The former Mandarin Oriental, Miami hotel on Brickell Key has been reduced to rubble as Swire Properties advances plans for a new luxury development on the waterfront site. The 23-story hotel at 500 Brickell Key Drive was demolished on Sunday, with the structure coming down in less than 30 seconds.
Swire Properties originally developed the Mandarin Oriental, Miami hotel in 2000, delivering a 326-room luxury property that became a well-known hospitality flag in the city. The company permanently closed the hotel last year ahead of the planned redevelopment.
According to reporting from the South Florida Business Journal, Swire now intends to replace the former hotel with two new high-rise towers on the approximately five-acre site. The property is surrounded by Biscayne Bay on three sides, preserving the location’s profile as a waterfront destination.
The planned south tower will be the taller of the two buildings, rising 66 stories and branded as The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Miami. This tower is slated to include 228 condominium units, positioning it as a for-sale residential offering tied to the Mandarin Oriental name.
The north tower is planned at 34 stories and will carry the branding The North American Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Plans for this building call for a mixed program of hospitality and residential uses, including 70 private residences, 28 condo-hotel units and 121 hotel rooms.
Together, the two towers are expected to deliver a total of 447 combined residences, condo-hotel units and hotel keys across the redeveloped site. While Swire has not publicly detailed construction costs or financing terms in the reporting cited, the scope of the project marks a full repositioning of the former single-hotel parcel into a larger mixed-use hospitality and residential complex.
Groundbreaking for the new towers is anticipated by the end of this year, according to the South Florida Business Journal. No additional timeline for construction, opening dates or phasing was provided in the available information, and details on project partners, lenders or future hotel operators beyond the Mandarin Oriental branding were not disclosed.
