When Faena and Foster + Partners tear down a 1957 Miami Beach landmark to build 67 residences priced from $14M, the question is not "is it overpriced" — it's "who's already lining up?"
Key Takeaways
- Faena Residences replaces the iconic 1957 Versailles Hotel at 34th and Collins with 67 oceanfront residences designed by Foster + Partners.
- Starting prices begin around $14M with a single penthouse asking $93M, setting a new ceiling for non-supertall Mid-Beach product.
- The project anchors the next phase of the Faena District expansion north of the existing Faena Hotel and Forum.
There are pre-construction projects in Miami where the architecture is the story. There are projects where the brand is the story. There are projects where the location is the story. Faena Residences Miami Beach is the rare one where all three are the story at once — and the result is the most ambitious oceanfront residential project announced in Miami Beach in the last decade.
The site is the legendary 1957 Versailles Hotel at 3425 Collins Avenue, one of Mid-Beach's last great untouched MiMo-era oceanfront parcels. The developer is Faena Group, founded by Argentine creative-empire builder Alan Faena, the same team that turned Mid-Beach into a destination with the Faena Hotel, the Faena Forum, and the iconic gold-Damien-Hirst-mammoth Faena House. The architect is Foster + Partners, the firm of Lord Norman Foster, whose South Florida portfolio already includes the topped-off 830 Brickell and the 1428 Brickell tower in early construction. And the asking prices — $14M to start, $93M for the penthouse — set a new ceiling for what Mid-Beach oceanfront can command without going to the supertall heights of Sunny Isles.
If you have been following Miami pre-construction in 2026, this is the project you need to understand. Here is the full breakdown.
The Site: Why 3425 Collins Was Always Going to Become Something Like This
Mid-Beach — the stretch of Miami Beach from roughly 27th Street north to 44th Street — was Miami's first true luxury hotel district in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Fontainebleau, the Eden Roc, the Versailles, the Saxony, the Carillon: these were the buildings that defined American postwar resort glamour, all in a single mile of beachfront.
By 2010, most of those original buildings had been either heavily renovated, demolished, or replaced. Alan Faena bought what is now the Faena District between 2011 and 2014 and turned it into the cultural anchor that pulled the entire neighborhood upmarket. The Versailles Hotel — at 34th and Collins, sitting on roughly two acres of direct oceanfront — was one of the last original MiMo properties left intact. The Faena Group acquired it in 2018 with the explicit intent to redevelop, and the project worked its way through Miami Beach's notoriously complex preservation and design review for six years before finally launching as Faena Residences in 2024.
What Faena negotiated with Miami Beach Preservation is a relatively rare hybrid: significant elements of the original 1957 Versailles facade and signature features are preserved and integrated into the new building, while the bulk of the structure is a new contemporary tower designed by Foster + Partners. That deal-making is exactly why this site got approved when others on the same beach have stalled.
- Miami Market Snapshot — Late May 2026:
- Median sale price in Mid-Beach (33139/33140): $1.45M (up 5.1% YoY)
- Active condo inventory Mid-Beach: 380 listings (8.2 months supply)
- Mid-Beach oceanfront new-construction PPSF range: $3,200 to $5,800
- Penthouse trades over $30M in Miami Beach in 2025-2026: 9 transactions (highest count since 2015-2016)
The Architecture: Foster + Partners' Most Restrained Miami Project Yet
Foster + Partners' design language in Miami has been deliberately quiet relative to their European and Asian portfolio. 830 Brickell is a tall, clean, restrained office tower. 1428 Brickell — covered in my earlier breakdown — is a slender, glassy, solar-integrated residential tower without ostentatious form-making. Faena Residences continues that restraint, but applied to a beachfront brief.
The tower rises approximately 19 stories from a podium that preserves portions of the original Versailles facade as a public-facing oceanfront promenade element. The residential tower itself is a slender vertical mass with rounded balcony corners — the same nautical detailing that has become a Mid-Beach architectural signature since the Fontainebleau. Floor-to-ceiling glass on the east face captures unobstructed Atlantic views, while the west face is more solid stone and louvered shading, giving the building a deliberate front-and-back orientation that other Miami towers often lack.
The interior design is by Foster + Partners' own interiors group rather than an outside firm — a relatively unusual choice in this tier and one that signals the building is meant to read as a single coherent design statement from facade through to door pulls.
The Residences: 67 Units, $14M to $93M
The unit mix is deliberately small. Roughly 67 residences across the tower, with a heavy weighting toward full-floor and half-floor residences in the 4,500 to 8,000+ SqFt range. The smallest residences in the building are still meaningfully larger than what most buildings call "luxury" — Faena is explicitly not building one-bedrooms.
Starting prices begin around $14M for the lower-floor residences. Mid-tower full-floors are priced in the $20M to $40M range. The crown of the building is a single penthouse asking $93M — a price point that, if achieved, would set a new ceiling for non-supertall Mid-Beach product and rank among the top ten residential transactions ever recorded in Miami Beach.
The amenity program is calibrated for a building of this tier: private beach service, two pool decks, a full Faena-branded restaurant within the building, a residents-only spa and wellness facility, library and screening room, conservatory, and 24/7 staff that mirrors the staffing levels of the Faena Hotel just two blocks south. Residents have direct relationships with Faena Hotel's services and the Faena Forum's cultural programming — the entire Faena District operates as a single integrated lifestyle ecosystem and Faena Residences plugs into it directly.
The Investment Case: What $93 Million Actually Buys
It is worth being honest about what a $93M penthouse in Mid-Beach is, economically. This is not a yield investment. It is not a rental property. It is a trophy capital placement — the residential equivalent of buying a top-tier piece of contemporary art or a vintage hypercar. The buyer pool for this specific residence globally is perhaps 200 to 400 people.
The case for it is the same case as for any other top-of-market trophy asset: scarcity, brand association, and the historical performance of similar trophies. Faena House, completed in 2015, has set and reset Mid-Beach price records multiple times — the $60M penthouse trade in 2022 was, at the time, one of the highest ever recorded in Miami. Faena Residences as a successor brand-extension product has structurally similar underwriting, with the additional layer of Foster + Partners' name attached.
For the $14M to $25M entry residences, the underwriting is closer to a conventional ultra-luxury condo trade: scarcity of true Mid-Beach oceanfront new construction, Faena brand premium, Foster + Partners architectural premium, and the secular trend of capital moving into Miami trophy assets from California, New York, and abroad. The Mid-Beach oceanfront PPSF range of $3,200 to $5,800 brackets where Faena residences are positioned, and the brand-plus-architect combination justifies the upper end of that range for most floors.
The Risks Worth Understanding
Two risks belong in any honest write-up of a project at this scale and price point.
The first is delivery timeline. Faena Residences is in active construction, but Miami Beach's preservation and design review process can introduce surprises during construction that delay completion. Buyers should expect a 24-to-36-month delivery window from contract, with conservative assumptions on the long end.
The second is liquidity at the top of the stack. The $93M penthouse and the $40M+ full-floors have a buyer pool small enough that resale liquidity is uncertain. A buyer in those residences should be writing the check with the assumption that the property will be held 10 to 20 years and used personally — not flipped within five.
For the lower-floor residences in the $14M to $25M range, liquidity is much better, and the underwriting is more conventional.
As I covered in "How to Buy Pre-Construction in Miami: The 2026 Deposit Schedule, Timeline, and Risk Playbook Every Buyer Needs," the deposit structure for projects at this tier typically runs 30% to 50% before closing. Buyers should plan for that capital commitment timeline carefully.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Where is Faena Residences Miami Beach located? A: Faena Residences sits at 3425 Collins Avenue in Mid-Beach, on the site of the iconic 1957 Versailles Hotel, two blocks north of the existing Faena Hotel and Faena Forum that anchor the Faena District in Miami Beach.
Q: Who designed Faena Residences Miami Beach? A: Architecture is by Foster + Partners, the firm of Lord Norman Foster, whose other South Florida projects include 830 Brickell and 1428 Brickell. Interior design is handled by Foster + Partners' in-house interiors group rather than an outside firm.
Q: How much does Faena Residences Miami Beach cost? A: Starting prices begin around $14M for lower-floor residences, with mid-tower full-floors priced from $20M to $40M and a single penthouse asking $93M — among the highest priced residences ever offered in Miami Beach.
Q: When will Faena Residences Miami Beach be completed? A: The project is currently in active construction. The developer's stated target window is 24 to 36 months from launch, which puts realistic completion in 2026 to 2027. Final delivery timelines on Mid-Beach trophy projects typically slip 6 to 12 months from initial targets.
Explore the full Faena Residences Miami Beach project conversation with my office — I track every pricing release and inventory movement on Mid-Beach trophy product as it happens. Whether you're buying, selling, or investing — I've got you.
Partnership Realty / Partnership Realty Inc / +1 (561) 629-0358 / carloscabalerealtor.com
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