CLIENT NEWS: Playboy is coming to town, with plans for a Miami Beach club and headquarters
August 19, 2025Playboy, the company best known for its magazine centerfolds and bunny logo, had a major presence in South Florida in the 1960s and ‘70s with a club and a hotel.
Now, the brand is coming back to town.
Playboy Enterprises has signed a lease to move into the penthouse of a new luxury office building in Miami Beach called Rivani.
The company will move its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles into the building at 1691 Michigan Ave., near Lincoln Road. Playboy called it a strategic move in an Aug. 13 statement, and said it underscores the “brand’s next chapter with expanded hospitality offerings, advanced content studios and renewed cultural presence.”
The move by Playboy “is game-changing,” Miami Beach City Commissioner Joseph Magazine said Thursday in an interview with the Miami Herald. “It shows that Miami Beach is truly reimagining our economy and focusing on economic development.”
The commissioner spent about six months with Playboy’s CEO and Board of Directors, selling them on the city. He said the company received offers from elsewhere in South Florida and in other U.S. cities.
Along with the office relocation, the company is developing a new Playboy Club in Miami Beach, including a “world-class restaurant” along with “an exclusive members-only space inspired by the storied Playboy Mansion.”
Developer Robert Rivani said he expects Playboy’s new office to be ready by mid-2026.
Playboy described Miami Beach as “one of the nation’s most dynamic, culturally relevant, and business-friendly cities.”
Playboy’s decision to relocate its corporate headquarters to Miami Beach “goes beyond the state’s positive business and tax climate,” John Boyd Jr., principal with location advisory firm The Boyd Company, told the Herald on Thursday. It also goes “to the more qualitative site selection attributes of Miami like cultural influence and dynamic vibe, which can help companies like Playboy to rebrand itself in the marketplace,” he said.
The Rivani commercial complex offers a mix of wellness, design and hospitality businesses. Robert Rivani said he has injected over $100 million into the development, which features a spa, wellness center, living room-style meeting space, Japanese restaurant and speakeasy.
The new tenant plans content studios in its new headquarters “to support Playboy’s growing creator network.” This will allow the production of multimedia across digital platforms, including podcasts, photography and other media ventures.
“Our vision is to create world-class content and experiences that resonate globally,” Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy Inc., said in a statement. He sees Miami Beach as “the ideal home for Playboy’s next chapter.”
In 2020, Playboy ceased publishing its monthly print magazine, founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and once the most identifiable part of the brand. In 2015, the magazine, also known for its in-depth articles along with the centerfolds, stripped the nudity from its pages.
Even with the changes, the Playboy brand accounts for $3 billion in annual consumer spending across the world — that’s a lot of logo licensing on shot glasses, keychains and clothing. And this year, Playboy even returned to publishing an annual print magazine.
Commissioner Magazine said his understanding of Playboy’s plans is that the company will open a corporate headquarters with about 100 new local hires.
He said it’s unlikely the company will build another hotel. “That’s not part of their business model,” he said, adding Playboy will focus on a high-end restaurant and club.
Playboy’s presence in South Florida
The plan to open a headquarters and club is a return to an area where Playboy once had a major presence.
The Playboy Club, with its bunny barmaids, opened in 1961 at 77th Street and Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. The site, across the street from an adult theater, is now an auto supply shop. The club moved to an inn near the airport, but didn’t last there long. In 1970, the company invested millions to open a Miami Beach hotel, the Playboy Plaza. The building, in the 5400 block of Collins Avenue, is now known as the Castle Beach Club.
In addition to the club and hotel, Playboy trailblazing Playboy photographer Bunny Yeager found bunnies all over Miami, including pinup Bettie Page, as she put the 305 in the magazine’s centerfold.
Tragically, some celebrated Playmates, like 1993 Playmate of the Year Anna Nicole Smith, and Miss February 1977, Star Stowe, lost their lives in South Florida
. So, what kind of Playboy can South Florida expect when the company returns?
Kohn, the CEO, may have foreshadowed that five years ago in a Medium post announcing the shutdown of the print magazine, Kohn gave some hints of what could be part of the company’s planned “content studios.”
He cited live events they held with audiences on cannabis advocacy, female sexuality in the arts and the future of masculinity. He also mentioned they held the first sessions of “The Playboy Interview Live” and revived the Playboy Advisor column in a more social media-friendly digital series “providing millions of viewers with the sex-ed we wish we’d had.”
