New floating Miami social club coming to Biscayne Bay

Miami residents are familiar with Arkup's boxy "floating house," a modern, $5.5 million houseboat often seen around Biscayne Bay.

• Now, two New York entrepreneurs have teamed up with the same designer and commissioned four vessels that they will combine into a floating social club in the bay.

State of play: Sam Payrovi and Nathalie Paiva founded the private event venue and coworking space CSTM HAUS in Manhattan's Meatpacking District.

• They were visiting Miami to scope out a site for a second location when they came across the Arkup vessel, which sparked the question: Could they create a floating social club?
• The duo commissioned four 40-foot vessels for the concept, to be called ArkHAUS. The club would primarily be based on private submerged land in Biscayne Bay but would move throughout the bay for trips or special occasions.

How it works: Members and their guests will be picked up at docks around Miami — Brickell, Edgewater and Sunset Harbor — and ferried over in tenders, like a water taxi.

• Members can spend their days splashing in the pool, hanging out on the rooftop, soaking in the jacuzzi or joining yoga sessions.
• Two restaurants will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Special events could include lectures, mixology events and DJs, and the venue — or part of it — could be rented for private parties.

Details: Members buy packages that include a certain number of hours each month, booking time on board through a reservation system.

• Memberships start at $5,000 annually for 30 hours of access per month.

What's ahead: The first pair of vessels should arrive in May and be open to 180 founding members. A total of 360 memberships will be sold.

• The founders plan to open floating clubs in six more locations over the next five years, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, Istanbul and Dubai.