Presentation of the proposed Bulgari Hotel (Bulgari)
Bulgari’s plan to renovate the Seagull Hotel Miami Beach is progressing. The aim is to expand the seven-story building by two stories and to expand the ground floor.
The Miami Beach Planning Department on Tuesday decided to recommend that the city commission approve changes to land use regulations that allow for elevation and expansion of the first floor, as well as clearing a driveway along the front of the oceanfront property at 100 21st Street.
However, representatives from Setai Miami Beach and the adjacent historic Art Deco building, the Dempsey-Vanderbilt Hotel, want to spoil Bulgari’s efforts.
In December, Bulgarian announced plans to transform the seagull into their first hotel in the United States, with Italian architecture firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel overseeing the restoration. The building was completed in 1950 and is a mix of Art Deco and Miami Modern (MiMo) architectural styles.
The new hotel, slated to open in 2024, has an outdoor pool, spa and fitness facilities, plus a restaurant and bar by Chef Niko Romito. The fashion jewelry store works with the London-based owner of Seagull Miami Beach Blue Horizon Groupwho bought the shuttered hotel for $ 120 million last January. Bulgari currently operates 10 hotels worldwide, including in Milan, London and Dubai.
According to a presentation by Bulgarian lawyers Michael Larkin and Carter McDowell, Bulgari plans to enlarge the rooms in the hotel with 178 keys by removing more than 40 rooms. add about 13,472 square feet for the first floor addition; and rise to nine stories.
In exchange for the right of way lift, Bulgari is paying the city $ 7.4 million, plus an unspecified amount for improvements to the city’s beach walk. The company will continue to grant right of way access to Miami Beach.
“Bulgari will completely gouge and renovate the Seagull Hotel,” said McDowell. “We ask for minor changes to keep the design and size of the existing building.”
The members of the planning committee largely unanimously praised Bulgari’s entry into the Miami Beach hotel market. The city commission will vote on land use changes for the project in May.
“This is exactly the kind of high-end project we want to bring here,” said board member Mark Meland. “Developers will need that extra bit to make it work for them.”
Still, Kent Harrison Robbins and Bradley Gould, attorneys at the Setai Miami Beachtried unsuccessfully to persuade board members to delay their vote by claiming the proposed additions would block the viewing corridor for some rooms at Dempsey Vanderbilt. The Setai, with the exception of its condos, is owned by the Nakash family and Alexander von Furstenberg.
“We are concerned that our established viewing corridors will be taken away,” said Robbins. “As long as this addition is included in this project, we will continue to raise objections.”
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