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Miami Hotel Mambo

W South Beach Will Now Open in Late April

Where: 22nd Street and Collins Ave [map], Miami Beach, FL, United States, 33139

November 3, 2008 at 10:02 AM | 2 Comments

It's been a slow, painful process for the W South Beach Hotel and Residences. To recap the drama:

· Back in 2006, we'd been hearing about the property for over a year and initially heard the condo-hotel was going to open up in 2007. We sorta doubted that -- especially considering the crew had an old Holiday Inn to demolish before building of the W could get going.

· Then we heard from a Miami tipster that the thing didn't look like it would be all done until 2010, and construction photos from a year ago sort of had us believing that.

· But alas, construction shots from this past June had us hopeful -- as did the announcement of a vague "Spring 2009" opening date (2009! Hooray!) It was looking like the W South Beach hype machine was finally going to deliver on its years and years promises.

· And this morning, straight from a Starwood source, we hear the property is in fact scheduled to open in late April 2009.

As we always say: we remain hopeful, but we'll believe it when we see it.

The 419-unit, 20-story hotel offers views of the Atlantic Ocean from every room, a Bliss Spa and Mr. Chow and Serafina restaurants. There are also going to be two infinity pools -- one with poolside bungalows with flat-screen TVs and W's Whenever/Whatever service -- as well as beachfront access.

But hell, we'll be honest: while all of that sounds great, we're more excited to see if they take any business away from the Gansevoort South (which is quite literally right next door).