Can the Reinvented Delano Hotel Resuscitate South Beach?

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Can the Reinvented Delano Hotel Resuscitate South Beach?

Once a magnet for the fashion and music sets of the 1990s, the hotel has been rebranded as a wellness-leaning space with nonalcoholic cocktails and a spa with a communal sauna.

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The South Beach stretch of Collins Avenue that includes the Delano.

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Scott McIntyre

By

Rachel Felder

Reporting from Miami Beach

April 26, 2026,

5:00 a.m. ET

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In 1995, when Madonna held herself a lavish 37th birthday party, she chose a suitably trendy location: the Delano, the Art Deco Miami Beach hotel that the impresario Ian Schrager had transformed into a magnet for the glamorati and guests that aspired to be like them.

With its tastemaker clientele and discreet yet indulgent atmosphere, the hotel felt like a mix of a St. Tropez resort crossed with a fashion week after party.

“There were the cool rock star people, there were the Hollywood billionaire types, the downtown fashion New York people, people swimming naked in the pool at 1 a.m.,” said David Barton, the popular trainer whose gym had a branch in the hotel for several years. “You were just in this other world.”

A couple of decades before celebrities’ every move was documented on social media, the Delano was a safe space for revelry without consequences, perhaps with some selfie-free relaxation thrown in. The ambience stretched throughout the property, which included poolside bungalows and Blue Door restaurant, of which Madonna was an owner.

“It was really the Miami equivalent of Studio 54,” said Paul Wilmot, a former fashion publicist and Delano regular in its mid-90s heyday.

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The Delano in 2006, the scene of a party for the release of the photographer Patrick McMullan’s “Kiss Kiss” book.

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Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images

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