Pharrell Williams Is Opening A 'Spiritual WiFi' Hotel In Miami
Musician Pharrell Williams is teaming up with Miami nightlife king David Grutman and Dreamscape Cos. to open The Goodtime Hotel in Miami Beach.
The 266-room property at 601 Washington Ave. will take up an entire city block, and will have a pool deck, a restaurant, a recording studio and 45K SF of retail. The seven-story property's exterior was redone by architect Morris Adjmi, with the interior done by Ken Fulk. It is expected to open in January.
Williams, who bought a $30M mansion in Coral Gables in April, told Vogue there would be "good vibes, good energy, good karma, good food, good music, good environment, good vibration ... Come there one way, and then you leave vibrating. We call it spiritual WiFi.”
Miami's hotel industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and recently residents and city leaders have been grappling with crime and vacancies in tourist-centric districts like Ocean Drive and Washington Avenue. Grutman told Vogue he thought the Goodtime's hotel site was the best block in the city and he was eager to help revitalize it.
"Places that were amazing at one time always have a great chance of being amazing again, because there's something about the energy of that latitude and longitude where The Goodtime is located that just works,” he told the magazine.
Dreamscape CEO Eric Birnbaum compared the location to the trendy Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Dreamscape's portfolio includes residential, retail, hospitality, entertainment and gaming properties in New York (Henry Hall, The Apthorp, Pod Times Square), Las Vegas (Rio All-Suit Hotel and Casino, The Westin) and St. Barths (Rue de Republique).
Grutman made his name running the nightclub LIV in the Fontainebleau Hotel, which became a celebrity magnet. He founded Groot Hospitality in 2015 and quickly expanded into other restaurant and hospitality ventures, including the restaurant Swan, in Miami's Design District, that partnered with Williams, in 2018. LiveNation purchased a majority stake in Groot Hospitality last October.
Grutman recently told students at Florida International University, where he is a guest lecturer, that he is still bullish on the hospitality sector.
“Hospitality is always going to be here," he said. "Ever since the caveman days, people lit fires in the cave and people gathered. People are always going to gather.”
