Miami Beach is hotel heaven \u2014 if GMs carry shivs in the afterlife. <\/p>\n
Four Seasons, Ritz, Fontainebleau \u2026 Collins Avenue is where the finest flags grapple for glory against upstart indie innkeepers in the guerra for guests. It\u2019s prison-yard rules, and if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere \u2014 even NYC.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Argentine hotel honcho Alan Faena is ejemplo n\u00famero uno. His maximalist, theatrical blend of high-end hospitality, flame-kissed fine-dining, naughty nightlife and mammoth artworks (literally) made him the big noise of Buenos Aires and a star on Miami Beach.<\/p>\n
Alan Faena is the man behind the plan. Getty Images<\/p>\n
More than a decade later, Faena is still the most original and authentic hotelier in the biz. Now, he\u2019s hung his whopping white hat at the base of Chelsea\u2019s most notorious new building. A boutique best-in-show, or the beginning of the next mega-brand? The Post checked in to see how Faena\u2019s Latin locomotion looks in its third location one year in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
High Line hoopla<\/p>\n
A scene-setting entrance, a golden staircase \u201ccathedral.\u201d Courtesy of Faena New York<\/p>\n
It was supposed to be a Six Senses. Drawn up by starchitect Bjarke Ingels, the twisted twin towers at 11th Ave. and W. 18th St. were designed to be the most splendiferous addresses on the lower High Line, with prices for condos surpassing the $50 million mark. <\/p>\n
Then, the building\u2019s developer, HFZ, went bankrupt, Gambino crime family kickbacks were exposed, construction stalled and Six Senses said sayonara. Billionaire Trump envoy Steve Witkoff stepped in and cleaned up the mess with bags of cash from big cheese Len Blavatnik\u2019s Access Industries. That was good luck for feisty Faena, whose hotel group just so happened to be founded in partnership with Blavatnik.<\/p>\n
Six Senses\u2019 Zen\u2019d out minimalism was scrapped for Faena\u2019s tropical red-carpet aesthetic \u2014 which drew celebs like Cher and Nicole Kidman after its September 2025 opening. Today, the hotel\u2019s soaring lobby feels like it was always meant to be.<\/p>\n
Rooms start at $1,395 a night.\u00a0 Courtesy of Faena New York<\/p>\n
The 18th Street entrance is guarded by snappy doormen in bygone bellhop garb \u2014 paired with a Faena signature top hat. Inside, a winding central staircase is surrounded by maxed-out murals by Argentine artist Diego Gravinese. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s conceived as a cathedral, and his monumental work \u2014 a cousin to Juan Gatti\u2019s metaphysical murals in Miami \u2014 is dubbed \u201cThe Sefirotic Journey.\u201d It\u2019s got to do with Kabbalah, the planets and possibly a psychedelic freak out, but don\u2019t try too hard to understand it; it\u2019s stage setting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rooms with a clue<\/p>\n
The hotel sports a super-sized spa. Courtesy of Faena New York<\/p>\n
Faena\u2019s signature symbology extends throughout the hotel\u2019s 120 upper-floor guest rooms and into the Living Room lounge, Tierra Santa Healing House spa and La Boca restaurant. <\/p>\n
Artwork featuring cosmic eyes and eggs, animal prints, deep dark hues, velvets, travertine marble floors, sunbursts of Art Deco glamour, luscious live performances, and a hallway-length Keith Haring: it all mixes into a supernatural success.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a clued-in cacophony that comes together because the aesthetics are more than surface deep. The suites are comfortable \u2014 even practical. The Francis Mallmann restaurant, somewhat tamed in this indoor setting, is rich with date-night sophistication. <\/p>\n
The property\u2019s loud and proud cocktail parlor. Courtesy of Faena New York<\/p>\n
In the cocktail lounge, waitresses wearing little red dresses beneath red half-capes drop drinks that would put the big bad wolf at ease. <\/p>\n
The spa opened in June, and it\u2019s just about unlike anything else in NYC. It\u2019s a gigantic 17,000-square-foot sanctuary with a hammam, five plunges, eleven treatment rooms, an infrared sauna, fitness studios, and South American treatments loaded with \u201cpotent indigenous ingredients.\u201d How potent? That\u2019s between you and Faena.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If it sounds outr\u00e9 in an era of streamlined and samey-samey snoozing spots, you don\u2019t know the half of it. Faena doesn\u2019t open hotels; he builds \u201cdistricts\u201d and even in real estate-restricted NYC, he\u2019s realizing his own magic kingdom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Faena has a mouthful of a restaurant. Courtesy of Faena New York<\/p>\n
Soon, a speakeasy will open in the hotel (we won\u2019t tell you where), aptly named El Secreto, with, we\u2019re told, a door bitch determined to segregate the fashionable wheat from the chuddy chaff. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019re lucky enough to slip inside you\u2019ll discover a room like a deconstructed disco ball designed by conceptual artist Sebastian Errazuriz. That opening will be followed by a street-level Faena Theater. Much like his Miami venue, this cabaret venue will vibrate with artwork by Andr\u00e9s Resinger and Old Hollywood glitz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s zestful, luxurious, out-there \u2014 rat-a-tat-tatting away like jungle jazz rhythms. But what\u2019s it all about? Alan says it best: \u201cNew York City has historically been the center of innovation, creativity\u2026 [This hotel] embraces and amplifies that spirit, offering a touch of magic \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Let him put a spell on you, starting at $1,395 a night.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami Beach is hotel heaven \u2014 if GMs carry shivs in the afterlife. Four Seasons, Ritz, Fontainebleau \u2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4874,810,232,2365,9,24,55,54,56,956],"class_list":["post-363390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-fall","tag-hotels","tag-lifestyle","tag-luxury-hotels","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}