The James Nautilus Miami Beach Set for 2026 Opening

• Service Properties Trust paid $165.4M ($661,600/key) for the 250-room Collins Avenue oceanfront in 2023
• Sonesta is spending $40M to relaunch it as the flagship of The James Hotels, its new lifestyle brand
• Anderson Miller redesigning the Morris Lapidus original; LDV Hospitality (Scarpetta, American Cut) running F&B
• A second James property is already slated for Downtown Miami in 2030

The Nautilus Gets Its Name Back

Morris Lapidus opened the Nautilus Hotel at 1825 Collins Avenue in the early 1950s, around the same time he was drawing up the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc. It was one of three hotels that set the tone for what Miami Beach would become: theatrical, glamorous, and unafraid of a curve. Now, seven decades later, Sonesta International Hotels is betting $40 million that the name still carries weight.

The property will reopen in late 2026 as The James Nautilus Miami Beach, the launch vehicle for Sonesta's new lifestyle hospitality brand. Service Properties Trust acquired the hotel in 2023 for $165.4 million, making it one of the priciest South Beach hotel acquisitions in recent memory at roughly $661,600 per key.

Anderson Miller, LDV, and a Serious F&B Program

Chicago-based Anderson Miller, known for restoring historically significant hotels, is handling the redesign with an explicit mandate to honor Lapidus's MiMo sensibility rather than erase it. The brief is a fresh contemporary perspective on top of the original bones.

The food and beverage program is where the real investment shows. Sonesta brought in LDV Hospitality, the New York group founded by John Meadow in 2008 behind Scarpetta (three stars from the New York Times), American Cut, and Barlume. Three outlets are planned: a Mediterranean restaurant with alfresco seating that runs to the pool and beach, an intimate omakase, and a late-night lounge built for cocktails and a crowd. LDV's model, proven in the Hamptons and Las Vegas, is to make the restaurant a destination for locals, not just hotel guests. On Collins Avenue, that formula has worked before.

The James Brand and What Comes Next

The James Hotels is Sonesta's answer to a decade of lifestyle-brand proliferation. Where Marriott has Autograph and W, and Hyatt has Thompson and Andaz, Sonesta has been operating largely in the select-service and extended-stay space. The James is the company's push into the experiential tier, and Miami Beach is the proof of concept.

The brand's ambitions are already on paper: a Downtown Miami James property is set to open in 2030, four years behind the flagship. If the Nautilus lands, Sonesta will have two anchors in the market and a case to take the concept to other urban destinations.

Late 2026 is the target opening at 1825 Collins Avenue.