Living part-time in Downtown Miami: Waldorf, Delano or Faena?

For part-time living, Delano Residences & Hotel Miami is the easiest of the three to own from a distance: finished homes, a hotel downstairs and owner benefits that reach Delano Miami Beach, From $760,000. Waldorf Astoria Residences Miami offers the same hotel cover with larger homes and a Hilton-run building, From $3,300,000. Faena Residences Miami is the patient choice, on the river, with completion around 2028 or 2029.

The same five questions, from the developers' published material.

Delano Residences & Hotel Miami. Price point: From $760,000. Delivery: no date in the material on our file. Unit mix: about 421 fully finished residences, studios to three bedrooms in the released collection, with furnished suites in select lines. Position: Fourth and Biscayne, about 90 stories, views over the bay, Miami Beach and the Atlantic. Operator: Delano under licence, with Ennismore and Accor, and a hotel below the homes.

Waldorf Astoria Residences Miami. Price point: From $3,300,000. Delivery: no date on file. Unit mix: about 360 branded residences, from furnished junior suites to four bedroom homes. Position: Downtown Miami, 100 stories, with unobstructed views over downtown, Miami Beach and the Atlantic. Operator: Hilton Worldwide manages the property under the Waldorf Astoria name, with hotel rooms in the tower.

Faena Residences Miami. Price point: no published entry price; pricing on request. Delivery: about 2028 or 2029, per the project index. Unit mix: one to four bedrooms plus River Lofts, from 711 square feet for a one-bedroom. Position: the Faena District on the Miami River. Operator: Faena, with KAR Properties and Fortune International Group.

A part-time owner reads this list for one thing first: how much of the home's care the building can carry while you are somewhere else.

Because a part-time owner has fewer weeks to spend on fitting out. Every month spent choosing floors and waiting for a contractor is a month of the season lost.

Delano describes its residences as fully finished, with Meyer Davis interiors, built out closets and Italkraft kitchens with Sub-Zero and Wolf, and it offers furnished suites in select lines. Waldorf Astoria's smallest homes are furnished junior suites, and its private residences come with BAMO interiors and a Savant smart home with concierge access. A buyer can arrive, unpack and live.

Faena's filed materials on our file say less about the finish. Ask for the finish schedule by line and whether any line comes furnished. Our note on Faena in its first year of ownership sets out what to expect after closing.

When a home comes furnished, ask for the furniture schedule. It tells you what the price includes and what you will replace.

In a hotel-residence tower, there are staff in the building every hour of the year. That is the main reason part-time owners look at Waldorf Astoria and Delano first. Someone is there when a delivery arrives, when a storm warning comes, or when a leak shows up in the unit above.

But the hotel and the association are separate, and the line between them matters. The association looks after the common elements. Your home's interior is yours. Ask three questions before you sign: which services the residence staff provide to an owner who is away, what the hotel will do for an owner and at what charge, and who has a key. Our page on owning from abroad and property management lists what an owner arranges privately.

Delano adds owner benefits that matter to someone who comes for a season: Beach Club access at Delano Miami Beach, a Members' Club, and the Accor ownership benefits program with ALL Diamond status, subject to an annual benefits fee. Ask for that fee in writing; it is a cost you pay whether you are in town or not. See what the Delano brand does and what the Waldorf Astoria brand does.

Renting is the question part-time owners ask most, and the answer sits in three places: the declaration of condominium, any rental program the hotel offers to owners, and the city's own rules. None of the three buildings publishes rental terms in the material on our file, so ask each sales team for the rental section of the documents before you sign. Our page on Miami short-term rental rules explains how the layers fit together.

The empty months still cost money. The association fee runs all year. Insurance runs all year. A second home does not qualify for the homestead exemption, so its assessed value can rise faster than a primary home's. Add any brand or benefits fee on top. Our pages on what it costs to own a condo in Miami each year and Miami condo insurance break the lines down.

Delano suits the part-time owner who wants the lowest door, a finished home and a hotel underneath, with a beach club across the bay. You give up size, since the released homes stop at three bedrooms, and you share the tower with hotel guests.

Waldorf Astoria suits the part-time owner who wants a larger home, the height of a 100 story tower and a building managed by Hilton. You give up the lower entry, From $3,300,000, and a small-building feel.

Faena suits the owner whose part-time years start later, who wants a river address in a district the brand is building. You give up years, a published price, and the certainty of a finished program today.

The Downtown Miami zone page maps all three, and the best branded residences in Downtown Miami reads the same towers for a full-time buyer. Our page on buying a Miami condo as a second home covers the wider decision. See the Delano dossier and the Waldorf Astoria dossier. The papers a Downtown branded tower adds to your file are listed in the ownership file for a Downtown Miami branded condo. The desk sets out, for each tower, what the staff do while you are away, the rental terms in the documents and the full yearly cost, before you visit; our note on who to call when buying in Downtown Miami explains how.