A 1932 boutique hotel on Collins Avenue sold for $9.1 million on Wednesday, July 29, more than doubling the price its previous owner paid 11 years ago and marking the most expensive commercial real estate transaction recorded in South Florida that day.

The Julia Hotel at 336 Collins Avenue, a two-story, 29-room property spanning 9,200 square feet, was purchased by C & D Bay Village LLC, an entity managed by real estate investors Danilo Damolin and Lorenzo Costa, according to The Real Deal, which cited public deed filings.

That works out to $314,000 per key.

The 93-year-old building sits within Miami Beach's Art Deco Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places listing that spans Collins Avenue, Ocean Drive, and Washington Avenue. Built during the district's defining construction boom, the hotel features the Tropical Deco hallmarks of the era: pastel colors, curved facades, eyebrow window overhangs, and terrazzo flooring. SMS Lodging's website describes it as an "Art Deco boutique hotel" and notes the property was formerly named Hotel Lido before being rebranded as The Julia.

An affiliate of Miami-based SMS Lodging sold the property. The firm acquired the hotel in March 2015 for $3.7 million, meaning the sale represents a gain of approximately $5.4 million, or about 146%, over the holding period.

The per-key price puts the Julia in line with recent South Beach boutique hotel trades. The Fairwind Hotel at 1000 Collins Avenue, a larger 104-room property also built in the 1930s, sold for $31 million ($298,000 per key) in November 2025. The Kimpton Angler's Hotel at 600 Washington Avenue traded for $43.5 million ($330,000 per key) in December 2025. The Julia's $314,000 per key lands between those two comps, suggesting continued demand for small-format Art Deco hotels in the neighborhood.

A bigger wave on Collins Avenue

The Julia Hotel transaction, modest by Miami Beach standards, landed during a week of outsized hotel activity along the same corridor.

The 800-room Grand Hyatt Miami Beach topped out at 17th Street and Convention Center Drive on Tuesday, July 28, one day before the Julia sale closed. That $392 million project, developed by Terra and Turnberry, is scheduled to open in late 2027 and will connect directly to the Miami Beach Convention Center via a climate-controlled skybridge. As we reported July 30, the milestone drew city and tourism officials.

"The convention center hotel will be a game changer for our city, representing a major investment in our community," Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner said at the July 28 topping-out ceremony.

The same week, the Ritz-Carlton South Beach at 1 Lincoln Road pulled a $28.4 million construction permit covering 178,800 square feet of phased work. And the former W South Beach on Collins Avenue is undergoing a conversion to Waldorf Astoria Miami Beach under Hilton management, after Reuben Brothers acquired the 348-room property for $425 million in 2024. That rebranded hotel is targeting a late 2027 opening.

What's not yet known

Neither SMS Lodging nor C & D Bay Village LLC has publicly commented on the transaction. No renovation permits, rebranding plans, or reopening timeline for the Julia Hotel under its new ownership have appeared in city records as of August 1, 2026.

Greater Miami and Miami Beach welcomed 28.3 million visitors in 2025, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. The Julia Hotel's new owners take over a property on lower Collins Avenue while the corridor's largest projects target late 2027 openings.