Hospitality Design - July 2015 - 164

1. a king suite at the
Kaskades Suites, an
annex of the Gale South
beach designed by
urban Robot associates.
2. the Gale Signature
Grand suites include
large windows looking
out onto a private
balcony with views of
South beach.

keith

jared

Menin + Galbut
Principals
Menin Hospitality
For Keith Menin and Jared Galbut,
hospitality is a family affair. The second
cousins spent their teen years in Miami
manning the front desk at the Shelborne
South Beach during the summer and
working construction sites at some of the
other properties owned by their uncle, local
developer and founder of Crescent Heights,
Russell Galbut.
They were bit by the hospitality bug.
Galbut-who received a bachelor's degree in
accounting and finance from the University
of Miami-started in the mailroom of New
York's Hudson hotel and eventually moved
to Illinois to oversee the renovation and
become the GM of Chicago's Raffaello Hotel,
which was partially owned by his family.
Menin followed in his uncle's footsteps,
attending Cornell University's School of
Hotel Administration.
After Cornell, Menin convinced his

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July 2015 hospitalitydesign.com

family to let him revamp a small Miami
Beach nursing home they owned into the 30room boutique hotel he renamed Sanctuary
South Beach. It only made sense that he
contacted his cousin and suggested they take
on the project together. On first look, the
twentysomethings found "a disaster," Menin
says. "The building was falling apart, but it
was a great location and I learned that if I
had that, nothing could scare me."
That was in 2005, and they have been
working together ever since, officially
forming Miami Beach-based hospitality
management and development firm Menin
Hospitality in 2009-Galbut heading up
operations, and Menin leading the charge in
design and development. The company now
holds a portfolio of 11 hotels, restaurants, and
nightclubs in Chicago and Miami Beach,
with several more projects on the books.
Their work includes pouring $100

million into the family's Gale South Beach
hotel, taking it down to shell condition;
and partnering with another hotel family,
the Kanavos of Flag Luxury Group, for a
top-to-bottom $90 million renovation of
the storied Shelborne, which reopened last
year as the Shelborne Wyndham Grand
South Beach with design by Meg Sharpe
and Richard Mishaan. Most recently, they
unveiled Kaskades Suites, a new wing at the
Gale with 25 suites, meeting space, and a
rooftop terrace and pool. Designed by locally
based Urban Robot Associates, the suites
are outfitted with custom furniture and rugs
and feature spa-like bathrooms with rain
showers that can turn into aromatherapy
steam rooms. Ten ground floor suites offer
terraces with Japanese soaking tubs.
"My passion is designing buildings and
concepts, and finding the best designers to
realize them," says Menin, who adds that
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Hospitality Design - July 2015

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