A group of investors led by billionaire Barry Sternlicht is proposing a luxury overhaul and redevelopment of the waterfront Standard hotel in Miami Beach.
Starchitect Bjarke Ingels of BIG is designing the project, which is planned for the 100-plus-key hotel at 40 Island Avenue and adjacent properties at 1 and 2 Farrey Lane. Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design is the architect of record.
The proposal calls for redeveloping the east wing of the hotel into a five-story mixed-use building with six luxury condos and 50 hotel rooms; renovating the three-story west wing; and reducing the hotel rooms in the west wing to 50 from 67, according to plans submitted to the city of Miami Beach.
The property was developed in 1953 as the Monterrey Motel and Yacht Club, designed by architect Norman Giller, according to the Miami Design Preservation League. It reopened as the Lido Spa in 1960. It’s on Belle Isle, the western-most island on the Venetian Islands. Standard Hotels founder André Balazs, who stepped down from his role as company chair in 2017, opened the property as the Standard Spa in 2005 following a renovation.
Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Miami Beach-based Starwood Capital Group, owns about 15.4 percent of the company that acquired the Standard Spa in late 2021 for $62 million.
Sternlicht is partnering with a roster of well-known businessmen on the redevelopment.
Antonio de la Rúa, an Argentine lawyer and ex-boyfriend of Shakira, and Argentine architect Sebastian Sas each own about 14 percent. Ingels and Miguel Isla Esteve, CEO of Nomade People, each own 10 percent, according to an ownership chart included in the filings. Other minority investors include tech billionaire and activist Peter Thiel and his husband Matt Danzeisen, biotech investor Jeff Aronin and businessman Martin Franklin, who each own just shy of 3 percent. Marcelo Claure, the former CEO of Sprint, owns about 3.6 percent.
The Miami Beach Design Review Board will vote at its Oct. 1 meeting on whether to grant variances tied to a side yard setback; aggregating three lots versus the two the city allows; and permitting a minimum height for the first floor slab.
The developer’s application states that the project would cost about $61 million to build. Sternlicht’s vision is to “upgrade the Standard into a wellness-oriented oasis,” according to a letter of intent submitted to the city. Attorneys Michael Larkin and Nicholas Rodriguez of Bercow Radell Fernandez Larkin & Tapanes are representing the developer.
The new east wing would include a parking garage on the first floor, hotel rooms on the second and third floors, and residential units on the top two floors with rooftop decks.
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Sternlicht, the hotelier and real estate investor who created the 1 Hotels brand and previously led Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, invested in the property via his family office, JAWS Estates Capital. Sternlicht moved to Miami Beach before the pandemic. He lives in a waterfront mansion on North Bay Road, and he moved Starwood Capital Group and Starwood Property Trust’s headquarters to a new building near 1 Hotel and Homes South Beach.
Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, plans to redevelop a new waterfront mansion nearby on the Venetian Islands. Claure is also building a waterfront mansion on North Bay Road.