Vice Beach: Rockstar’s GTA 6 takeover of Miami Beach, from a giant sign to the Y Hotel

On November 1, part of Miami Beach is due to turn into “Vice Beach.” City records found by iGrandTheftAuto show that Rockstar has signed an agreement for five installations around South Beach, from a giant pink sign in Lummus Park to a W Hotel that becomes the “Y Hotel.” It’s the beach half of the GTA 6 campaign that already put a “Welcome to Vice City” sign on the Kaseya Center.

How Miami Beach approved it

On September 10 the Miami Beach City Commission voted 4 to 3 to let Rockstar’s agency, Amplify Marketing, put signage on beachfront concession equipment and other city property. As Miami New Times reported, officials said the deal could be worth up to $4 million to the city. Commissioner David Suarez, the loudest opponent, said he felt “like I’m in a Black Mirror episode.” Commissioner Monica Matteo-Salinas, who voted yes, answered that “it’s a video game, and it’s fake.”

What the Vice Beach agreement includes

The signed agreement is dated October 15, 2026, and lists exactly five installations (GTAVice.net):

• A pink sheet-metal “Vice BEACH” sign in Lummus Park near 11th Street, about 31 feet of lettering on a 34-foot base and nearly 7 feet tall. Together the letters and base weigh around 2.5 tons.
• Muscle Beach, the outdoor gym near 9th Street and Ocean Drive, with its equipment painted pink and Vice Beach decals on the container. The city’s art installation there stays untouched.
• A lifeguard tower north of 14th Street repainted blue and pink with a palm-leaf “VI” logo.
• A 10-foot “VI” sculpture with palm silhouettes on a pink-to-orange gradient, at 689 Lincoln Road.
• The rooftop “W” of the W South Beach hotel turned into a “Y,” with a banner reading “Y even ask?” Rockstar’s pitch says the hotel features prominently in the game’s trailers and screenshots.

Every item still needs a special event permit, and the agreement says it doesn’t guarantee any. The hotel is private property, so Rockstar signed a separate $650,000 deal with its owner, paying part of it on November 20, the day after launch (details). That deal also brings GTA-branded cups, coasters and ice buckets to the hotel’s beach service.

How much Rockstar is paying

• A $300,000 fee to the city, in two halves: one up front, one once the permits are issued.
• A separate $4 million deal with Boucher Brothers, the company that runs the beach chairs and umbrellas. Half of what Boucher Brothers earns goes to the city, which is where the “up to $4 million” in September came from.
• A custom car, built for the campaign and appraised at $643,443. Rockstar will auction it in 2027 and give the proceeds to the city, or hand the car over if it hasn’t sold by the end of 2027. The agreement doesn’t say what the car is.

Vice Beach dates

• October 26 to 31: the sign goes up, and Muscle Beach is painted at night, between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m.
• November 1: everything is due to go live.
• November 29 to December 6: during Miami Art Week all five installations must be removed or fully covered, or Rockstar pays $5,000 a day for each.
• December 31: the campaign ends.
• January 15, 2027: everything has to be gone and the sites restored.

If any permit is missing by November 1, Rockstar can pull out by November 5 and get $75,000 back, or carry on with only the permitted installations.

GTA beers in a federal database

The campaign may reach Miami’s bars too. iGrandTheftAuto found three labels from Tripping Animals Brewing, a brewery in Doral near Miami, in the public database of the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (GTAVice.net). Pißwasser was approved on September 29, No Mames Vice City, a 6% lager with GTA VI branding on the label, on October 9, and Patriot on October 15. Pißwasser and Patriot are long-running beer brands in the GTA series, and a bottle of Patriot stands on the bar next to Jason in an official screenshot. Rockstar hasn’t announced a beer, so when and where it goes on sale is unknown.

The rest of the Miami campaign

Vice Beach joins the Kaseya Center sign, the Wynwood Walls murals, the Goodyear blimp and the Miami Heat’s Vice City night on November 18. Miami-Dade County is still split over its own deals. Everything is collected in GTA 6 in Miami, and the real places behind the map are in GTA 6 real-life locations.