The Regent Bal Harbour
10295 Collins Ave., Bal Harbour Village, Fla.; 305-455-5400; http://www.regentbalharbour.com.
ROOMS AND RATES
61 rooms from $603; 63 suites from $1,049.
This winter has not been a good time to open a luxury hotel - especially in Miami, where the recent real estate boom created a flood of new rooms and condos. Even now that the party's over, a string of new lodgings will be opening there well into 2009.
It's safe to say, though, that few will match the Regent Bal Harbour for ambition. It's not that the place is huge (it has only 124 rooms, all of which have been sold to private owners and are booked by guests when not in use). It's that it is designed to deliver Asian-style five-star service, a big stretch for laid-back South Florida. The facilities are elaborate, appropriate to a condo-hotel where prices originally started at $1.6-million. How many hotels do you know that have a multimillion-dollar art collection? The rooms aren't bad,
either.
LOCATION On the northern tip of Miami Beach, Bal Harbour is technically a separate village of its own. And while nearby beach towns on the "Gold Coast" are going upscale, Bal Harbour has been there for decades. It's an enclave of very pleasant second homes and well-maintained condos. Feel like going shopping? Your
only option is the nearby Bal Harbour Shops, one of the most exclusive malls in the United States.
The Regent occupies a site on the very end of the village, alongside a waterway and opposite a public park. The northeastern and eastern views over the ocean are wide open; on the other side is low-slung Bal Harbour, then the Intracoastal Waterway and Miami's skyline in the distance. South Beach, the area's real heart, is about 15 kilometres away.
AMBIENCE It's so sedate, South Beach feels 100 kilometres away. The hotel is isolated from its neighbours and well built to hide traffic noise. In the fall, when I visited with my wife, the only sounds were the crashing of the waves (and the markets).
CLIENTELE A cross-section of moneyed Miami visitors. We ran into patrician Northeasterners, retired Europeans in designer bathing suits from the mall, and extended families on extended vacation - including one very noisy crew of kids, parents and grandparents who turned out to be from Toronto.
ROOMS Even the smallest rooms are nearly 600 square feet, and ours - a middle-range suite - was palatial, over 1,100 square feet. That was room enough for a comfortable living room, a full desk, comfortable bedroom and a bathroom fit for an emperor. (The latter is another Regent signature.) Oh, and there was a full kitchen, with espresso machine and a massive Wolf stove - but no pots.
Rooms are accessed by private or semi-private elevator; in other words, each elevator serves one or two suites on each floor. The likely result is that you will never see your neighbours or, indeed, anyone else, except at the pool. And here's a piece of technology and service that all luxury hotels should mimic: The doors have an electronic switch for you to signal for maid service when you go out. In other words, you can kick back with a drink and never worry about being bothered.
DESIGN The hotel's interior is a tasteful refuge for people whose natural habitat is the McMansion. It's all monolithic furniture in dark woods, granite slabs, bold colours and leather-panelled walls. But the rooms are flawlessly comfortable, and the design (by Atlanta's CMMI) is executed with ridiculous attention to detail. Every corridor and public bathroom has its subtle flourishes, a different sink or beautiful light fixture, to combat the sense of sameness that usually permeates hotels. There's even a slightly edgy Canadian touch: The dining room features a phalanx of pendant lights designed by Vancouver's Omer Arbel for his company, Bocci.
AMENITIES In keeping with Miami's growth as an art capital, the Regent has a collection including works specifically commissioned for the hotel. The staff now includes an "art butler" who will give you a guided tour. But the main draw is the 750 feet of beach. An underground passage lets you head from the elevators out to the pool and the beach, avoiding the polished main lobby. Poolside, there are large cabanas for rent if you'd like to spend the day lounging in seclusion.
And back indoors is the spa: the first Guerlain Spa in North America. It's expansive, at 10,000 square feet, beautifully decorated and designed for a truly peaceful experience, with private treatment rooms and a complete range of products and treatments.
SERVICE The Regent brand has roots in Hong Kong, and the new owners behind the brand - cruise-ship and hotel operator Carlson - have made Asian-style "anticipatory" service one of its touchstones. The results are a bit formal, but flawless. The young man at the desk (suit jacket fully buttoned) will definitely remember you. The concierge? At your service 24 hours a day. Turndown? An overnight shoeshine? But of course.
There is even a free car service within Bal Harbour; your driver awaits outside in a glinting new Mercedes. On the other hand, there's nowhere to go in Bal Harbour except the mall. One evening, a driver cheerfully broke the rules to drop us at a Cuban restaurant in low-key North Beach. It was good, too.
FOOD Simple room service and poolside snacks were flawless, if expensive; hopefully the $16 chicken clubhouse sandwiches at the pool bar have taken a price chop. We had an excellent, subtly flavoured dinner of local fish at the hotel's restaurant, 1 Bleu. Since our stay, executive chef Mark Militello - winner of the prestigious James Beard Award and longtime star on the local food scene - has taken the helm at 1 Bleu and the adjacent bar, maintaining a Mediterranean theme and focus on seafood.
WHAT TO DO If the beach, the spa and the art aren't enough, it's not that hard to hit South Beach's clubs and restaurants. The galleries and restaurants of the Miami Design
District (www. miamidesigndistrict.net), on the north edge of the city, are a quicker drive, about 10 kilometres away.
***
Hotel vitals
TOP DRAWS
Luxurious quarters and a wide-open beach.
NEEDS WORK
The front-line staff could lighten up a bit (if management would let them, that is).
BOTTOM LINE
Low-key and note-perfect.
Alex Bozikovic