A crew installs the ‘Big Orange’ at the Hotel InterContinental in downtown Miami for the annual New Year’s tradition sending the character to the top of the tower.
Miami Herald File
A landmark downtown Miami hotel best known for the neon Big Orange on New Year’s Eve and for hosting Super Bowl and college football teams has been sold to an investment firm that owns the plush Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne.
Real estate development company Gencom said on Friday that it has purchased the InterContinental Miami, the waterfront 34-story hotel that stands where Biscayne Bay and the Miami River meet and at the southern flank of Bayfront Park.
Gencom teamed up with Miami-based White Bridge Capital to buy the 652-room downtown landmark at 100 Chopin Plaza, a short walk to Brickell just to the south. In the other direction, it’s an easy stroll to Kaseya Center or the Pérez Art Museum. PortMiami is a short drive as is Wynwood and Midtown.
Strategic Hotels & Resorts sold the hotel. The price wasn’t disclosed.
Alessandro Colantonio, chief investment officer at Gencom, said in an interview with the Miami Herald on Friday that his company has no plans to make major changes to its newest hotel, which was built in 1982 as downtown was undergoing a renaissance.
The number of rooms will stay the same, he said, and the InterContinental Miami will continue to be a hotel. Asked if the new owners would consider adding private condos or residences to the property, he firmly said no. That’s moving away from a trend that Gencom itself started at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne over two decades ago and other developers have followed in recent months.
“It’s great real estate,” the executive said, explaining what drove the purchase. Additionally, “the seller has done a good job with the asset,” Colantonio told the Herald.
“There won’t be any major remodeling,” he said, but “a little more targeted renovation, likely in the public spaces.”
The InterContinental is also a short walk from a major Gencom project in development. The Miami Riverbridge is more than a $1.5 billion joint venture with Hyatt to redevelop the Hyatt Regency Miami and James L. Knight Center near the Brickell Avenue bridge.
Gencom also has the 115-room Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove that it acquired in December 2025.
“We already know the market,” Colantonio said. “Miami continues to show resiliency,”
He cited the people who keep traveling to Miami, the professionals who continue moving here and the Brickell corridor that continues to develop.
The downtown Miami purchase would be Gencom’s second InterContinental-branded hotel after acquiring the one in New York Times Square in 2025
“It’s backed by a good brand,” said the Gencom executive, who noted the hotel would continue with the same management. “There were a list of factors for the purchase.”
A crew installs the ‘Big Orange’ at the Hotel InterContinental in downtown Miami for the annual New Year’s tradition sending the character to the top of the tower. Miami Herald File
This story was originally published October 30, 2026 at 7:33 PM.
Miami Herald
Vinod Sreeharsha covers tourism trends in South Florida for the Miami Herald.