Miami BeachTuesday, November 10
Playboy is under contract to buy Freehand Miami and turn it into a private club
The 5AM Miami team
If you know Freehand Miami for its bars, here's what's next. Playboy is under contract to buy the Miami Beach hotel from a Generator affiliate and turn it into a members-only club, executives announced Nov. 5. The Real Deal reports the deal is expected to close by Dec. 15 and that Playboy signed a non-binding term sheet for a joint venture with unnamed third-party investors.
Playboy would pay $12.5 million for the 89-room Freehand
- $12.5 million
- contract price for the hotel
- 89
- rooms at Freehand Miami
- $5 million
- Playboy plans to put toward the purchase
- $29.7 million
- in cash and equivalents, per Playboy's latest quarterly report
Sources: Miami New Times, The Real Deal
- Still open: Freehand takes bookings through November 2027
- Unclear: the fate of the Broken Shaker and Ray's Hometown Bar
- Last sold: January 2012, for $12 million
- Playboy HQ: moving from Los Angeles to Miami Beach
Playboy plans to put up $5 million and says it will recoup that through future membership sales. CEO Ben Kohn called the club “a foundational piece of our hospitality strategy.” Think Hospitality and Infinity Collective will work with the brand to develop it.
Playboy's Freehand purchase is expected to close Dec. 15
- 1972Hugh Hefner founds the short-lived Playboy Plaza Hotel in Miami Beach.
- Sept. 2018Playboy opens a members club in Midtown Manhattan.
- Nov. 2019Playboy's Midtown Manhattan club closes.
- Nov. 5Playboy executives announce the Freehand contract.
- Dec. 15The Freehand purchase is expected to close.
Sources: Miami New Times, The Real Deal
Sources: Miami New Times, The Real Deal