Miami Beach becomes Vice Beach on November 1: a giant pink sign, a pink Muscle Beach and the W turned into the Y Hotel

Status: Report. The details come from City of Miami Beach documents published by GTAVice.net, which name Rockstar Games as the sponsor. Rockstar hasn't announced it, and each element still needs written approval from the city.

Vice City is heading to the beach. Miami Beach becomes Vice Beach on November 1, according to documents obtained by GTAVice.net: a giant pink sign in Lummus Park, the Muscle Beach outdoor gym painted pink, and the W South Beach hotel turned into the game's Y Hotel. Work starts Monday, October 26.

The Vice Beach sign

• Where: on the Lummus Park lawn at 1130 Ocean Drive, by 11th Street.
• What: pink sheet-metal letters on a steel frame, about 34 feet long and 7 feet tall. It weighs 5,400 to 5,800 pounds and is engineered for the area's wind loads.
• When: installed October 26–31, live on November 1, and removed between January 1 and 15, 2027.

Muscle Beach goes pink

Miami's most famous outdoor gym, at 873 Ocean Drive, is getting the GTA VI treatment too. The calisthenics bars and equipment will be painted pink, with Vice Beach decals on the nearby containers. The work happens overnight, 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., from October 26 to 31. It opens on November 1 and stays pink until January 15, before being restored.

The W becomes the Y Hotel

The W South Beach, at 2201 Collins Avenue, will become the Y Hotel, one of Vice City's hotels:

• A giant banner on the facade with a cocktail glass, hibiscus flowers and the line "Y even ask?".
• A huge "Y" replacing the "W" on the spa terrace.
• On the hotel's beach, the drinks service will use branded ice buckets, napkins, coasters, bottle openers, koozies and cups.

Amplify Marketing, Rockstar's agency, signed the deal with the hotel's owners for $650,000: $300,000 for the facade, $150,000 for the "Y" and $200,000 for the beach. The campaign runs from October 15 to December 31, with a $10,000-a-day penalty if it isn't removed on time. One detail says a lot about the secrecy: the hotel had to keep all the materials in a locked room until October 15.

How it fits

Miami Beach narrowly voted 4–3 in September to negotiate with Rockstar (our story). That's where the Vice City umbrellas and loungers on South Beach since October 15 came from. Now the rest is arriving, just as Miami already has Burger Shot and Cluckin' Bell at the Heat's arena and in-game ads all over Wynwood.

What we don't know

• Whether the city will grant every permit. The hotel contract lets each part be cancelled if they don't come through.
• Whether the images in the documents are the final design or just mockups.
• What happens with Miami-Dade County: its commission was set to vote on October 20 on negotiating airport, Metromover and port deals with Rockstar, and no result has been published yet.

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