The Nora Hotel: West Palm Beach’s Next Big Opening

Rooftop pool with a few lounge chairs, umbrellas, and red-tile roof covering open-air bar — Lilly’s, the rooftop pool bar at the Nora Hotel, is one of several spots on the property that could become popular with local residents as well as guests.

The Nora Hotel opened October 19 in West Palm Beach, Florida, and it’s creating a lot of buzz.

Located in the new Nora District (named after North Railroad Avenue), the hotel comes from BD Hotels, the team behind New York City’s Hotel Chelsea, the Mercer, the Marlton, and the Ludlow, among others.

Led by Sean MacPherson, Richard Born, and Ira Drukier, that team is bringing its cool retro style and hotel-as-a-city’s-living-room approach to West Palm Beach. This is their first hotel outside of New York City, and the move south is the latest signal that West Palm is on the rise as a weekend getaway.

I’ve spent a lot of time in Palm Beach County over the past 20 years, visiting roughly half a dozen times a year, and I’ve watched West Palm and the surrounding towns become increasingly interesting. Last week, I got a pre-opening tour of the Nora Hotel and spoke with hotelier MacPherson about why he chose West Palm Beach for his first hotel outside New York, and what he thinks its arrival might mean for the city as a travel destination.

What to know about West Palm Beach

Here’s some big-picture context about the area: Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and ultrawealthy Palm Beach have long been the hubs of South Florida’s east coast, but as those places became more expensive and crowded, residents started to push north.

Over the past decade or so, West Palm Beach has emerged as the next hub along that northward expansion. There’s major growth happening in towns farther north, too, including Port St. Lucie and Jupiter, where residential construction is booming.

Guest room in shades of beige with large curtained window and sofa — Guest rooms at the Nora Hotel blend classic Palm Beach style with coral and sage tones, wicker furnishings, and shell-inspired details.

During the pandemic, MacPherson lived in the area for several months and fell in love with it. “I grew up in Malibu, and it reminded me of Southern California and Santa Barbara and Montecito—all of this kind of Mediterranean architecture, all that Addison Mizner architecture, and the sort of low scale of it,” he said. “And I just really connected with it personally, and then when I got the opportunity to do [the hotel], it made sense.”

That opportunity came when Wheelock Street Capital, one of the investment firms behind the Hotel Chelsea, started developing the Nora District and asked his company to get involved.

“I said yes,” MacPherson recalls. “I know the neighborhood, so that was sort of serendipitous. But I wouldn’t have said yes as quickly had I not had a real physical familiarity with the area.”

It feels like there’s a real opportunity [in West Palm Beach]: It hasn’t been codified in the way that, say, major cities have, and it just feels like there’s really an opportunity there to kind of dream.

—Sean MacPherson

Why did MacPherson choose West Palm Beach for his next hotel?

For MacPherson, it wasn’t just that West Palm Beach feels familiar: “It feels like there’s a real opportunity there: It hasn’t been codified in the way that, say, major cities have, and it just feels like there’s really an opportunity there to kind of dream. And I just really related to that.

“I don’t want to slag on New York and Los Angeles, because I like them as well,” he explained. “But in New York and Los Angeles, everything is sort of settled. In New York in particular, the neighborhoods are settled. Of course, New York changes every decade, but it’s established, and we know what it is.

“West Palm still feels like an adolescent. It’s a little bit unclear—in a good way— precisely how it’s going to grow, but it’s definitely going to grow. And I don’t just mean grow in terms of becoming larger; its personality will reveal itself over time. I think that’s very interesting.”

What is the Nora Hotel like?

Loggia with wood beam ceiling, checkerboard tile, white chairs, and green plants — The front of the hotel has an open-air loggia.

The 201-room hotel is a new build designed to feel old and storied. Its facade is inspired by Addison Mizner, the 1920s architect who defined the Palm Beach area’s Mediterranean revival and Spanish colonial revival look: stucco facades, castle-like turrets, red-tile roofs, arches, porticos, and fountains. (The entrance plaza has a covered outdoor lounge area with two fountains, one for dogs.)

Inside, the hotel references classic Palm Beach with coral and sage tones, shell-like shapes and wicker in the rooms, and vintage photos lining the halls. It also incorporates the group’s signature New York details: Look for the old-fashioned tassel keys lined up at the front desk and brass-fitted bathrooms.

But hotel is not just a pretty place to stay. Like its sister hotels, the Nora aims to be the city’s living room, with three spots likely to be popular with locals and visitors alike: the rooftop pool bar Lilly’s, with pink-fringed umbrellas and views for miles; Jack’s Bar on the ground floor, which has a cozy, eccentric-library vibe that reminds me of the Hotel Chelsea’s Lobby Bar; and the first Florida location of Paris’s Sisley Spa. (The Nora is also one of the few hotels in West Palm Beach with an on-site spa.)

The hotel also reflects the New York and Northeast transplants who’ve been vacationing in and moving to this part of Florida since the pandemic. Within a few blocks, you’ll find such NYC favorites as H&H Bagels, Van Leeuwen ice cream, and Pastis.

What else can you do in West Palm Beach?

Beyond the hotel, West Palm Beach and its surrounding towns offer plenty to fill a weekend. “I’d recommend the cycle path [in Palm Beach],” says MacPherson. “The Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens are incredible. There’s a very good vegetable market in West Palm, weekly, which I recommend. There’s a good surf shop called Nomad, which admittedly is in Boynton Beach, but it’s nearby, and it’s been family owned for a long time.”

After two decades of visiting the area, I’ve developed a few favorites on my own, both in West Palm Beach and the surrounding towns.

Arts and culture

Exterior of white Norton Museum of Art plaza with reflecting pool and large red and blue sculpture of eraser — The sculpture *Typewriter Eraser, Scale X* by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen welcomes visitors to the Norton Museum of Art, which also has a subtropical garden transformed from a parking lot.

Kravis Center, West Palm Beach: theater, concerts, musicals, touring Broadway shows
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach: Florida’s largest art museum, with rotating exhibitions
Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, West Palm Beach: monumental sculptures, 250 species of rare plants and flowers, and a historic mansion
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton: modern and contemporary art with an on-site public art school and Thursday late nights with special programming
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, Delray Beach: 188 acres of historical gardens and a bonsai collection
Flagler Museum, Palm Beach: the Gilded Age mansion of railroad tycoon and turn-of-the-century Florida developer Henry Flagler
Island Living Tours of Palm Beach: private tours run by longtime resident and local expert Leslie Diver; themes include architecture, history, or shopping

Beaches and nature

Beach with water at right, buildings and palm trees at left, plus a few people in distance — Palm Beach’s sandy public beach is a three-mile drive from the Nora Hotel in West Palm Beach.

Green Cay Nature Center, Boynton Beach: a 1.5-mile boardwalk elevated over water and wetlands; bring binoculars to spot birds, iguanas, turtles, and alligators.
Okeeheelee Nature Center, West Palm Beach: shaded trails in 90 acres of wetlands and woods, plus interactive indoor exhibits
Beaches: West Palm Beach itself doesn’t sit along ocean beaches, but there are plenty within easy driving distance, including MacArthur Beach State Park (where you can also rent kayaks or paddleboards), Oceanfront Park (with its gazebo and shaded boardwalk), Delray Beach Municipal Beach (walking distance from Atlantic Avenue), and Spanish River Beach in Boca (which has a dog beach, picnic tables, and grills). Delray and Spanish River are two of only three beaches in the USA that are Blue Flag–certified, meaning they meet high standards for water quality and safety services.

Food, shopping, nightlife, and wellness

The Nora District outdoor yoga — Community events like outdoor yoga are common in West Palm Beach’s new Nora District.

The Nora District, West Palm Beach: the small shopping and nightlife strip where the Nora Hotel is located. It’s still brand-new but is likely to be hopping once it catches on, thanks to hip restaurants like Pastis, Del Mar, H&H Bagels, and Van Leeuwen ice cream, plus bars and boutiques. Keep an eye out for community events like outdoor yoga.
Emelina, West Palm Beach: the first Cuban restaurant in the world to win a Michelin star, and the first restaurant in Palm Beach County to receive a Michelin star
Kitchen, West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens: frequently on local best lists, with upscale contemporary American cuisine and a signature coconut cake
Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach: a lively stretch of restaurants, boutiques, galleries, and bars; don’t miss outdoor concert at Old School Square or dessert at Whit’s Frozen Custard or Kilwins ice cream.
Victor’s Indian Palace, Delray Beach: This strip-mall spot isn’t fancy or hip, but Victor and his team serve some of the best vegetable korma I’ve eaten, anywhere.
CityPlace, West Palm Beach: a planned mixed-use outdoor mall and residential neighborhood; during the holidays, the central lawn hosts frequent musical performances and nightly “snow” falls.
Green’s Pharmacy, Palm Beach: an old-school counter-style diner inside a pharmacy that juxtaposes the island’s monied glitz
Buccan Sandwich Shop, Palm Beach and West Palm Beach: The sit-down Buccan restaurant in Palm Beach is a James Beard–nominated dining destination, but the local pro tip is to order sandwiches from one of its takeout windows and spend a few hours on Palm Beach’s public beach.
Worth Avenue, Palm Beach: Browse the upscale shops and wander through the “vias” just off the main sidewalk—Mediterranean-inspired courtyards with tucked-away galleries and boutiques.

Should West Palm Beach be on your travel list?

My take is that the fast-growing city next to wealthier, more exclusive Palm Beach is becoming a great place to live, but still has some way to go before it can compete with Miami (about an hour and half’s drive south) as a destination chosen by long-distance travelers. The arrival of the Nora Hotel, a kind of stamp of cool-kid approval from the Northeast, could help change that.

I asked MacPherson about his take: “Listen, we’re invested in it changing,” he said with a laugh. “But I say that meaning more than we want it to change, more that we believe it will change. It’s clearly alive, it’s clearly exciting, but it’s not quite clear precisely what it’s going to turn into yet, and I think that’s very interesting.”

The Nora Hotel is open now. Rooms start at $395. For more information, visit norahotelwestpalm.com.

Billie Cohen

Billie Cohen is editorial director of Afar, where she leads editorial strategy for digital content. Based in New York City, she has a soft spot for nerd travel, including maps, libraries, design, and Oreo flavors around the world. Follow her @billietravels.