Playboy To Relocate HQ To Miami Beach, Build 'Iconic' New Club
Playboy, six months after issuing its first print edition in five years, is ditching its Hollywood home for the glitz of Miami Beach.
The men’s media and lifestyle magazine is relocating its global headquarters from California to Miami Beach and plans to open a new club format in the city, Playboy CEO and President Ben Kohn said Tuesday on an earnings call.
Playboy signed a 20K SF lease for the penthouse of the Rivani Miami Beach building and is expected to move in next year, the landlord announced. Rivani, which announced its rebrand from Black Lion Investment Group in the same press release, is spending $100M renovating the building.
Kohn said Playboy is also looking to pair up with an undisclosed leading hospitality brand for a new club concept. The company leases its headquarters at 10960 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, but it disclosed in its earnings report that it is subleasing that space.
“We're excited to be in a very pro-business environment, especially coming out of Los Angeles, and I think Miami is a city that embodies the core tenets of Playboy,” Kohn said on the call.
Rivani, led by Robert Rivani, purchased The Lincoln building at 1691 Michigan Ave., a 119K SF office built in 2003, in 2024 for $62.5M. Rivani announced at the time its upgrades, designed by New York-based architecture firm Rockwell Group, would create a new category of office space, which the hotshot real estate executive dubbed “Class X.”
Amenities at Rivani Miami Beach include a fitness and wellness center, an Omakase restaurant, a speakeasy, private event venues and a meditation room.
“Securing a top-tier, globally recognized company like Playboy underscores the level of prestige and energy we are bringing to Rivani Miami Beach, and we are excited for the world-class brands that will join them,” Rivani said in a statement.
Newmark's Jeremy Hakala represented Rivani, and Cushman & Wakefield's Tony Jones represented Playboy in the deal.
As for the club concept, Playboy isn't exposing its plans just yet, other than to tease that it will evoke the company's heyday of flashy parties with scantily clad women.
The company already has a site identified, Kohn said, where it is looking to build a luxury dining experience with an exclusive private club “designed to be as iconic as the original Playboy Mansion.”
Kohn announced the plans after reporting that Playboy's licensing revenue jumped 105% year-over-year, fueling a 13% revenue jump to $28M. It seemed to mark a comeback after the company plummeted to $53M in value last year after debuting on the Nasdaq in 2021 at a $2B valuation.
Its share price gained 10% in value Wednesday, giving Playboy a current market capitalization of roughly $172M.
For Playboy, founded by the late Hugh Hefner, the move to Miami Beach is a homecoming.
The city on the Atlantic Ocean was home to the second location of the well-known Playboy Club after it debuted in Chicago. It opened in 1961 on 77th Street and Biscayne Boulevard with a playroom where the women, known as Bunnies, mingled with patrons. The location was later relocated near the Miami airport before closing in 1985.
While the planned Miami venue will spearhead Playboy’s return to club locations, the company is also eyeing other cities for future hospitality concepts, Kohn said, but it is in no rush.
“There's been tons of opportunities to do Playboy hospitality, they just haven't been the right partner,” Kohn said. “And for us, picking the right partner, when a consumer can come in and truly experience in real life the Playboy brand, the partner is more important than anything.”
