Miami Beach’s Faena hospitality brand is taking its flair to Dubai

Taylor Dolven
·2 min read
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The famed Faena hospitality brand of Miami Beach is taking its flair to Dubai.

In a new partnership with hospitality group Accor, Faena announced Tuesday it will launch its third venture in the United Arab Emirates following its flagship hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2000 and in the second in Miami Beach in 2015. The company did not provide a timeline for the new development.

Clothing entrepreneur-turned-hotelier Alan Faena and his billionaire partner, Len Blavatnik, transformed mid-Miami Beach from a moribund stretch of drab hotels and apartments to the style-centric Faena District, home to a Sir Norman Foster-designed condo Faena House, the flamboyant art-savvy Faena Hotel, and the Rem Koolhaus-designed Faena Forum performance space. In pre-COVID times, Faena was a familiar figure in Miami, always strikingly dressed head-to-toe in white.

The Miami Beach redevelopment leveraged the pair’s success in Buenos Aires, where they helped transform the historic warehouse district of Puerto Madero into a hip living-and-dining zone with the help of art activations and architecture by international stars.

Faena plans to take this same “Faena District” concept to other cities around the world in partnership with Accor, starting first with Dubai.

Faena Forum, left, and Faena House, right, are shown in the Mid-Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida, in February 2017.
Faena Forum, left, and Faena House, right, are shown in the Mid-Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida, in February 2017.

“We have found in Accor a perfect partner; we have a shared vision and passion,” said Alan Faena in a statement.

“As Faena expands, we plan to continue rethinking hospitality lifestyle and shaping the path for groundbreaking concepts, setting new industry standards in the creation of inimitable environments rooted in culture, positively transforming cities, shifting old paradigms and becoming new international cultural epicenters. It has always been our dream to share the Faena ethos and artistic vision around the globe, and with Accor we are turning this dream into reality,” he said.

In October, Condé Nast Traveler readers chose the Faena Hotel Miami Beach as the second best hotel in the U.S. The top spot went to Olema House Point Reyes near San Francisco

The new Faena-Accor partnership will take over management of the Miami Beach and Buenos Aires hotels.