New Yorks most magical new hotel still has tricks up its sleeve

Miami Beach is hotel heaven — if GMs carry shivs in the afterlife.Four Seasons, Ritz, Fontainebleau … Collins Avenue is where the finest flags grapple for glory against upstart indie innkeepers in the guerra for guests.

It’s prison-yard rules, and if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere — even NYC. Argentine hotel honcho Alan Faena is ejemplo número uno.His maximalist, theatrical blend of high-end hospitality, flame-kissed fine-dining, naughty nightlife and mammoth artworks (literally) made him the big noise of Buenos Aires and a star on Miami Beach.More than a decade later, Faena is still the most original and authentic hotelier in the biz.

Now, he’s hung his whopping white hat at the base of Chelsea’s most notorious new building.A boutique best-in-show, or the beginning of the next mega-brand? The Post checked in to see how Faena’s Latin locomotion looks in its third location one year in. It was supposed to be a Six Senses.

Drawn up by starchitect Bjarke Ingels, the twisted twin towers at 11th Ave.and W.

18th St.were designed to be the most splendiferous addresses on the lower High Line, with prices for condos surpassing the $50 million mark.

Then, the building’s developer, HFZ, went bankrupt, Gambino crime family kickbacks were exposed, construction stalled and Six Senses said sayonara.Billionaire Trump envoy Steve Witkoff stepped in and cleaned up the mess with bags of cash from big cheese Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries.

That was good luck for feisty Faena, whose hotel group just so happened to be founded in partnership with Blavatnik.Six Senses’ Zen’d out minimalism was scrapped for Faena’s tropical red-carpet aesthetic — which drew celebs like Cher and Nicole Kidman after its September 2025 opening.Today, the hotel’s soaring lobby feels like it was always meant to be.The 18th Street entrance is guarded by snappy doormen in bygone bellhop garb — paired with a Faena signature top hat.

Inside, a winding central...