The Nora Hotel in the Nora District welcomed its first guests on October 19, 2026. Inside, the public rooms are lined in pecky cypress and furnished with custom GACHOT pieces and antiques. Christine and John Gachot's studio drew on Henry Flagler, Addison Mizner and the grand hotels of Palm Beach for the design. Markets of Tomorrow describes an exterior that takes Palm Beach's bright palette and interiors that turn darker and more intimate.
The hotel opened in one day, but the parts a neighbor can walk into are opening in sequence. The ground floor opened first. The roof comes next, and a performance salon across the district is due in December. For anyone living within reach of the Nora District, the season shows up in that order, floor by floor and week by week.
The ground floor came first, and it was built for all day
The Nora is the 201-key hotel from the team behind Hotel Chelsea, The Bowery Hotel and The Mercer. It is BD Hotels' first ground-up hotel outside New York. The first room most neighbors will see sits right off the street.
Pastis is open, and it is the first Pastis in Florida. Stephen Starr, the James Beard Award-winning restaurateur behind Pastis, Le Coucou and Makoto, oversees the hotel's kitchens. The Nora District's own guide to the opening treats it as a brasserie for every hour, equally right for a 9 a.m. coffee and an 11 p.m. steak. The menu it lays out runs from steak frites and a raw bar to escargot, frisée aux lardons, moules and roast chicken, with breakfast and lunch for the regulars.
The district's advice on getting a table is specific:
- Book ahead for dinner and weekend brunch. The district predicted the first month would be the hardest table in town, and that first month runs into the third week of November.
- Take a bar seat as a walk-in. The bar serves the full menu.
- Go off-peak. A late weekday lunch or an early weeknight dinner shows the room closer to how it will feel once the rush settles.
Next to Pastis is Jack's Bar, the lobby bar. It is built around retro glamour, warm lighting and ice-cold martinis, and was inspired by the kind of place John Kennedy might have made his own. The hotel also holds Florida's first Sisley Paris spa. It has four private treatment rooms, a co-ed steam room and spa lounge, and an outdoor terrace. Treatments include deep-tissue, hot stone, sports and Swedish massages, plus facials and body scrubs, all by reservation.
The roof is next, and it divides its day into three parts
The rooftop takes a different approach from the ground floor. Lillys is an original concept from Mama Hospitality, the group founded by Alex Melillo, Joe Cervasio and Topher Grubb that runs Mary Lou's in West Palm Beach and Nantucket. STARR Restaurants handles the cooking. Mama Hospitality's October 15 release, distributed through USA Today's press-release service, slates Lillys for November.
The release splits the roof into three experiences under one name. The order matters for anyone who doesn't have a room key:
- Lillys Pool is the daytime piece, with poolside dining and service built around the hotel guest.
- Bar Lilly is described as an exclusive aperitif lounge built around cocktails, conversation and sunset.
- Cafe Lilly is the rooftop's full-service restaurant and its culinary centerpiece.
The deck itself has pink lounge chairs, umbrellas, private cabanas and palm trees. The programming plan calls for live music, poolside sets and collaborations across music, fashion, art and food. Pastis serves the neighborhood from morning coffee onward. The roof is built around sunset and the evening, so the hotel's day effectively ends upstairs. The latest information is on Lillys' own site.
December brings the room designed for late nights
The third piece isn't in the hotel. Macs 44 is an 80-seat, 3,600-square-foot performance salon at 825 N. Railroad Avenue in the Nora District. Mama Hospitality has it slated for December 2026. Each evening is planned as a programmed live production that combines music, vocal performance, choreography and theatrical entertainment, with the show changing as the night goes on. The announced schedule is Tuesday through Sunday, 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.
"We wanted to create a room where the entertainment isn't simply an addition to the evening – it's the main event," co-founder Alex Melillo said in the group's release. When Macs 44 opens, Mama Hospitality will have three West Palm Beach venues where it had one, Mary Lou's. The release also says the group worked directly with NDT Development on the deal, with no outside broker.
That sequence explains the timing. The hotel set its breakfast and dinner rooms first, sunset second and the late-night room last. By the end of the year, the district's hours will stretch from a morning croissant to a 2 a.m. close.
The weekly routine underneath it all
The hotel is opening on top of a district that already has a set routine. NDT Development, Place Projects and Wheelock Street Capital built the roughly $1 billion Nora District by turning a row of century-old railway warehouses into shops, restaurants, bars, galleries and fitness studios. The district has a year-round events program. Sunday Motor Co., IGK Salon, Loco's, Warby Parker, Sports & Rec, Del Mar and Celis Juice Bar are among the names in it.
The district's events page lists the weekly calendar:
| Night | Recurring event |
|---|---|
| Monday | $1 Oyster Mondays; Happy Meal Mondays |
| Tuesday | Taco Tuesdays |
| Wednesday | Chicken Social Wednesdays; Wine Wednesdays |
| Sunday | Sunday Service |
The weekly list has nothing for Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Macs 44's announced Tuesday-through-Sunday schedule would run through those nights. Parking details and directions are on the district's parking page.
The first week of December stacks up
Macs 44's December arrival lands on the city's busiest holiday week. The City of West Palm Beach's Holiday in Paradise schedule puts two free evenings back to back:
- Thursday, December 3, 6 to 10 p.m. The Clematis by Night Holiday Tree Lighting takes over the waterfront at 100 N. Clematis Street. Phoenix5 plays soul, funk, rock and reggae on the NewDay USA Stage, and Officers & Gentleman with the Rhythm Chicks perform holiday songs and hits from the '60s and '70s. There are photos with Santa, and the Holiday Gift Boutique runs inside the Lake Pavilion and along Flagler Drive.
- Friday, December 4, 6 to 9 p.m. The 10th annual Winter in Paradise, themed "Rhythm on Rosemary," fills Heart & Soul Park at 825 N. Rosemary Avenue in the Historic Northwest neighborhood. The night includes a holiday park lighting, a rock climbing wall, food vendors and live entertainment from ReaXtion Band and DJ Scoobz. The U.B. Kinsey/Palmview Elementary School of the Arts Orchestra and Band and the Palm Beach Lakes Community High School Ram Regiment Band also perform. Later in the month, the city's schedule lists Sandi's Ice Cream Social for Sunday, December 27. Saturday mornings bring the West Palm Beach GreenMarket to Waterfront Commons, 100 N. Clematis Street, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The city bills it as a stop for holiday flowers, specialty teas and coffees, meats and produce. The city notes that its events are subject to change or cancellation.
A December 5 holiday boat parade is also on the county calendar. The Marine Industries Association's route runs from North Palm Beach toward Jupiter, well north of downtown.
The residences come after the evenings
The hotel anchors a district whose first phase delivered more than 150,000 square feet of retail and more than 55,000 square feet of second-floor Class-A creative office space. Later phases add multifamily residences along with more retail and office space. Nora House and Nora Apartments are expected in 2029. This season's openings at Pastis, Lillys and Macs 44 fill the district's evenings first. The residences that will give it full-time neighbors come later.
If you own near the Nora District or along Flagler Drive and want to know what this season's openings mean for your address, Samantha Curry and her team are happy to talk it through. Request a Confidential Market Consultation.
