Florida conjures many things for New Yorkers. Sandy beaches, gated golf communities, and the errant hurricane, to name a few. But a premier destination for buying art? Yet in the last few years, the land of fruity cocktails, trailer parks, and retirement nirvana, has played host to a number of serious art fairs.

It started with the wildly successful contemporary fair Art Basel Miami Beach, which this year drew thousands of collectors and browsers to a packed convention center where blue-chip art sold fast and furiously. Starting tomorrow, the art zone moves north to Palm Beach for the “vernissage” of “Palm Beach!” (yes, the exclamation point is part of the name) a reincarnated art and antiques show. The once small fair, in its second year under new ownership, aims to be the most exclusive antiques show in America, competing head to head with such established fairs as the Winter Antiques Show held each January at the New York Park Avenue Armory.

Fair organizers have already boldly proclaimed the new “Palm Beach!” (formerly the less excitably named “Palm Beach Classic”) to be the American Maastricht. That world-famous Dutch antiques fair (this year it will be held March 4-13) is the top-tier sales venue for antique art, furniture, and decorative arts, the trading ground for Old Master paintings.

Besides the similar merchandise, one of the most important parallels is the idea of a fair as a “destination event,” according to the Vice President of International Fine Art Expositions, the fair’s new owners, Lorenzo Rudolf. “It’s the right place, it’s the right time, and it’s the right concept,” Mr. Rudolf said. “It’s even easier to attract the top collectors from New York than to do that in an armory on Park Avenue.”

That’s quite a contention, but here’s what he means: The premise behind Maastricht, nestled in a backwater Dutch village, is that there are no distractions: The fair is the main event and the only event. Location has also helped drive the Art Basel fairs, which focus only on fine art and mostly post-1945. In Basel, Switzerland, where the fair originated, there isn’t much to do outside the fair halls. This is not the case for fairgoers in Manhattan, who might pop into the Park Avenue Armory for a few hours, then head off to a gallery.

But Florida? “The art community is looking at Florida as a destination for art fairs, I think primarily because of the success of Miami,” said dealer Andrea Crane, of Jan Krugier Gallery. “The Palm Beach fair targets a slightly different audience, but it hopes to ride the momentum of Miami.” Ms. Krugier, known for selling multimillion dollar Picassos, is sharing a booth with dealer Richard Feigen. It’s Ms. Krugier’s first time exhibiting at the fair.

Mr. Rudolf used to work for the Art Basel organizers and claims to be the genius behind the expansion of Art Basel to Miami Beach in the first place. Now, Rudolf hopes to capture some of that fair magic in Palm Beach. Since joining up with IFAE, who bought the Palm Beach Classic in 2001, Rudolf has concocted a plan to make that fair a world-class event.

The fair was initially held in a tent, on land reportedly leased from the city for a bargain $7,500. It was a small show targeting an elite audience of billionaire buyers, out shopping for hundred thousand-dollar diamond necklaces. Last year the fair was relocated to a spiffy new Palm Beach convention center. Fair organizers said they have gone to great length and expense to make the convention center posh enough to appeal to the millionaire collectors they hope to attract.

“Most of the participants have tried to doll it up a bit,” said Madison Avenue American paintings dealer, Hollis Taggart, who will be exhibiting for the fourth time. “There are formal pillars and the walls are covered with fabric. It’s very, very fancy.”

Mr. Taggart is banking on the weak dollar by bringing some European canvases to the show, hoping to appeal to European buyers who traditionally shun American art. In addition to American Impressionist paintings by Theodore Robinson and Frederick Frieseke, he’ll hang oils by Ferdinand Leger and Pierre Bonnard.

“The whole fair is based not on rows of stands, where everybody hangs stock on walls,” Mr. Rudolf said. “It’s more a game of spaces. “It’s really like you enter a museum and you feel an atmosphere that attracts you. Palm Beach has a lot of rich people we want to seduce.”

The wooing begins with a fantasy “mise-en-scene,” as Mr. Rudolf put it, including a series of 200-square-foot spaces designed by society interior decorators (including Richard Mishaan, Juan Montoya, and Geoffrey Bradfield), using antiques from the 90 dealers at the fair. The layout also includes garden squares with indoor landscaping.

The fair has enlisted a boldfaced list of committee members. Those endorsing include Audrey Gruss, Pauline Pitt, Iris Cantor, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Donald Trump, and Mica Ertegun. Fair organizers have also worked to seduce top-notch dealers. New dealers taking part this year include Old Master dealer Dickinson from London and New York, 19th-century painting dealer Brame & Lorenceau from Paris, and antiquities dealer Royal Athena Galleries from New York.

“The fair organizers were very convincing,” said dealer Marc Benda of Barry Friedman gallery. Friedman, which shows in about eight fairs a year, is exhibiting at Palm Beach for the first time. “There is a strong shift, with more and more serious buyers in Florida.”

Palm Beach was once a retirement haven, and retirees are known for selling, not buying. Now, the venerable society hot spot is attracting new homeowners, baby boomers on down, people still in their earning peak and ready to furnish. Others have taken notice.

Veteran Palm Beachers agree that there has been a palpable shift. Historically, great collectors of yesteryear spent a few months in Palm Beach, but didn’t necessarily bring their art with them. “There were always great collectors in Palm Beach,” said dealer Cynthia Boardman, of Richard Feigen, who works from Palm Beach each winter. “But they didn’t have their pictures here. More and more, people are buying pictures and have them in their houses here. It’s more year-round and people who have major collectors may or may not send their pictures north.”

Mr. Feigen will be showing Modern works by Mondrian and Balthus at the fair, as well as older Dutch and Italian canvases. As for the 10-day fair, Mrs. Boardman thinks the marathon length will be good for collectors and a bit hard on the dealers. “You do have collectors who, if the weather is good, might play a round of golf,” said Mrs. Boardman, saying the long fair gives time for everyone to make it over. “It’s a very busy time here during the season and the fair is good and long, if a bit hard on the dealers’ feet.”