Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon Expansion

The Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon Expansion is a proposed 1,000-key addition to the existing 1983-built Hilton at 5101 Blue Lagoon Drive in Miami, currently under rezoning review with Miami-Dade County. Submitted by M2 Miami Airport Blue Lagoon LLC — an affiliate of New York-based hotel owner and operator MCR, which acquired the property in 2023 — the proposal calls for two new 14-story limited-service business hotels on the northwestern and southwestern portions of the 20.6-acre waterfront site, each containing 500 guestrooms ranging from approximately 320 to 860 square feet. Both towers feature sixth-floor pool decks and amenity areas overlooking Blue Lagoon. The existing 14-story, 508-key Hilton would continue operating during construction, with the full property reaching 1,508 keys at completion. The expansion is paired with a substantial structured parking program: a seven-story self-parking garage containing 419 spaces, a five-story valet garage serving the existing hotel, and two six-story garages — one paired with each new tower — containing 297 spaces apiece. Together the new structured parking replaces large portions of the site's existing surface parking inventory. The project is designed by Behar Font & Partners, with landscape architecture by Walk Landscape Architecture and Urban Design and traffic engineering by Kimley-Horn. The current application seeks to modify Resolution No. 4-ZAB-55-82 (the original 1980s zoning approval) with a non-use variance increasing permitted building height from 154 feet to 164 feet for the new towers, alongside setback variances; the applicant has also requested rezoning from IU-2 (Industrial District, Heavy Manufacturing) to RU-4A as an alternative entitlement path. The current proposal is a substantial scale-up from the developer's 2024 plans, which called for two eight-story hotels totaling 400 keys and a single five-story parking garage. MCR — led by CEO Tyler Morse — owns and operates a portfolio of approximately 150 hotels across 37 states, including the TWA Hotel at JFK, The High Line Hotel in Manhattan, and the Pasadena Hotel & Pool in California.