Miami contractors demolish luxury hotel using precise blast.
On Sunday, April 12, 2026, engineers detonated explosives to collapse the Mandarin Oriental Miami hotel, a 23‑story building that had stood on Brickell Key for 26 years. The implosion lasted approximately twenty seconds and was carried out in the early morning hours.
The demolition was coordinated by Swire Properties, the developer, with the assistance of BG Group personnel and local police officers. The team closed the Brickell Key Bridge, which connects the artificial island to downtown Brickell, from 7:00 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Residents were instructed to vacate the island by 7:00 a.m. and to keep windows closed and air‑conditioning units off during the explosion.
Emergency response units were mobilized at 6:30 a.m. near 500 Brickell Key Drive, and vibration monitoring equipment was installed at 6:00 a.m. The final setup of barricades and signage to secure the exclusion zone on both land and water occurred at 4:00 a.m.
The demolition site will be cleared to allow construction of the new two‑story The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, a project that Swire Properties expects to complete by 2030. After the implosion, the former hotel site remains covered in rubble.