A Brazilian investor has bought the storied but neglected Marlin hotel for $5.5 million, vowing to rejuvenate the South Beach icon.
The 12-room boutique enjoys an outsized reputation thanks to former owner Chris Blackwell, a record producer who installed a studio in the hotel and brought in U2, Aerosmith, Nine Inch Nails and other notables to record there.
The studio remains active -- Shakira recorded there recently -- but the hotel's restaurant and bar are idle. New owner Mario Valadares da Costa.
A Brazilian retail developer, said he plans to convert Blackwell's old second-floor apartment into a club and bring back the hotel's rooftop party space. ''I think we can bring it back, not to what it was [but] something more modern and more contemporary,'' he said.