In Miami and South Florida, a number of significant event and meeting venues opened this year. Here's our picks for the best restaurants, party rooms, hotels, corporate event venues, conference centers, private rooms, and cultural spaces that debuted in 2018. These new and renovated Miami/South Florida venues serve groups of all sizes for private and corporate events, business dinners, cocktail parties, conferences, weddings, and more.
Situated steps away from the Brickell City Centre, SLS LUX Brickell is a luxury hotel and residential building. Two dining options are available on the ground floor for private events: Katsuya, a unique sushi restaurant that seats 180, and S Bar, an urban, bohemian chic lounge that seats 85. Penthouse residents have access to the rooftop level that includes an outdoor lounge area with a pool, a barbecue grill, and views of the Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline. The 57-floor tower opened June as the third SLS-branded property in Miami.
A $35 million renovation of the Hilton Miami Downtown included a redesign of the property’s 45,000 square feet of meeting space. The new look, from HBA Atlanta, updated the hotel’s 19 meeting spaces, including the nearly 17,000-square-foot Symphony ballroom as well as its five boardrooms. The renovation also upgraded the 527 guest rooms, the Brisa Bistro restaurant, and the 16th floor Club Level lounge. The hotel announced plans to renovate its rooftop pool deck—including its lounge and bar and restaurant—sometime in 2019.
Coral Gables’s iconic Biltmore Hotel Miami marks a new era with $25 million in renovations that wrap up this fall. The years-long restoration features design by D’Shakil Designs and Studio 5 Design & Architecture, which updated the resort's 275 guest rooms and main lobby, which now features plush, peacock-hued furniture and trappings under its romantic archways. In addition, the property's 10,000-square-foot gym has new Technogym equipment and a Babor retail space within its Spa. The property's Donald Ross-designed golf course also will debut a restoration, overseen by golf course architect Brian Silva, that adds bunkers and extends the course length to more than 7,100 yards.
The contemporary Japanese Robatayaki restaurant Etaru Las Olas opened in June at the Related Group’s new luxury rental Icon Las Olas in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The space features industrial-chic design coupled with touches of wood and pops of color. It follows the Etaru in Hallandale Beach as the second location in South Florida. The restaurant covers 6,081 square feet indoors and 3,584 square feet outdoors and has a total capacity of 293 seats. It is available for buyouts.
Hawks Cay Resort reopened in August after a nearly yearlong hiatus as it dealt with damage from Hurricane Irma. After a $50 million renovation, the resort now has a new lobby, 177 revamped guest rooms, and Morris Lapidus-inspired public areas. There are also two new food and beverage concepts: Hawks Cay Marketplace, a casual eatery, and Sixty-one Prime, a steak house and seafood restaurant. The 60-acre property has the largest waterfront meeting space of any resort in the Florida Keys thanks to 20,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space that accommodates as many as 480 guests in the Dolphin Ballroom and 450 guests in the Overseas Ballroom. There is also an indoor waterfront meeting space, multiple outdoor venues, and a catamaran for private events.
Golf, sport, and entertainment lovers have a new go-to in the recently opened Topgolf Miami Doral. The three-level, 65,000-square-foot venue is the company’s 45th location worldwide and second in the South Florida market. In addition to the neon-lit, point-scoring golf games, the Doral location offers big screen TVs, more than 100 climate-controlled hitting bays, and a rooftop terrace. For events, the venue's Signature Room measures 3,000 square feet and hold 250 guests. Full buyouts are available.
Formerly the Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort, Golf Club & Spa, the rebranded JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort completed its $320 million renovation project over the summer. The new Lanai Tower exceeds 100,000 square feet of meeting space, featuring two ballrooms, five outdoor terraces, and numerous breakout rooms. The 30,000-square-foot Calusa Grand Ballroom overlooks the Gulf of Mexico and holds 3,150 for receptions. The tower’s new restaurant, 10K Alley, doubling as both a gastro-pub and a gaming emporium, has a capacity of 500 for reception.
Kimpton Angler’s Hotel South Beach has unveiled new refined and funky event spaces and 85 guest rooms in a new wing to the boutique property. The wing’s sixth floor added a rooftop pool, sundeck, and the Minnow Bar cocktail spot; the pool and deck combined can be used for reception-style events for as many as 630 guests. Overall, the hotel has 132 guest rooms and nearly 19,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space.
Brickell’s Four Seasons Hotel Miami has redesigned its sixth-floor function spaces, more than 10,000 square feet total, as well as the seventh-floor lobby. New York City design group Rockwell gave the spaces mid-century modern furnishings with tropical touches reflective of the nearby bay-like corals and deep blues. The largest space at the 221-room luxury hotel is the Grand Ballroom, which seats 450 guests for banquets or 528 for theater-style events.
Fort Lauderdale’s Shooters Waterfront is slated to unveil a new 6,000-square-foot private event space in November. The second-floor space will hold 175 people, suitable for holiday parties, meetings, or weddings. The largest of the three rooms, the Intracoastal Ballroom, divides into two separate rooms and flaunts floor-to-ceiling windows with unobstructed Intracoastal views. Adjacent to the ballroom is a 24-seat conference room, the Summit, and a 16-seat conference room called Papillon.
