HotelChatter

The fact that this is a condo-hotel property in the shaky market that is South Florida does raise some concerns, of course, but we hear sales of multi-million-dollar condos are making a tentative comeback. Let's start the week on a positive note and hope that the world is in a better place in another two years, shall we?

Shopaholics who like to hit up the nearby Bal Harbour Shops may remember that this was the site of the Sheraton Bal Harbour, but that hotel was demolished in 2007 to make way for the gleaming new triple-towered palace that will be the St. Regis.

The hotel portion of the building will have 183 rooms, and there are also 37 condo-hotel suites. (In addition to 268 private residences and 24 fractional residences.) It all sits on 1,000 feet of Atlantic Ocean beach, with nine acres of landscaped gardens.

If this rendering from the St. Regis website is a sign of things to come up in Bal Harbour, we're going to have to start saving our pennies for 2012 and make our way north of our typical South Beach haunts. We liked the look of those Cipriani model rooms, too, but we think we're going to put our money on Starwood to win this race.

[Photo: Miamism via Flickr ]