A reader sent in this snapshot of the old Ritz Plaza in Miami Beach saying that this is supposed to be the site of the new SLS Miami.
The first SLS Hotel is set to open in Beverly Hills sometime later this fall and Andrew Calvo reported on Passions of a Zealot that Miami is to be the next location.
But even as far back as 2004, Hotel Online reported that Sam Nazarian and Philippe Starck would take over the Ritz Plaza on Collins Avenue for a new SLS hotel.
Yet as this photo clearly demonstrates not much is happening with SLS Miami. Que paso? Anyone who knows, send us a hint.
There's tons of hotel news flying around this week and we don't have time to give each and every story the love and attention it may deserve, so you will have to settle for some news briefs.
· Calling Cards for Kids? : One parent was delighted to see that the Park Lane Marriott in London handed out "business cards" to their child-guests so they have the hotel's information on them in case they get lost. Awww....
The man that we just happen to share an apartment with pulled out an interesting article in his recent issue of Men's Journal that he thought we might like.
It turns out that whenever the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles opens (September/December?), it will have special rooms that are equipped with in-room fitness gear.
These exercise suites will come with "built-in weighted cables and pulleys."
The DeZeen blog has a snippet from the press release on the rooms after the jump.
SLS Hotel in LA will not open until September 30th , according to its website which means the hotel is actually only missing its (second) predicted opening date of August 1 by about two months. Still, we're not so convinced this new date will hold either. There is a LOT of work that needs to be done on the hotel.
The luxury travel blog, The Informed Traveler actually had a date listed last week for the soft-opening as August 19th so we assume this new date is a recent thing. But when it does soft-open:
With this soft opening date, insiders tell us that the guest room floors will be available, along with the Guest Lobby and a few of the restaurants (not all five outlets). The pool, ballroom and other facilities will open later in the fall.
Further complicating matters is that the official opening is apparently, December 1, 2008. Oy.
However, a positive
sign that the hotel is close to opening? SLS has hired a general manager, Philip Dailey, who comes from Shangri-La Hotels in Asia.
Can you help us determine when SLS will actually be open to book a room? Let us know.
The last we heard on the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles, the hotel would be opening July 15.
But now according to the hotel's website, the opening will actually happen on August 1. Judging from this picture sent into us by a tipster, we're not even sure that date will stand. Indeed, we have personally driven by this location and wondered how it could possibly make its opening date.
Since it seems like we will be waiting for at least a few more months, the website has put up some more renderings of the hotel, included the funky lobby we wrote about in April. Also, you can see the building's planned new exterior, its pool area and cafe. And lest we forget, the fur bedspreads.
A tipster let us know that the International Herald Tribune had a round up of things from the Milan Furniture Fair and this rendering of Philippe Starck's lobby for the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles was one of them.
From IHT:
The plans for a new luxury hotel, the SLS at Beverly Hills, are to be unveiled during the Salone. The hotel is to be designed by the ageing enfant terrible of French design, Philippe Starck, with furniture and fittings made by Cassina, a subsidiary of the Poltrona Frau Group. It is to be managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts with a shop run by the New York design impresario Murray Moss.
We are kinda liking this. There are those chandeliers we had seen before on the hotel's website and in promo materials (sans monkeys) and Starck has a thing for chairs so titanium/silver-dipped (?) bar chairs are not surprising.
We just hope those white curtain things can partition off your seating section. Not like we would have anything to hide when sitting in a hotel lobby but it would be cool to be like "this is my section." You know, like the cafeteria in high school.
But we are curious: are those antlers on the back wall?
Thanks again to tipster Kal B who let us know that Starwood Hotels has put up a website link for their new SLS Hotels brand and its first location The SLS at "Beverly Hills."
We put quotes around that because it's the very border of LA and Beverly Hills. To say Beverly Hills is actually quite misleading because it's way closer to the Beverly Center than Rodeo Drive. Indeed the actual address of the hotel (on La Cienega) puts it in the LA zip code.
Anyways, there are two photos of the rooms up and we are so far not loving the fur blanket on the beds. We are also not loving the planned 10am check-out time. What is going on with Starwood? First Aloft gets at 10am check-out and now SLS?
Still, we're trying not to be too grumpy about this new brand so here are some positives:
Each of the 297 rooms and suites, including 32 anti-allergen "pure" rooms, feature Phillippe Starck designed customized décor. Plush bedding, 42" flat screens and a host of personalized indulgences and amenities create a study in modern opulence.
Even though Las Vegas' Sahara has super-cheap blackjack, don't expect the planned clubs to match. Sam Nazarian hopes to lure a latter-day Rat Pack with not one but four clubs by Brent Bolthouse. (You know, the guy who Heidi works for on The Hills.)
Besides the sure-to-be-bottle-service venues, Nazarian wants to turn his new trophy into a boutique hotel to rival the Viceroy in Santa Monica and the SLS Hotel in West Hollywood. And, yep, Philippe Starck is rumored to be involved on this redo, too.
As usual, we'll qualify all this under the Hotel Hype heading and wait for your insider tips.
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by juliana
