Miami-Dade County is reviewing plans for a major expansion of the Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon at 5101 Blue Lagoon Drive in Miami. Submitted by M2 Miami Airport Blue Lagoon LLC, an affiliate of New York-based hotel owner and operator MCR, the proposal would add 1,000 hotel rooms across two new 14-story buildings on the property’s 20.6-acre waterfront site overlooking Blue Lagoon. Designed by Behar Font & Partners with landscape architecture by Walk Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, the project would increase the property’s total room count to 1,508 keys while replacing existing surface parking with new hotel buildings and structured parking facilities.
The proposal calls for replacing surface parking areas surrounding the current Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon, a 14-story hotel completed in 1983 that contains 508 guestrooms. The existing hotel would remain in operation while two new limited-service business hotels are constructed on the northwestern and southwestern portions of the property. Each new tower would contain 500 guestrooms ranging from approximately 320 to 860 square feet, with sixth-floor pool decks and amenity areas overlooking Blue Lagoon.
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
The expansion would be accompanied by a significant structured parking program. Plans include a seven-story self-parking garage containing 419 spaces and a separate five-story valet garage serving the existing Hilton. Each of the two new hotels would be paired with an adjacent six-story parking garage containing 297 spaces, replacing large portions of the site’s existing surface parking inventory.
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
The application seeks to modify portions of Resolution No. 4-ZAB-55-82, the original zoning approval granted for the Hilton development in the early 1980s. MCR is also requesting a non-use variance to increase the permitted building height from 154 feet to 164 feet for the proposed hotel towers, along with setback variances to reduce separation distances between the new buildings and adjacent parking structures. As an alternative entitlement path, the applicant has also requested rezoning of the property from IU-2 (Industrial District, Heavy Manufacturing) to RU-4A, although hotel uses are already permitted on the site under certain provisions of the current zoning code.
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
The project is intended to accommodate growing demand for airport-oriented lodging while making more efficient use of an underdeveloped property located adjacent to Miami International Airport and the Blue Lagoon business district. The applicant describes the proposal as an infill redevelopment that would replace surface parking with additional hotel accommodations and structured parking.
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
A traffic study prepared by Kimley-Horn concluded that the project would generate approximately 360 weekday morning peak-hour trips and 222 weekday afternoon peak-hour trips while maintaining acceptable roadway levels of service. The study also found that vehicle queuing associated with the development could be accommodated entirely on site without extending onto surrounding public roadways.
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
Credit: Behar Font & Partners
The latest proposal represents a substantial increase in scale from plans previously filed by MCR in 2024. Earlier plans called for two eight-story hotels containing a combined 400 guestrooms and a five-story parking garage.
MCR acquired the Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon property for $118.3 million in 2023. Led by Tyler Morse, the company owns and operates a portfolio of approximately 150 hotels across 37 states, including the TWA Hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, The High Line Hotel in Manhattan, and the Pasadena Hotel & Pool in California.
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