Before hotels began selling product, pinching an ashtray or robe was par for the course for some travelers. But with the emergence of the boutique hotel in the 1980s, people wanted to take the whole look home. Having a bedroom and bath straight out of The James became as much of a must as a gourmet kitchen. Today, “experiential” — the driving concept of our times — defines the hospitality industry. And with its new residential property in Miami, The Standard International is wooing potential homeowners with a slate of spaces cribbed from the contemporary hotel playbook.
Situated between the Design District and Wynwood, The Standard Residences, Midtown Miami rises 12 stories and sports 34,000 square feet of amenity space. Devoting lots of room to lounge areas, gyms and workspaces is de rigueur these days. But with experiential expectations driving so many of our decisions, developers are pressed to make these spaces extra special. As a hotelier, The Standard has a foot up in programming the spaces outside a condo owner’s front door. The Miami property, notes Executive Chairman Amar Lalvani, is designed “for the buyer who has experienced our hotels and the lifestyle they offer through culture, food and beverage, service, design, art and activism and wants permanent access. Infusing a residential offering with a lifestyle hotel experience allows us to blur the lines.”
Indeed. The Standard Residences, with units priced from $329,000 to $829,000, sports a lobby cafe; a social floor comprising co-working spaces, a screening room and karaoke bar; a pickleball court that doubles as a party room; and The Sweat Room, which features an infrared sauna, steam room and yoga studio.
Miami-based Urban Robot, whose client roster includes a number of local residential and hospitality projects, kitted out the interiors, both private and public. When it came to the fun bits, the goal, suggests principal Giancarlo Pietri, was to create a strong sense of community and connection with the brand. “Too often in Miami, we see these residential lobbies and amenity spaces that are beautiful, yet cold, empty and void of life, where you often run into lonely property management staff and almost never a friendly neighbor. So we conceptualized the lobby, for example, as this eclectic ‘room of wonders,’ where, let’s say, a world traveler curated various furniture pieces and arranged them as they would in their own home, to foster social interaction.”
A condo property infused with a hotel sensibility may not fly in every market, but it seems tailor-made for Miami, where the playground vibe runs deep. As Lalvani observes, “I think we will have a mix of buyers who will call The Standard their permanent home and those who use it as an escape into a lifestyle they have come to love through our hotels.”
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