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❑ mh86 NEW YORKER 07/17/1986
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c 1986, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, July 17, 1986 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 3 LENGTH: 59 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DEBBIE SONTAG Herald Staff Writer
NEW YORKER
BUYS TWO
DECO HOTELS
A New York developer who specializes in renovating rundown buildings in
it neighborhoods changing from depressed to chic has bought two hotels in
th Art Deco district of Miami Beach.
Arthur Leeds bought the Winterhaven Hotel, 1400 Ocean Dr. , and the Alamac
Hotel, 1300 Collins Ave., for almost $3 million.
He is the third New York investor in 10 months to see South Beach as an
area on the upswing where money might be made by getting in early. The others,
contractor Gerry Sanchez and restaurateur Tony Goldman, have bought 11 hotels
between them.
"I look at the area as being a couple of years away from coming back, "
Leeds said. "But it's emerging, I feel it, and I intend to be there when it
does. "
Leeds has rehabilitated 30 buildings in such New York neighborhoods as
the Upper West Side and the East Village, before those areas were in hot
demand among the young and affluent. His 25-year-old company, Arthur Leeds
Real Estate, based in Manhattan, now owns and operates 1, 000 apartments.
Leeds was sold on the 73-room Winterhaven because it has "an incredible
entrance foyer with a very grand Art Deco staircase. " He will spend about
$300,000 to renovate it. `
The hotel, like many South Beach properties, "represents a lot of
deferred maintenance, " Leeds said. "You could almost call it a freeze frame
type of occupancy, where they froze their tenancy and building conditions 15
years ago. "
Leeds has no immediate plans to change the nature of the Winterhaven, now
primarily a residential building for the elderly. Almost all the rooms are
already leased to either year- round or seasonal tenants and those leases will
be honored, Leeds said.
The Alamac, on the other hand, will be completely gutted and transformed
for about $1 million from a hotel to a building with one and two bedroom
apartments.
"I hate to use the word 'yuppies' because it's been beaten to death, but
that's who we'll go after. Them, " Leeds said.
Leeds, who is not a hotelier, has hired a group of young Beach natives
who run the Royal Palm hotel, to manage the Winterhaven. Michael Milberg,
Laine and Arthur Unger have formed a company -- Historic Properties Management
Corp. -- to run hotels and rental apartments for out-of-towners who want to
invest in but not operate Beach properties.
"Someone like Arthur Leeds will be good for South Beach, " said Arthur
Unger. "Financially speaking, his group can carry the properties in the
interim time until the district comes alive. . .That's the whole key -- whether
you can wait out the storm."
Tony Goldman, who recently bought the Park Central and Imperial hotels on
lower Ocean Drive, welcomes his fellow New Yorker to South Beach.
"The more pioneers the better. When you can ride with other people,
you're not going into the wilderness alone, " he said.
Meanwhile, Leeds is scouting out other properties.
"If we're gong to be in an area, I want something more than a footprint.
Maybe both feet, " he said
TAG: 8602240170
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mh86 A NEW FACE 06/28/1986
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1986, The Miami Herald
DATE: Saturday, June 28, 1986 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 20A LENGTH: 27 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: Herald Staff
A NEW FACE
FOR ART DECO
AHEARTY welcome to Tony Goldman, a real-estate investor
from New York who has started renovating three old buildings in Miami Beach's
Art Deco District.
Mr. Goldman paid $3 million for the Park Central and Imperial hotels and
the Heathcote Apartments, all in the South Beach area. He plans to open the
hotels for the winter season and a restaurant called Lucky's by October 1987.
People have come to South Florida with dreams before. Unfortunately, many
have had little else. However, Mr. Goldman arrives with an impressive track
record. He was ahead of the resurgence of the Upper West Side, now the place
to be. And he owns the profitable Soho landmark, the Greene Street Restaurant.
If Mr. Goldman can work his wizardry alongside others attempting to revive the
Art Deco District, the renaissance long predicted for Miami Beach might one
day be realized. Miami Beach needs investors with an appreciation of its
unique qualities, and Mr. Goldman seems to have that sensitivity. "I'm not
concerned about the age and ethnic mix here, " he said. "It's spicy; it brings
life to the old and wisdom to the young. But you have to give people a place
to come, a clean, reasonably priced product. And that's my expertise. "
TAG: 8602190940
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mh86 A NEW INVESTOR IN ART DECO DISTRICT 06/20/1986
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1986, The Miami Herald
DATE: Friday, June 20, 1986 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 7C LENGTH: 55 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Tony GOLDMAN* (G)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DORY OWENS Herald Business Writer
A NEW INVESTOR IN ART DECO DISTRICT
A New York real estate investor and restaurateur has quietly begun
renovating three aging buildings in Miami Beach's Art Deco District.
Soho South? Hardly. But Tony Goldman thinks it could be.
"I moved into Soho eight years ago, when it was still raw. It had
architectural integrity, a small scale and the community was obsessed with
preservation. I see a vast similarity, " said the owner of Soho's Greene Street
Restaurant and the Soho Kitchen and Bar.
This month Goldman bought the Park Central and Imperial hotels and the
Heathcote Apartments, neighbors in the 600 block of Ocean Drive, for $3
million. He plans to reopen the hotels in time for the winter tourist season.
By October 1987, he plans to open a restaurant called Lucky's. It will
feature live jazz and a champagne bar, with more than 100 varieties of
champagne, 50 sold by the glass. In addition, Goldman said he will transform a
vacant lot next to the Heathcote into an outdoor sculpture garden.
"I was looking for an alternative to New York. The buying there is too
tough, " said Goldman, clad in shorts, a Soho T- shirt, crumpled socks and
battered sneakers.
"As soon as I turned the corner at Fifth Street and Ocean Drive, that was
it. I surrendered. "
Goldman's track record bodes well for long neglected Ocean Drive.
In 1968, at age 25, when New York's Upper West Side was still a
neighborhood of rundown brownstones, Goldman began buying and renovating
apartment buildings.
On Dec. 6, 1979, he celebrated his birthday with the debut of the Greene
Street Restaurant, a renovated garage for garbage trucks in the Soho district
of Manhattan. The restaurant offered American cuisine, jazz nightly and an
extensive wine list. He almost foundered, waiting for the restaurant to catch
on. But last year Greene Street earned $3 million in profits.
Last April, The New York Times restaurant critic, Bryan Miller, described
the restaurant as "one of the best bets for downtown dining and
entertainment. "
In 1984, Goldman expanded Greene Street by opening the Soho Kitchen and
Bar in the restaurant's former pantry and kitchen. The eatery offered more
than 120 wines -- by the glass -- and quickly found a lucrative niche in the
New York market, catering to wine connoisseurs and novices alike.
The February edition of Market Watch, a Jine, beer and liquor trade
publication, called the Soho Kitchen and Bar "the country's most impressive
wine bar." In April, Fortune magazine echoed that rave review after a
nationwide survey.
Goldman is as optimistic about his Miami Beach properties as he was about
the brownstones on the Upper West Side and the one-time Soho garage.
"I'm not concerned about the age and ethnic mix here, " he said of South
Beach. "It's spicy; it brings life to the old and wisdom to the young. But you
have to give people a place to come, a clean, reasonably priced product. And
that's my expertise. "
TAG: 8602170925
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mh86 NEW YORKERS BUYING DECO 05/18/1986
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1986, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, May 18, 1986 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 3 LENGTH: 70 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DEBBIE SONTAG Herald Staff Writer
NEW YORKERS BUYING DECO
Contractor Gerry Sanchez doesn't just go out and buy a hotel. He buys a
block.
Last week, it was Espanola Way between Washington Avenue and Drexel
Avenue. Next week, if he had his way, it would be the entire length of Ocean
Drive.
Sanchez now owns the Waldorf Towers and the Clevelander. By June 15, he
also will own the Breakwater and the Edison. If the deal goes through, the
Betsy Ross soon will be his too.
That will be more than $10 million, including renovation costs, invested
in South Beach in slightly more than six months.
"This property is gold and I will keep gobbling it up until someone
fights me for it, " said Sanchez, president of Polonia Restoration Co. , a New
York-based group that has restored the U.S. Capitol Building and the New York
Public Library.
Fortunately for the city, Sanchez now has some competition. After years
of progressive deterioration and neglect, Ocean Drive and South Beach at large
have suddenly been discovered by investors.
"With national attention focused on this area and private interest rates
low, the developers are coming out of the woodwork. They're serious, too, "
said Maria Pellerin, director of the Miami Beach Development Corp.
The nonprofit development corporation, one of whose missions is to lure
private investors, gets 15 to 20 calls a week from out-of-state developers,
Pellerin said.
A few months ago, one of those calls was from Tony Goldman, 42, a New
York real estate owner and restaurateur.
And in early May, Goldman plunked down $3 million on three contiguous
hotels in the 600 block of Ocean Drive.
Owner of New York's Greene Street Cafe and SoHo Kitchen and Bar, Goldman
bought the Park Central, the Imperial and the Heathcoate Apartments. They have
130 rooms among them.
"The design, it had an immediate vibe, " Goldman said of the Park Central.
"It struck me right off. There's a majesty and nobility to that building that
I will bring back." `
Goldman plans to renovate the properties gradually, starting in June and
finishing by December 1987. He will begin marketing and operating them as a
hotel complex in. August. He will consider opening a jazz supper club at the
Park Central next year.
Goldman explains why he invested in Ocean Drive:
"First, I think it's about value. When property exceeds its rational
value, as it has in New York, that's when you have to start looking around. In
Miami Beach, you have true value.
"Second, there's got to be a bit of vision and risk in my business, which
is what we call advance real estate."
Steve Rubell and Meara Rubell had that vision, but they couldn't find a
bank to back it. Steve -- former owner of Studio 54 and present owner of the
New York club Palladium -- and his sister-in-law Meara -- owner of the
restored Morgan Hotel in New York -- wanted to buy the shuttered St. Moritz.
They took out a purchase option that expired May 9. They couldn't find
financing to buy and restore the 46-year-old Art Deco landmark, said Shaari
Hallman, real estate agent for the seller, Martin Ergas.
Meara Rubell declined comment Friday.
"It's hard to find loans for Beach properties. We recognize that, " said
Stuart Rogel, Beach economic development director. "Many loan review
committees are very unfamiliar with this city. "
To combat that, the Miami Beach Development Corp. is holding a daylong
conference Thursday for lenders. "People in New York have more interest
and know more about what's going on in South Beach than do people here. People
in Miami hold onto the negative image, " Pellerin said.
Goldman agrees: "As beautiful as a garden is, you might not see it if
it's in your backyard. Personally, I think you have to be deaf, dumb, blind
and retarded not to see the inherent value in Ocean Drive. "
TAG: 8602080549
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