With the Delano on one corner, and the new SLS Hotel on another, the intersection of Collins Avenue and 17th Street is one hot commodity. Attraction drops off rapidly however, for the intersection's west side, where low rent hotels still exist among a few jazzy and popular revivals, like the Catalina hotel just to the north. But on the corner itself, Menin Hotels with architects ADD Inc., having just finished their extensive Shelborne Hotel redo, have begun rehabbing two historic art deco hotels into The Gale. The two historic hotels are the Gale (which is the original name, and was designed by the great L. Murray Dixon), and the Regent to its rear, which may originally have been an apartment house actually. It'll have 89 "intimate" (read: small) guest rooms, three restaurants and lounges, and apparently quite a bling-ed out 8,000 square foot rooftop, with full sized palm trees and an infinity pool that has city and ocean views. How the pool will get that view even though the much taller Delano is in the way is anyone's guess, and we won't even get into how much of a travesty for historic preservation rooftop palm trees will be. But who has time to object? With an end of 2012 opening, they're building at a furious pace.
· The Gale Hotel [Gale]
· ADD Selected for Gale Renovation [Miami Herald]