Which new condos in Downtown Miami and the Design District are most private?

Kempinski Residences Miami Design District is the most private of the new buildings on our file in this part of the city: about 132 homes in two towers, no hotel on the site, and private elevator lobbies, From $3,700,000. Fouquet's is next, with 143 homes but a hotel in the tower. Waldorf Astoria and Delano are the least private: towers of roughly 360 and 421 homes that share their address with hotel guests, and in Delano's case with a public observation deck.

Privacy in a condo tower comes down to three counts: how many households share the doors, how many strangers pass through them, and whether the building gives you a way past both. The five axes, from the developers' published material:

Kempinski Residences Miami Design District. Price point: From $3,700,000. Delivery: no date in the material on our file. Unit mix: about 132 homes across two 23 story towers, 64 per tower, two to four bedrooms each with a den, plus six townhomes and 18 guest suites sold only to residents. Position: 3801 and 3883 Biscayne Boulevard, at the gateway to the Design District, not on the water. Operator: Kempinski Group runs the building day to day, with no hotel on the site.

Fouquet's Hotel & Residences Miami. Price point: no published entry price in the offering materials on our file. Delivery: no date on file; deposits are staged to groundbreaking and top off. Unit mix: 143 homes of one to four bedrooms in a 25 storey tower, many with dens. Position: 39 NE 39th Street, inside the Design District, on nearly two acres. Operator: Fouquet's runs a hotel in the tower, and owners have access to its services.

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

Delano Residences & Hotel Miami. Price point: From $760,000. Delivery: no date on file. Unit mix: about 421 finished residences in a tower of about 90 stories, studios to three bedrooms in the released collection, with the hotel below. Position: Fourth and Biscayne, Downtown Miami. Operator: Delano under licence, with Ennismore and Accor as the project team.

Fewer households is the first answer. A building of 132 homes has fewer faces in the elevator than one of 421. The staff learn every name, and a stranger in the lobby is noticed.

Who else uses the building is the second. A hotel brings guests who check in, check out and never meet you twice. That is anonymity of a kind, but it is not privacy. Restaurants, bars, event rooms and spas open to outside guests add more people again.

How you reach your own door is the third. A private elevator lobby, a garage you drive into below grade, and a guest suite that keeps visitors out of your home all reduce how often you are seen.

Our page on living above a hotel covers the trade in detail, and what the branded residence premium buys separates the name from the service.

Kempinski, by design. There is no hotel on the site, and the amenity program is built for people who live there: a fourth floor bridge between the towers, three pools, a spa with cold plunge and saunas, padel, golf and Formula 1 simulators, daily breakfast at the Sunrise Café and house cars. The residences have private elevator lobbies. The 18 guest suites are sold only to residents, which lets an owner host family or staff without opening the home. The Kempinski dossier and its grounds and arrival hold the detail.

Fouquet's sits in between. The hotel shares the tower, its two restaurants, bar and patisserie, and a shared hotel terrace. Against that, the offering materials list about 15,300 square feet of outdoor space for residents only, a 24 hour concierge, and valet and self parking below grade, so an owner can arrive by car without crossing a public room. Ask which entrance, elevator and pool deck are resident only before you sign. See what the Fouquet's brand does.

Waldorf Astoria and Delano, both from Property Markets Group. At Waldorf, the hotel guestrooms and suites, the signature restaurant, the brasserie and Peacock Alley share the tower with about 360 residences. Owners have a private residential pool deck and an owners lounge, which is the part of the program meant to be yours alone. See what the Waldorf Astoria brand does.

Delano goes further. The developer describes Miami's first public observation deck at about 850 feet, a sky restaurant and sky pool at about 800 feet, a Members' Club, meeting and event rooms, a rose bar and a café. That is a building designed to draw visitors. For a buyer who wants energy downstairs, it is the point. For a buyer who wants not to be seen, it is the opposite. Ask how residents' elevators are separated from the deck's, in writing. See what the Delano brand does and the Waldorf against Delano comparison.

Kempinski suits the principal who wants to live among residents only, with room for staff or family in the guest suites and a service standard without a lobby of travellers. You give up the water, a published delivery date and a hotel restaurant downstairs.

Fouquet's suits the owner who wants hotel service under the home but a building small enough to stay quiet, inside the district's galleries and shops. You give up a published price and a lobby that belongs to residents alone.

Waldorf Astoria suits the owner for whom height and the view are the privacy: a home far above the street, with hotel staff on call. You give up a small headcount, since about 360 households and a hotel share the tower.

Delano suits the buyer who wants the lowest door into a branded Downtown tower and likes a building with life in it. You give up the quiet: a public deck, a club and the largest headcount of the four.

If height is your idea of privacy, read which Downtown tower is best for high-floor living; for the steps of buying in a hotel tower, read how a hotel residence goes from offer to recording. For an island answer to the same question, read the island question, which sets Six Fisher Island against the mainland. The Design District zone page and the Downtown Miami zone page map these buildings. For the side-by-side of the two Design District towers, see Kempinski against Fouquet's. The desk reads each building's access plan and resident-only spaces from the condominium documents with you, and holds the plans by line; our note on who to call when buying in the Design District explains how.