Legacy Hotel & Residences will open as a wellness destination in Miami in late 2025. LEGACY HOTEL & RESIDENCES
February 21, 2023: Article corrected to more accurately reflect that restaurant menus are still in development and have not yet been set.
While many new hotels aim to capture health-oriented travelers, Legacy Hotel & Residences in Miami will stand out from the crowd with the world’s first Blue Zones Center—a 170,000 square-foot medical and wellness center offering visitors everything from surgeries to health therapies and spa treatments. All of these services will be available in the setting of a luxury hotel complex with world-class amenities and restaurants to keep guests comfortable and pampered during their stays. The longevity principles behind the Blue Zones guide the design of everything from the wellness center to the restaurant offerings, making this development truly unique in combining lifestyle, luxury, and wellness travel in one complete package. Dan Kodsi, CEO of Royal Palm Companies (RPC), shared what makes Legacy Hotel & Residences such a game changer for the future of wellness travel.
Rendering of Legacy Hotel & Residences tower in Miami
LEGACY HOTEL & RESIDENCES
Olivia O’Bryon: First, can you describe the project—what will Legacy Hotel & Residences include? What will make it the most advanced wellness hotel in the world?
Dan Kodsi, CEO of Royal Palm Companies: We’ve blended luxury, wellness and lifestyle hospitality under one roof. These are the trends at the forefront of hospitality and now they’re coming together for the first time. We’re developing Legacy Hotel & Residences, 310 branded residences above a 219-room hotel, to collectively redefine the meaning of wellness and hospitality in the name of luxury. Our all-in-one approach to lifestyle, hospitality, health and wellness is meant to create a community that attracts the individual looking to have it all and not lose your balance when traveling. The very definition of health and self-care is changing, and we want to help people define their own version of living well.
Longevity-driven wellness is at the core of Legacy Hotel & Residences. Our project will be home to the world’s first ever Blue Zones Center that prioritizes a whole new meaning for a health-conscious lifestyle. While wellness hotels may promote strict diets and exercise regimens, this isn’t the goal at Legacy – we want our guests to be the best versions of themselves.
Here are just a few features of Legacy:
- The property will feature restaurants offering Blue Zones healthy lifestyle selections as well as a variety of alternative options to choose from. We believe that living life to the fullest means providing options for everyone to enjoy.
- Our Tranquility pool area is separate from our lifestyle offering so that we can offer guests an area of serenity for morning yoga, meditation or small gatherings in front of one of our fireplaces overlooking downtown Miami with the largest rain shower of any hotel in the East. Separately, the lifestyle pool offers ultra-luxe daybeds and private and posh cabanas with bottle service for those who want to party by the pool.
- At Legacy, we will incorporate subtle Blue Zones design cues. For example, the stairs are strategically placed closer than the elevator to encourage walking, and there are reminders to breathe or enjoy a five o’clock glass of wine or two. These are all suggestions tied to the Blue Zones recipe for longevity.
- Art on the property will often be digital and interactive for our guests. In our lobby, we will have a heart monitor that allows guests to check their pulse and contribute their “rhythm” to all those staying at the hotel, so that you get “the heartbeat” of Legacy at any moment.
- Legacy will be one of downtown Miami’s only hotels within the Miami Worldcenter master plan which includes open plazas, five blocks of entertainment options, restaurants and high-end retail – each contributing to year-round demand. The future building will also house Miami’s first International Business Lounge and first rooftop atrium and pool inspired by architectural icons from Singapore. This area at the top of Legacy is where guests can swim in the sky, host events over Miami, or celebrate the evening at our Sky Bar. Today’s consumer wants lifestyle, wellness, and elevated experiences that help them become the best versions of themselves. Legacy is a multitude of these experiences designed to give guests a little bit of everything so that they leave and feel like they have truly experienced a balanced time away.
Rendering of Legacy Cafe LEGACY HOTEL & RESIDENCES
OO: Why is the project described as a Blue Zones Center Flagship?
DK: Our project will be home to the world’s first international flagship Blue Zones Center built from the ground up, with a fully integrated well-being and medical center that focuses on keeping people well through a lifestyle approach to medicine and an evidence-based approach to well-being therapies and treatments.
Blue Zones are identified areas of the world where people live the longest, happiest and healthiest lives. Whereas the average U.S. life expectancy is 78 years, it’s not uncommon to live past 100 in these geographical populations.
At Legacy Hotel & Residences and the Blue Zones Center, we’re implementing advanced technology and research-backed lifestyle principles – routine natural movement, plant-slant diets, a sense of purpose, etc. – to help our residents and guests live longer, happier, and healthier lives.
Integrating Blue Zones into the DNA of Legacy Hotel & Residences creates a whole new level of well-being and longevity in Miami and for all those who visit. Rather than traditional reactive wellness, Blue Zones prioritizes preventative wellness offering a new philosophy that says, “the sooner I start, the longer and happier I may live.”
Blue Zones’ work is rooted in 20+ years of identification and research of the world’s healthiest, longest-lived cultures and the Power 9 principles of positive lifestyle habits. The Blue Zones Center Miami, will be the first place, built from the ground up, with a fully integrated well-being and medical center that focuses on keeping people well through a lifestyle approach to medicine and an evidence-based approach to well-being therapies and treatments.
The Center will serve as the world’s most advanced destination for a well-being lifestyle and longevity medicine. At the heart of the Blue Zones Center is The Health Zone, which offers members experiences, services, and support for sustainably increasing well-being, preventing disease, and improving performance. This 170,000 square foot Center combines ancient lessons of the blue zones with lifestyle medicine, the most advanced diagnostics, and AI technology to improve well-being and longevity.
The goal is to foster sustainable services around well-being and lifestyle medicine to enhance and extend life, and to find the pressure points where healthcare and self-care intersect. Evidence-based lifestyle medicine has emerged as the future of healthcare, as it controls costs and delivers better health outcomes by treating root causes of disease. Combining lifestyle medicine, ancient lessons from the blue zones, advanced diagnostics, and AI technology will enhance well-being and longevity.
Rendering of lobby at Legacy Hotel & Residences.
LEGACY HOTEL & RESIDENCES
OO: What types of travelers do you expect to welcome? What might their stays entail?
DK: When we were creating our vision for Legacy, we had the Gen-X/Millennial consumer in mind who came to Miami for the nightlife and culture, but as we were designing the project, we realized that Gen-Z are the ones embracing the future and we’re really designing for the future. Today, this same consumer that wants lifestyle also wants an elevated luxury experience with design, amenities, food and beverage options, and state-of-the-art wellness facilities. Overall, Legacy is designed for guests and residences focused on living their best lives both at home and when away.
You might be visiting Legacy Hotel & Residences with a few friends that want to stick to their green juice diets, while you want to enjoy pizza one day and a salad the next. Legacy allows you to adapt to both lifestyles. Our integrated experiences will be the first to help all travelers achieve this no matter what their goals and desires are. Like health and wellness itself, this destination is open to all, and we hope to welcome more Legacy locations in the future.
OO: Can you elaborate more on how Gen Z factors into the vision for this hotel?
DK: While Gen X and Millennials have embraced the preventative wellness concept and paved the way for it, Gen Z has taken over the wellness industry and will undoubtedly shape the future of the way the world views health and wellbeing. Past generations have been accustomed to sick care, meaning we only go see a doctor when we feel symptoms which is too late – Gen Z is going to do it differently. They are truly the future of hospitality, residential living, and wellbeing. We feel strongly that we are building a better destination not only for Millennials to Gen Z, but for the future because at the end of the day, it’s not just about the age, it’s about the mindset.
OO: Why was Miami chosen as the location?
DK: Miami as a whole is a dynamic destination and an international city, and wellbeing is a universal magnet. We selected Miami because it is already on the world stage, and we wanted to expose this type of multifaceted concept to travelers from around the globe. The Miami Worldcenter neighborhood will incorporate preventative wellness into every aspect and retail space due to the influence of Legacy Hotel & Residences.
