{"id":52461,"date":"2025-11-19T09:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T09:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/52461\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T09:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T09:21:09","slug":"talk-about-inefficiency-airport-hotel-will-take-at-least-six-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/52461\/","title":{"rendered":"Talk about inefficiency: airport hotel will take at least six years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tWritten by Michael Lewis<\/a> on November 19, 2025<\/p>\n

\"www.miamitodaynews.com\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Advertisement\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Talk<\/p>\n

With global airports touting shiny modern hotels, Miami International Airport has for decades been trying to replace its 66-year-old hotel that multiple aviation directors have labeled inadequate at best.<\/p>\n

Efforts to replace it led to a July 2023 vote to add a modern 451-room hotel to be built by two of this area\u2019s biggest names and be ready to open \u2013 finally \u2013 in 2026, when the current hotel would be a shameful two-thirds of a century old.<\/p>\n

So it was jaw-dropping last week when an airport official told a committee that the hotel isn\u2019t really due to open until 2029 and is so enmeshed in red tape that it has yet to get the go-ahead to even begin construction 28 months after commissioners approved the deal.<\/p>\n

At this point, even 2029 seems like just an aspiration.<\/p>\n

Miami International Airport is our economic engine. Our hallmark visitor industry now supports 150,700 jobs. That\u2019s nearly 11% of total county payroll workers. And what do we offer visitors when they arrive? A 66-year-old hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an opportunity to be a customer of our airport hotel and it\u2019s not the best experience, to put it lightly,\u201d Commissioner Keon Hardemon told a committee looking at the new airport hotel in 2023. \u201cI know that we can do better in Miami-Dade County.\u201d<\/p>\n

But we haven\u2019t done better.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven somebody at the administration has admitted to me already the existing airport hotel, there\u2019s no way to ever make it competitive with other airports,\u201d Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez told the county\u2019s Government Efficiency & Transparency Committee last week as he poked and prodded to learn why construction hasn\u2019t yet begun on a hotel contract signed more than two years ago.<\/p>\n

The approval came in a heavily lobbied fight between two bidders. The lease for 50 years on airport land was finally awarded to FDR Miami, a joint operation by Stephen Ross, the Miami Dolphins owner who runs one of the nation\u2019s best-known development firms, and Jeffrey Sopher, who controls the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel.<\/p>\n

But to the efficiency committee, Mr. Bermudez pointed toward inaction on the hotel in one of the nation\u2019s prime visitor communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody who\u2019s been to the existing hotel knows that it\u2019s not necessarily the most modern \u2013 you wouldn\u2019t tell your friend to stay there even through it\u2019s in the airport. It requires a lot of work, which is why we looked at the new hotel,\u201d he noted. \u201cMy concerned is it was supposed to be \u2026 finished in June of 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current issue is that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hasn\u2019t approved plans for the hotel. It rejected a first set and hasn\u2019t acted on revisions. The federal shutdown didn\u2019t help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThree years later and we still haven\u2019t put the first shovel in the ground,\u201d Mr. Bermudez lamented.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Aviation Department has been working with the developer in moving forward with the design, and the Westin Hotel is currently under redesign due to an FAA height requirement,\u201d Sarah Abate, assistant aviation director for concessions and business development, told the committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave FAA height requirements changed from August of 2023?\u201d Mr. Bermudez asked.<\/p>\n

Not exactly. \u201cThe issue is that FAA is the only one that knows the requirements\u201d for building heights, Ms. Abate said. \u201cThe airport doesn\u2019t know the impact to navigational aids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI drive down 36th Street. I see the FAA offices. Do I have to go and knock on their door?\u201d Mr. Bermudez asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the entity that was awarded the contract can\u2019t do it,\u201d he added, \u201cit\u2019s better to know it earlier than later, because if not we\u2019re going to be back in the same problem we had with Airport City,\u201d a past attempt to add an airport hotel. \u201cIt was awarded in 2014 \u2026 eight years after the fact, nothing had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo,\u201d Mr. Bermudez asked, \u201chow much longer is the county going to have to wait to have a modern facility to be able to compete with other airports?\u201d<\/p>\n

He said FDR, in being awarded the contract, pledged to open in June 2026, so \u201cwhen are we going to get a hotel?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have until 2029 to complete the building. That is linked to their receiving their permit,\u201d Ms. Abate replied.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bermudez said that while the contract may say 2029, commissioners in awarding it were told 2026. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t we get told that was the case?\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to recent state claims of inefficiencies in the county, Mr. Bermudez said \u201cthis is an example of what people point to. You\u2019re opening up a Pandora\u2019s box by not holding yourself to the standard that should be better than just good. Look around the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have to look around the state to know that a hotel that opened in 1959 at Miami International Airport isn\u2019t good enough today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an issue that I\u2019m not going to let go,\u201d Mr. Bermudez said. And he shouldn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No one entity is to blame \u2013 federal and county officials and developers are involved, and all want this hotel built and open. But it\u2019s now 20 years late for the marketplace and getting later. Let\u2019s see the efficiency committee actually make us more efficient. For the visitor industry, it\u2019s vital.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Written by Michael Lewis on November 19, 2025 Advertisement With global airports touting shiny modern hotels, Miami International…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-52461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}