FAA Blocks Planned Westin at Miami Airport
The planned 451-key Westin at Miami International Airport is off. The developers walked away after the Federal Aviation Administration rejected the 150-foot building over a radar blind spot, ending nearly two years of redesign talks on economic grounds and costing the airport its minimum annual payment.
Ralph Cutié, Miami-Dade aviation director and Miami International Airport chief executive, confirmed the decision to county commissioners at a meeting on 6 October 2026. Bisnow reported it on 9 October.
The FAA Rejected the 150-Foot Design
The developers submitted their plans to the FAA in August 2024 for the 451-key hotel, designed by Arquitectonica. Bisnow reported the project was planned with two restaurants, a pool with a terrace, event space, a spa, a fitness centre and a pedestrian bridge to Concourse D. Groundbreak puts the building at 11 storeys, 502,142 square feet and 200 parking spaces.
The FAA said the building created a radar blind spot that posed a safety issue, according to Bisnow. The aviation department came back with a different approach and the FAA rejected that too, Cutié said. Aviation officials then asked the developers to explore a shorter building, while the county sought federal guidance on an acceptable height.
Redesign Talks Ended on Economics
Cutié said the back-and-forth with the FAA and the development team ran for nearly two years. The joint venture told aviation officials that the project was not economically viable at the current site.
“Recently, the developer came back and said that they could not make the development work or economically viable for them at the current site, which is why we are moving forward now with the termination,” Cutié said.
Miami International Airport has had no new on-site hotel in more than 60 years.
The Lease and the Payment the Airport Loses
County commissioners approved the deal with Stephen Ross and Jeffrey Soffer in 2023 after a three-year bidding process. The award went to FDR Miami Hotel LLC, their joint venture, on a 1.8-acre site beside the airport’s Dolphin Parking Garage. The American Developer puts the county’s projected revenue from the 50-year ground lease at $240 million.
Under the terms, the developers were to pay the county $2.5 million annually or 3.5 per cent of annual gross revenue once the hotel opened, whichever was greater. Bisnow attributes that figure to The Real Deal, which first reported the story.
County Moves to Terminate and Re-Bid
Miami-Dade staff is preparing to terminate the lease. Cutié said he expects the termination to move forward within the next month, and that aviation officials and procurement staff are preparing an expedited request for proposals that folds in what the county learned from the radar interference issue.
Miami Today reported the new solicitation could return to the originally chosen site or move to a larger one, so a future hotel could reach more rooms through width rather than height.
The joint venture filed a 1,000-page document listing its costs, and commissioners have not agreed to cover them.
Commissioners Push Back
The decision drew frustration from commissioners. Several said they had been left in the dark on the project’s status.
“On this one, you guys dropped the ball,” Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez said, according to Bisnow. “The discussion on the airport hotel was a very difficult discussion for this commission, probably one of the most difficult that I remember since I have been here.”
Commissioner Oliver Gilbert questioned paying a developer for costs on a project it could not build. “I’m not against doing incurred cost, paying them for their incurred cost, but I think it’s odd that we’d be in the business of paying for incurred cost because somebody else submitted a proposal that they can’t build,” he said.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the FAA height determination blindsided her. “This was a total surprise,” she said. “I’ve asked that same question: how could it be that we wouldn’t anticipate this FAA restriction?”