Rubble is all that’s left of the once-vaunted Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami. Swire Properties demolished the hotel at 500 Brickell Key Drive on Sunday. The 23-story luxury hotel fell in less than half a minute.
The S. Florida Business Journal reports Swire, which developed the 326-room Mandarin Oriental, Miami hotel in 2000, plans to build two new luxury towers in its place. The entire site covers around five acres, with Biscayne Bay on three sides.
The taller high-rise will be the 66-story south tower, with 228 condominium units, dubbed The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Miami. The north tower will rise 34 stories, with 70 private residences, 28 condo-hotel units and 121 hotel rooms. That building will be called The North American Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Groundbreaking is expected by the end of this year.
Swire permanently closed the old hotel last year.
