Miami Beach’s glittering oceanfront will soon have another luxury hotel. Sonesta International Hotels announced it will open The James Nautilus Miami Beach on Collins Avenue in late 2026. The new 250-room property will expand the Nautilus Hotel, a mid-century landmark designed by Morris Lapidus. Lapidus helped shape Miami’s resort identity with properties like the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc, and his playful, theatrical façades still define Miami’s architectural DNA. Sonesta has hired Chicago-based Anderson Miller, a firm acclaimed for renovating historical hotels, to spearhead the new design.
The hotel will debut a trio of high-end dining concepts through a partnership with LDV Hospitality—the hospitality group behind New York mainstays Scarpetta, American Cut, and Barlume. Miamians can look forward to an al fresco Mediterranean restaurant, a small omakase counter, and a late-night cocktail lounge.
Enhancing the Miami Art Deco scene
My familiarity with Miami is flimsy at best, but it seems half my friends in tech have traded Brooklyn brownstones and Bay Area bungalows for South Florida sunshine. The city’s appeal is obvious: the weather is gorgeous, the women even more so, and the tax climate doesn’t treat success like a misdemeanor. You can work from your boat before a night at Kiki’s on the River.
I’m also an avid admirer of Art Deco—not just in architecture, but in watches, automobiles, and industrial design. The Jazz Age just got so many things right. Miami Beach remains one of the movement’s great living museums, largely thanks to Morris Lapidus’ playful, theatrical architectural style, known as MiMo. I’m eager to see how The James Nautilus embraces that heritage.
