Category: Business

Miami Beach’s hotel industry hit two milestones this summer: the Royal Palm South Beach reopened following a renovation topping $100 million, and the 800-room Grand Hyatt Miami Beach convention headquarters hotel reached its topping-off milestone, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau’s quarterly update.

The Royal Palm, which reopened in July, returns with 404 rooms as the flagship resort of Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio brand. The project restored the property’s art deco architecture and added 18,000 square feet of meeting and event space, along with direct beach access, the bureau said.

A few blocks away, construction crews in July topped off the Grand Hyatt Miami Beach, the long-awaited headquarters hotel for the Miami Beach Convention Center. The 800-room property will include four floors of meeting and ballroom space, a rooftop pool, restaurants and retail, and will connect to the convention center via a skybridge. It is scheduled to open in late 2027.

Occupancy and Rates Top the U.S. Charts

The investment wave comes as Greater Miami’s hotel market leads the country. Through May, Miami-Dade led the top 25 U.S. hotel markets with occupancy near 80% and the nation’s highest average daily rate at $293.67, according to industry data cited by reports on the market’s performance. The destination has led the top 25 U.S. metropolitan markets across occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room.

Tourism’s economic footprint in Miami-Dade has reached a record $32.2 billion, supported by international visitation and high-spending corporate travel, according to figures tied to the county’s tourism economy. The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau has reported strong tourism performance positioning the county for continued growth, with Miami-Dade recording 28.3 million visitors.

The hospitality pipeline extends beyond hotels. New restaurant openings this quarter include Greek concept Manoli in Coconut Grove, Vietnamese restaurant Pho Nam in downtown Miami and CHO Funky Asian Bistro in Sunset Harbour, while Miami Spice restaurant months run through Sept. 30, according to the visitors bureau’s Q3 roundup.

For Miami Beach, the twin hotel projects carry particular weight. The Grand Hyatt is designed to help the convention center compete for larger citywide events that have historically bypassed the market for lack of an attached headquarters hotel, while the Royal Palm’s repositioning adds renovated luxury inventory to the heart of South Beach ahead of the winter high season.

Postal Center International, a national mail-handling firm headquartered in Weston since its founding era in South Florida, is permanently closing its Broward County headquarters facility and laying off nearly 200 local employees, according to a state filing reported by Florida Trend.

The company notified the state of the layoffs on Aug. 12. According to the WARN notice, 181 employees at the company’s Weston office at 2965 W. Corporate Lakes Blvd. are affected by layoffs that began Aug. 13 and may continue through Sept. 30. The notice states the company will be permanently closing the facility.

Postal Center International got its start in 1984 and grew into a national player in mail, print and fulfillment services. The cuts extend beyond Florida: the company is laying off hundreds of workers in South Florida and Massachusetts combined, Florida Trend reported.

A Blow to Broward’s Corporate Base

The closure removes a longtime corporate employer from Weston’s Corporate Lakes business park and adds to a rising count of large-scale layoff notices filed in Florida this year. Through the first four months of 2026, employers filed 105 WARN notifications covering 6,011 positions statewide, compared with 87 notices in the same period a year earlier, according to state data reported by Miami Today.

The layoffs come amid an otherwise resilient South Florida labor market. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area posted the lowest unemployment rate among Florida’s large metros in the state’s most recent jobs report, at 3.9%, even as the statewide rate stood at 4.7%, according to figures from the Florida Department of Commerce reported by WUWF.

Mail and print services companies nationally have faced sustained pressure as businesses shift customer communications, billing and marketing to digital channels, squeezing volumes in the transactional mail segment that firms like Postal Center International were built on.

Workers affected by the Weston closure are covered by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires large employers to give 60 days’ notice of mass layoffs and plant closings. State and local workforce agencies typically offer rapid-response services, including job placement assistance and retraining programs, to employees named in WARN filings.

The company had not publicly detailed plans for its remaining operations as of this week.

Guitar giant Gibson will open the doors of its newest flagship store in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District on Sept. 10, bringing the 130-year-old instrument maker’s third global retail and experience destination to South Florida, the company announced.

Gibson Garage Miami, located at 2660 NW Third Ave., follows the success of the Gibson Garage Nashville and the Gibson Garage London. The Wynwood location spans more than 8,000 square feet and will feature more than 500 instruments that visitors can explore and play, along with interactive displays tracing the company’s history of guitar craftsmanship, according to the company.

The store will showcase the full family of Gibson brands, including Epiphone, Kramer, MESA/Boogie, Maestro, KRK and Gibson Amplifiers. It also includes a performance stage and exclusive merchandise, positioning the space as an attraction as much as a store, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau’s roundup of new openings this quarter.

Custom Guitars Designed in Miami, Built in Nashville

A centerpiece of the new location is the Gibson Custom Made to Measure program, which lets customers work with in-store specialists to design a guitar from the ground up — selecting wood tops, neck profiles, pickups, hardware, finishes and aging techniques. Each custom instrument is then handcrafted by Gibson Custom artisans in Nashville, the company said.

Gibson’s choice of Wynwood adds a marquee national brand to a neighborhood that has evolved from a warehouse district known for street art into one of Miami’s most visited retail, dining and entertainment destinations. The store will occupy space at The Wynwood Garage, a mixed-use parking and retail development in the heart of the district, according to Florida YIMBY.

The opening lands as Greater Miami’s tourism economy continues to post strong numbers, giving experiential retailers a steady stream of visitors. The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau has reported strong tourism performance this year, with the destination adding hotels, culinary concepts and attractions across the county.

For Wynwood, the arrival of a global music brand reinforces the neighborhood’s push beyond galleries and murals into live entertainment and experience-driven commerce. Gibson has said the Miami location, like its Nashville and London counterparts, is designed to host artist events and community programming in addition to retail sales.

The grand opening is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 10, and the store will be open to the public year-round.