IT’S a steamy Saturday night in Miami, and I’m doing Miami’s latest Saturday night thing — schmoozing at a gallery party in the Design District. This former rundown warehouse territory has been colonised over the past few years by artists and designers in search of cheap gallery and studio space, and now on Friday and Saturday nights fashionable folk spill out on to the pavements, celebrating yet another opening.

On this occasion we’re here to christen the new studio of interior designer du jour Alison Spears. The dress code is silver — cue lots of Bond-esque silver minis, futuristic sheaths and sequins — and the guest list typically cosmopolitan: expat Iranians, Italians, a Prince of former Yugoslavia, and of course a sizeable smattering of Miami Cubans.

The conversation flits between the art collection at the new Sagamore hotel, the relaunch of Mynt Ultra Lounge, Miami’s chicest nightclub; which celebrity chefs will be at February’s Food & Wine Festival; the Asian/Peruvian menu at Grass, the Design District’s hottest restaurant; and the impending arrival of all America’s top rappers for Source magazine’s hip hop awards.

Welcome to the new Miami, fast becoming cultural capital of the USA.

The city is at the southeastern tip of Florida, with a population of 2.1 million, half of whom are Hispanic (the vast majority Cuban immigrants), making Spanish the dominant language. Having moved from celebrity beach resort in the Fifties, through to murder capital of the US in the Eighties (Miami Vice days), in the Nineties the gentrification of South Beach paved the way for its present status as one of the most fashionable resorts in the States.

Although relying heavily on tourism, this vibrant city has cultivated strong Latin American links, which has brought rapid investment. The best time to come weather-wise is December to May, but Miami is selling itself as a year-round holiday destination, and if you can risk the chance of hurricanes from June-November (August and September being the peak), you’ll be rewarded by fewer crowds on the beaches and much easier access to the bars, clubs and restaurants.

There hasn’t been a buzz like this since the mid-Nineties, when Ian Schrager opened the groundbreaking Delano hotel with Philippe Starck as designer and Madonna as restaurant partner. At that time on Ocean Drive it seemed to be non-stop fashion shoots, and run-down Art Deco hotels were being snapped up and given makeovers by canny hoteliers such as Chris Blackwell of Island Records, fashion house Diesel, and resident songstress Gloria Estefan.

“When modern Miami first got started 15 to 20 years ago, it was sort of undiscovered and a little more subversive than it is today,” Ian Schrager told me when we chatted in London, “but the changes haven’t chased away the people who gave it an edge in the first place.”

Now Miami’s movers and shakers are talking about “the second wave” — and it’s happening on the hotel front, the music scene and in the art world.

There’s the new £280 million Performing Arts Centre which is due to open in 2004/5, and another £250 million development that will house the Museum of Science and the Miami Art Museum. New York’s Whitney Museum is rumoured to be considering converting a former shoe factory into a Miami outpost.

“Miami is uniquely positioned; it’s not just a great resort like St Tropez, it also has all the benefits of being a gateway city,” said Schrager. “Opera, shopping, ballet, cultural events — and amazing beaches. I come to Miami with my family, and I still go out at night because I love the energy — and I don’t feel that in New York any more. What gives Miami its energy is all these people from so many places in the world thrown together; it creates a spark.”

Other hotels are getting in on the act. The Sagamore has a permanent exhibition of leading contemporary artists — including Massimo Vitali, Till Freiwald and Olafur Eliasson (whose Weather Project is currently drawing the crowds at Tate Modern in London).

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