If you really want to look the place over before the establishedjet set arrives, the hotel is offering introductory nightly ratesof only $180 until February The grand opening is March 31. The softopening was Nov. 20.

Locally-based Swire Properties and Mandarin OrientalInternational Ltd. built the hotel on exclusive Brickell Key at adevelopment cost of $303,951 per room. Based on room cost alone,the project is the most expensive hotel ever built in Miami,according to area brokers familiar with recent luxury productconstruction. Brickell Key is a 44-acre island adjacent to Miami'sDowntown financial core. Swire Properties is part of the HongKong-based Swire Group.

"They'll have to have a full house most of the time to at leastbreak even in the first few years," Robin L. Webb, vice presidentand managing principal of Winter Park, FL-based Arvida RealtyServices Inc. tells GlobeSt.com.