the luxury hotels on Collins Avenue are priced to attract the 2-3%, Lieberman says his properties go after the 80th percentile, which a few years ago, used to mean customers in search of "3-star hotels" but who today want 4-star accommodations at reasonable prices.
The city's booming economy and invigorated creative class -- not to mention a cultural anchor like Art Basel -- has started drawing in a new type of visitor to Miami that you'd have been hard pressed to find a few years ago. It's no longer a city whose visitors are split between yacht-hopping South American playboys or college kids looking to party on a tight budget; with cultural amenities like the Bass, Wolfsonian and Pérez art museums, Tony Goldman's Wynwood Walls and farm-to-table restaurants like Michael's Genuine Food & Drink and Tongue & Cheek, the city's drawing in a clientele whose more modest resources have not made them less discerning. "The majority of these new people are more sophisticated [than before] and more aware," Lieberman says. "They're looking for a more upscale product."
To that end, Lieberman's newest property, the Hotel Croydon, is poised to attract exactly those kinds of guests who favor single-origin pour-over coffee, hot yoga and A.P.C. sample sales. The boutique property, which sits on Collins Avenue in what's been dubbed "Mid Beach," is home to 104 rooms and a penthouse suite whose rate tops off at only $450 during high season. Tastefully decorated by Lieberman's father, the small rooms feature dark wooden floors and fresh orchids in the bathroom while the restaurant and lobby have family mementos and the kind of stylish bric-a-brac you're accustomed to finding in a Brooklyn gastropub.
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The Hotel Croydon
"I wanted the hotel to be an experience," Lieberman says. "Whereas I used to throw food and drinks at people and just hope they were happy, here, I wanted to make sure everyone was engulfed." He's hired the "top yoga instructors" in the city and boxing coaches from the famed 5th St. Gym -- where Muhammed Ali used to train -- to teach classes in the hotel, booked live jazz on the rooftop every Friday and given a rent-free space to retailer Andria Mitsakos to open her concept store, Wanderlista, which features a hyper-curated selection of international brands that include leather jackets from London-based HIDE, turquoise and gold-plated brass bracelets by Greek designer Danai Giannelli and cosmic one-pieces from Brooklyn-based swimwear line (and PAPER fave), Shadowplaynyc.
Even the food he serves in the restaurant, the Tavern, is well-sourced. "I found this guy that makes these pies in Wynwood," Lieberman says. "He's this giant, retired fireman and he's amazing. His spot is called Fireman Derek's and he probably thought I was out of my motherfucking mind when I came in one day and was like, 'I heard about your pies and I want to carry them in my restaurants and I need to taste all of them right now.' He probably looked at me and was like, 'There's no way all 170lbs of you is going to be able to eat all of my pies.'" The bakery, which opened this past July, is, in Lieberman's eyes, an example of the changes the city is undergoing. Though single-menu item shops in New York City or L.A. are a dime a dozen, in Miami, where the artisanal movement is still a relatively recent phenomenon, the fact that a pie shop is thriving in a former industrial neighborhood is no small feat.
Driving out of the Design District and into Wynwood, it wasn't hard to see all of Lieberman's points illustrated in the buzzy neighborhood; it was filled with throngs of well-dressed young people no doubt taking a break from Basel goings-on in South Beach, trading in the crowded art shows and invitation-only parties for street art and popsicles sold out of pushcarts. But I'd be remiss not to point out that I was getting the chance to see the neighborhood -- and the city in general -- during Miami's single busiest time of the year. Whether places like the Hotel Croydon can attract this "new 80%" during the remaining 361 days of the year is a good question but not one that Lieberman worries too much about.
"Miami isn't just about the beach anymore," he says confidently. "It's more interesting. There's more interesting people living here and more interesting people coming here at different times of the year. It's not just a seasonal place." He pauses. "It's cool again."
The Wynwood Walls. Photo by Cami Zapata/But as exciting as the high-end stores are, the young hotelier is not as interested in the jet-set crowds they'll attract as he is in what he describes as the "new 80%." If the luxury hotels on Collins Avenue are priced to attract the 2-3%, Lieberman says his properties go after the 80th percentile, which a few years ago, used to mean customers in search of "3-star hotels" but who today want 4-star accommodations at reasonable prices.
The city's booming economy and invigorated creative class -- not to mention a cultural anchor like Art Basel -- has started drawing in a new type of visitor to Miami that you'd have been hard pressed to find a few years ago. It's no longer a city whose visitors are split between yacht-hopping South American playboys or college kids looking to party on a tight budget; with cultural amenities like the Bass, Wolfsonian and Pérez art museums, Tony Goldman's Wynwood Walls and farm-to-table restaurants like Michael's Genuine Food & Drink and Tongue & Cheek, the city's drawing in a clientele whose more modest resources have not made them less discerning. "The majority of these new people are more sophisticated [than before] and more aware," Lieberman says. "They're looking for a more upscale product."
To that end, Lieberman's newest property, the Hotel Croydon, is poised to attract exactly those kinds of guests who favor single-origin pour-over coffee, hot yoga and A.P.C. sample sales. The boutique property, which sits on Collins Avenue in what's been dubbed "Mid Beach," is home to 104 rooms and a penthouse suite whose rate tops off at only $450 during high season. Tastefully decorated by Lieberman's father, the small rooms feature dark wooden floors and fresh orchids in the bathroom while the restaurant and lobby have family mementos and the kind of stylish bric-a-brac you're accustomed to finding in a Brooklyn gastropub.
The Hotel Croydon"I wanted the hotel to be an experience," Lieberman says. "Whereas I used to throw food and drinks at people and just hope they were happy, here, I wanted to make sure everyone was engulfed." He's hired the "top yoga instructors" in the city and boxing coaches from the famed 5th St. Gym -- where Muhammed Ali used to train -- to teach classes in the hotel, booked live jazz on the rooftop every Friday and given a rent-free space to retailer Andria Mitsakos to open her concept store, Wanderlista, which features a hyper-curated selection of international brands that include leather jackets from London-based HIDE, turquoise and gold-plated brass bracelets by Greek designer Danai Giannelli and cosmic one-pieces from Brooklyn-based swimwear line (and PAPER fave), Shadowplaynyc.
Even the food he serves in the restaurant, the Tavern, is well-sourced. "I found this guy that makes these pies in Wynwood," Lieberman says. "He's this giant, retired fireman and he's amazing. His spot is called Fireman Derek's and he probably thought I was out of my motherfucking mind when I came in one day and was like, 'I heard about your pies and I want to carry them in my restaurants and I need to taste all of them right now.' He probably looked at me and was like, 'There's no way all 170lbs of you is going to be able to eat all of my pies.'" The bakery, which opened this past July, is, in Lieberman's eyes, an example of the changes the city is undergoing. Though single-menu item shops in New York City or L.A. are a dime a dozen, in Miami, where the artisanal movement is still a relatively recent phenomenon, the fact that a pie shop is thriving in a former industrial neighborhood is no small feat.
Driving out of the Design District and into Wynwood, it wasn't hard to see all of Lieberman's points illustrated in the buzzy neighborhood; it was filled with throngs of well-dressed young people no doubt taking a break from Basel goings-on in South Beach, trading in the crowded art shows and invitation-only parties for street art and popsicles sold out of pushcarts. But I'd be remiss not to point out that I was getting the chance to see the neighborhood -- and the city in general -- during Miami's single busiest time of the year. Whether places like the Hotel Croydon can attract this "new 80%" during the remaining 361 days of the year is a good question but not one that Lieberman worries too much about.
"Miami isn't just about the beach anymore," he says confidently. "It's more interesting. There's more interesting people living here and more interesting people coming here at different times of the year. It's not just a seasonal place." He pauses. "It's cool again."