1674-8 Gerry Sanchez A CENTURY OF DREAMS 02/19/1995
2 of 187, 2 Terms
mh BEACH HOTSPOT HAS 10/16/1991
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1991, The Miami Herald
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1991 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 2B LENGTH: 49 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Tropics International Restaurant on Ocean Drive
has filed for bankruptcy protection (RSTURANT-T)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DAVID KIDWELL Herald Staff Writer
BEACH HOTSPOT HAS
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
Tropics International Restaurant -- whose poolside bar, live reggae music
and headline entertainers made it one of the hottest spots on Miami Beach's
booming Ocean Drive -- has filed for protection from its creditors under
federal bankruptcy laws.
The club will remain open while more than $4.3 million in unpaid debts at
Tropics and the adjoining Edison Hotel are sorted out by the courts, said
Randy Fozzard, a principal owner.
"It's still the hottest spot in South Beach, " Fozzard said.
But some customers may have noticed a difference. Since filing for
bankruptcy protection Sept. 23, Tropics has stopped offering breakfast and
lunch and has curtailed its hours to between 5 p.m. and 2 a.m. on weekends.
Staff was cut from 60 to 50, and one full-time manager was made part-time,
Fozzard said.
"The business just wasn't there, " he said. "We plan to open back up for
lunch on Nov. 15 and for breakfast sometime after Thanksgiving. This
reorganization is really very insignificant to our customers."
It may be more significant for tax collectors.
Among the operations' debts are $475,000 in payroll taxes the owners
deducted from employees' checks but did not forward to the Internal Revenue
Service, court records show.
They also owe $125,000 in unpaid state sales taxes, $22,786.89 to the
city of Miami Beach in overdue resort taxes and other fees, and $20,000 to the
state Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, records show.
/ Fozzard said the club operates at a profit, but he and other owners
had counted on banks to refinance the enormous debt they took on when the
,/////-
/// property was purchased for $3.3 million in 1988 from then-owner Gerry Sanchez.
"Over the last two years I bet I 've gone to 20 banks, " Fozzard said. "And
I can't even get into the application process. Nobody wants to get into Ocean
Drive. "
Local banks let him down, he said.
"Instead of borrowing from the banks, I borrowed from the IRS," Fozzard
said. "Now I'm in trouble. "
Tropics International opened at 960 Ocean Dr. in May 1989 after a
complete rehabilitation of the Edison Hotel. Other principals include Oliver
Mayoral, a former general manager at Braman Honda and the Jeep Collection, and
Thomas Salom, a Broward County real estate developer. Neither could be
reached for comment Tuesday.
TAG: 9103080876
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the terms, because it may be confidential, " he said.
The once-fashionable, 62-year-old hotel was torn down on March 15, 1987,
after a frantic attempt by building preservationists and Miami Beach developer
Gerry Sanchez to save it. Sanchez had sought to buy the 10-story,
Mediterranean-style hotel and property from Goodman before it was demolished.
Goodman then filed suit against the city in Dade Circuit Court seeking
$2.5 million, the amount he said Sanchez offered before the city ordered the
building razed. The city responded by asking the court to award it $375,000 to
pay for the cost of demolition.
The lawsuit has since been moved to federal court in Miami and is before
U.S. District Judge Eugene Spellman. Both sides say they are awaiting
Spellman's ruling.
Neither side would rule out a settlement of the lawsuit, but City
Attorney Arnold Weiner said no negotiations are taking place.
Glottmann said his agreement to buy the land will not be affected by the
outcome of the lawsuit because his company is insured against any judgment.
"We expect to close out in July or August, " said Glottmann.
Beach Planning and Zoning Director Jud Kurlancheek said Tuesday that
Glottmann had indicated to the city that he would build an apartment building
on the site.
"There's been some work on a set of plans, but it's very sketchy at
this point, " Kurlancheek said.
Glottmann heads a corporation that is seeking a change in zoning on the
site. The corporation, 600 West Avenue Apartments Inc. , wants to enlarge the
size of the structure it is allowed to build on the 64, 000-square-foot
property. Beach commissioners will consider the request for new zoning at
their meeting Wednesday. The vice president of Glottmann's development
company is Dick Fosmoen, who resigned a month ago as the city's assistant city
manager.
Fosmoen served as acting city manager of Miami in 1980-81 and was an
assistant city manager for four years before that. He had worked for Miami
Beach since 1984, including the period when the Biscaya Hotel was demolished
and the subsequent lawsuit arose.
Glottmann said Fosmoen approached him about a job after Fosmoen resigned
his city post April 1. Fosmoen did not return telephone calls to his office on
Tuesday.
KEYWORDS: MB
TAG: 8902010166
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mh OCEAN DRIVE HOTEL 03/05/1989
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1989, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, March 5, 1989 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: HOME & DESIGN PAGE: 17H LENGTH: 107 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: The BEACON HOTEL
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: CHARLES KIMBALL Herald Columnist
MEMO: REAL ESTATE
ENTREPRENEUR
LOSES BEACH HOTEL
Miami Beach entrepreneur Gerry Sanchez has lost another of his holdings.
This time it was the Whitehart Hotel, 67 rooms at 315 Ocean Dr. Late last
year, he lost the Cameo Hotel, 1434 Washington Ave., Miami Beach.
Dade County Clerk of the Circuit Court Richard Brinker auctioned the
hotel and awarded title to the high bidder. Taking the building was the Miami
Savings Bank, with an offer of $700, 000.
Sanchez bought the hotel in 1986 for $693, 000. He obtained financing from
Miami Savings of $670, 000.
mh AMSTERDAM PALACE 01/29/1989
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1989, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1989 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 19 LENGTH: 106 lines
ILLUSTRATION: color photo: Brad Stonberg and Kimberly Fisher
(AMSTERDAM PALACE) ; photo: Kneeling Aphrodite greets visitors
at the entrance, Al Resnick, Dan Berler, Scott Mills, Carla
Friedman, wall plaque, Kaye Stephenson (AMSTERDAM PALACE)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: MARK ROBICHAUX Herald Staff Writer
MEMO: COVER STORY
AMSTERDAM PALACE
Styled after the 16th Century home of Christopher Columbus' son -- even
built with a brick from the place -- and haunted with tales of ghosts, it
stands as a jewel in the rough among the Art Deco gems lining Ocean Drive.
Despite the rush to renovate the Beach's ocean-front buildings, the
Amsterdam Palace remains content to stew in its rustic charm -- paint peeling,
plaster cracking and stairs growing more rickety by the day.
And there's no sign things will change at 1116 Ocean Dr. , at least for a
while. The 26 residents who live in the Mediterranean Revival building like
things the way they are. And debt-ridden part-owner Gerry Sanchez says he
couldn't renovate the place even if he wanted to.
"This place speaks for itself," said resident Brad Stonberg, looking out
into the open courtyard, washed in the cool light of a morning sun. "It's an
oasis. You step in here and you step out of South Beach."
Stonberg, like many of the residents, revel in the charm of the
Amsterdam. The stories swapped among tenants and the equally bizarre history
behind the place only add to the enigma of what many call their "sanctuary. "
Before it became the Amsterdam, the three-story stucco building, topped
with a Spanish tile roof, started out as the lavish project of California and
Miami Beach resident Charles Boulton.
With help from a millionaire named Alden Freeman and a host of
contractors, artists and furniture makers, Boulton combined the nobility of
Old Spain with all the amenities of the 1930s.
Boulton billed the place Casa Casuarina (House of the Australian Pine)
after a book about life in the tropics by W. Somerset Maugham titled Under the
Casuarina Tree. Others say that after the Hurricane of 1926, a gnarled,
twisted Casuarina tree was the only thing left standing on the lot. Hence the
name.
The building was modeled after the Alcazar de Colon, home of the
Christopher Columbus family in Santo Domingo, in what is now the Dominican
Republic. The Alcazar, said to be the oldest Spanish building in the Western
Hemisphere, was built between 1506 and 1510 by Columbus' son, Diego Columbus.
Alden Freeman brought a brick from the remaining portion of the original
0111116- 41111b-
building and placed it in the Miami Beach likeness.
Even the coat of arms carved into the front terrace of the building
belongs to the discoverer of America.
"It's by and far the most exciting building in the (Art Deco) district
because of its unique architecture, " said Richard Hoberman, president of the
Miami Design Preservation League. "It brings one back to the 16th Century of
Spain."
Dade County records put the price of construction in 1930 at between
$105,000 and $130, 000, with figures as high as $1 million claimed for the
completely furnished building.
The higher figure would explain the eclectic mix of more than 100
sculptures -- free-standing and set in the walls -- that line the building.
Walk up the steps of the pock-marked, coral-rock front patio, through the
Gothic archway and towering black doors, and immediately the courtyard
commands attention. Three tiers of balconies overlook the terrazzo floors
below, which are peppered with tropical plants of every shape and size.
"It's like you've escaped into a foreign, exotic land," said Dan Berler,
a 29-year-old resident. "Other places have courtyards, but not as magnetic as
this. "
Said Carla Friedman, a 28-year-old poet who lives there: "This is my
palace. It's timeless. I can imagine nuns and children shuffling around here. "
Dominating the courtyard is the tri-windowed Homage Tower, a replica of a
structure where Columbus was once held prisoner by order of King Ferdinand.
Inside, stained glass throws eerie light against the walls. And at the
courtyard's end is the observatory dome, now used for storage because it no
longer revolves.
It is in this observatory that ghosts were believed to roam until the
1960s. Tenants back then told stories of an old man in white pajamas who would
walk down to shoo away curious visitors.
Art rules in the Amsterdam.
Flanking a portrait of John D. Rockefeller, for example, are portraits of
Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Mussolini and Lenin. The busts, sculptures and
pedestals also span centuries of American and European art and literature.
A bronze Kneeling Aphrodite stands as gatekeeper at the building's
entrance, the work of a young California artist, Vuc Vuchinich. It once stood
at one end of an oblong pool in the courtyard, but the pool later was filled
and the statue was moved.
Since Jac Amsterdam bought the place and changed the name to the
Amsterdam Palace in 1935, several new owners have taken over.
Resident Al Resnick has seen them come and go. Resnick, 65, an 18-year
resident of the Amsterdam, remembers when tenants dressed up in suits and
dresses just to go sit on the front porch. Back then, they called him "Sonny."
"Now they're all very young, " he said. "And I'm the old one."
Tenants are as equally eclectic as the art. Most are young adults --
artists, writers and blue-collar workers. The ambience
drew them first, they say. The rent -- starting at $325 to $600 -- was a
bonus.
"I have a waiting list three miles long, " said building manager Scott
Mills, who discounts rent for tenants who make minor renovations themselves.
Gerry Sanchez, who bought the Amsterdam with partners roughly two years
ago, is now in bankruptcy with other Beach properties, and too preoccupied to
ponder plans of an Amsterdam renovation.
"First I have to get my act together with my other properties, " Sanchez
said. "Right now it's on the back burner. In the next month, I'll be making
some kind of decision. "
That decision may include a hip new Spanish restaurant and hotel suites,
but Sanchez has yet to give real proof of his
plans. Residents say they can wait.
"Most of the tenants feel the same way," said manager
Mills. "If you fixed it up, it wouldn't be the same. "
TAG: 8901080032
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mh THREE SOUTH BEACH HOTELS 07/04/1988
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1988, The Miami Herald
DATE: Monday, July 4, 1988 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 20BM LENGTH: 41 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: BREAKWATER HOTEL, LYNMAR HOTELS, WHITEHART HOTEL
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: CHRISTOPHER BOYD Herald Real Estate Writer
THREE SOUTH BEACH HOTELS
FACING FORECLOSURE LAWSUITS
FORECLOSURE suits have been filed against three South Miami Beach hotels,
one owned by preservationist Gerry Sanchez.
The suits involve the Whitehart, Breakwater and twin Lynmar hotels.
Sanchez owns the Whitehart and has a minority interest in the Breakwater.
Unified Investors, a Margate-based firm, has the major interest in the
Breakwater. United Real Estate Investors, Margate, owns the Lynmar North and
South.
In February, Sanchez announced he would sell his extensive South Beach
property holdings to Unified. In April, after Unified bought the Breakwater
and adjacent Edison Hotel, foreclosure proceedings were brought against the
Breakwater.
Later, the Breakwater suit was dropped, only to be renewed this month.
Tom Salom, a partner in Unified and United, said the foreclosure cases would
be resolved.
"We've got over a half a million invested in the Breakwater, " said Tom
Salom, a partner in Unified and United. "We won't let that go. Our plan is to
pay off the entire mortgage. As far as the Lynmar goes, we were never served
with foreclosure papers."
The Breakwater and the Whitehart are on Ocean Drive; the Lynmar is on
Collins Avenue.
Sanchez said he would sell the Whitehart. After arriving in South Beach
in 1986, Sanchez assembled a portfolio of hotels and apartment buildings. He
announced that he would lead a movement to turn the declining neighborhood
hotels.
Sanchez could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
On buying the Breakwater and Edison, Unified unveiled a plan to restore
all of Sanchez's properties. Within 22 days of the purchase, the Breakwater
was named in the first foreclosure suit.
KEYWORDS: FINANCE MULTIPLE MB
TAG: 8802160452
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Enter document number to transfer
'_731,38,45,52,54,64
0 mh HOTEL SUIT RESOLVED; RENOVATION TO START 06/05/1988
❑ mh HOTEL SUIT RESOLVED; RENOVATION TO START 06/05/1988
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1988, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, June 5, 1988 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 7 LENGTH: 35 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: LYNN HORSLEY Herald Staff Writer
HOTEL SUIT RESOLVED; RENOVATION TO START
The new owners of the Breakwater Hotel, 940 Ocean Dr. , have resolved a
foreclosure suit and expect to begin renovation work within a few weeks.
Unified Investors Inc., the Margate investment group that bought the
Breakwater and Edison hotels from Gerry Sanchez, faced a foreclosure action
shortly after they purchased the buildings April 4 for $5.1 million.
The suit, filed in late April by Allan Myerson and Allan Zucker, alleged
the group was in default on an $802,772 mortgage on the Breakwater.
But Myerson's attorney, Elliott Harris, said last week that Unified had
brought the payments current and the foreclosure action has been dismissed.
The principals in Unified Investors are Tom Salom, chief executive
officer for ABC Management, a Margate real estate holding company; Oliver
Mayoral, who formed his own real estate holding company; and Samuel Lennox, a
swimming pool contractor who has assembled a real estate portfolio.
Les Wiesen, general contractor for Unified's projects, said the Miami
Beach Building Department recently issued a permit for a restaurant on the
ground floor of the Breakwater, and construction should be finished in several
months.
Wiesen also has requested permits, which he said should be issued within
a few weeks, to restore the hotel with a new air- conditioning and sprinkler
system, new room decor and a new pastel paint job. The renovation is expected
to cost nearly $300,000.
Salom said last week he was arranging the financing to
purchase Sanchez's other properties, including the Betsy Ross and Waldorf
Towers on Ocean Drive, and a full block of buildings on Espanola Way. He said
he expects to close the deal within three weeks.
KEYWORDS: MB
TAG: 8802090865
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mh SOUTH BEACH 04/07/1988
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1988, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, April 7, 1988 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 7D LENGTH: 40 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: CHRISTOPHER BOYD Herald Real Estate Writer
SOUTH BEACH
HOTELS SOLD
TO INVESTORS
Preservationist Gerry Sanchez sold two of his South Miami Beach hotels to
an investment group Wednesday, saying the new owners will complete the
restoration work he failed to finish.
The sale of the Breakwater and Edison hotels on Ocean Drive was the first
in a series of transactions that will transfer Sanchez's South Beach real
estate portfolio to Unified Investors Group, a Margate-based investment
consortium.
The new group announced it would complete restoration of the Breakwater
within three months and would open a nightclub on its first floor. Sanchez
restored the Edison in 1986.
For Sanchez, who will retain a partial interest in the properties, the
sale was a bittersweet conclusion to his plan to become the brightest star in
a sparkling new Miami Beach tourist district.
"I couldn't keep going by myself, " Sanchez said. "I knew after Black
Monday last October that I would have to sell out."
Sanchez bought the 70-room Breakwater for $1.2 million in June 1986 and
sold it for $1 .8 million. He purchased the Edison for $1 .1 million and sold it
for $3.3 million.
The buyer, Unified Investors, was organized by ABC Management in Margate.
Oliver Mayoral, a principal in ABC, said his group would invest $1 million to
complete restoration of the Breakwater.
Mayoral said within two weeks his group would buy Sanchez's other
properties, which include the Waldorf Towers, Betsy Ross and Whitehall hotels
on Ocean Drive and a group of hotels and shops on Espanola Way. When
completed, the sale will total $11 million.
Samuel Lennox, who will supervise construction, said Unified Investors
would build a 250-space parking garage on three lots spanning Ocean Drive and
Collins Avenue north of 10th Street.
Sanchez will retain ownership of the Amsterdam Palace on Ocean Drive.
TAG: 8801250736
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mh SAVING HOTEL 03/02/1988
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1988, The Miami Herald
DATE: Wednesday, March 2, 1988 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: LIVING TODAY PAGE: 1D LENGTH: 79 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Gloria Estefan (MIAMI SOUND MACHINE) , Sue COBB
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: FRED TASKER Herald Columnist
SAVING HOTEL
WAS LIKE PERILS
OF PAULINE
Sure, developer Gerry Sanchez was able to save his Art Deco Breakwater
hotel because of $124,000 from three new investment partners. But he says
there was more to the miracle.
Sanchez thought he needed the money Wednesday afternoon to prevent the
Breakwater from being sold on the County Courthouse steps. Then he learned it
would be Wednesday morning.
His investors wired the money from Boca Raton. But as the 11 a.m. sale
neared, Sanchez couldn't get the cashier's check
because the bank officer was out, then the teller went to the bathroom, then
the taxi was delayed.
Sanchez dashed across Flagler Street to the Federal Building and filed
for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy law -- which would stop
the sale.
But just as he dashed back, the check arrived. Sanchez paid off his
creditors, then walked back leisurely and withdrew the Chapter 11 filing.
, 2 Terms
mh ROYALE GROUP SAYS 01/10/1988
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1988, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, January 10, 1988 EDITION: FINAL
The city, for its part, wants the tax money.
Said Robert Nachlinger, city finance director: "I just wish they'd pay."
TAG: 8801030343
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mh S. BEACH BOOM BUSTS A BIT 01/08/1988
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1988, The Miami Herald
DATE: Friday, January 8, 1988 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1D LENGTH: 74 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: CHRISTOPHER BOYD Herald Real Estate Writer
S. BEACH BOOM BUSTS A BIT
MONEY WOES
MOUNT FOR
3 DEVELOPERS
Three of Miami Beach's best known redevelopers have suffered financial
setbacks, raising concern for restoration efforts in the city's Art Deco
district.
The wave of trouble involves a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition, a court
* Hotel Metropole, 635 Collins Ave. , was sold recently in a court-ordered
auction after Tony Goldman, a New York developer with extensive South Beach
holdings, defaulted on a loan.
* A partnership that owns buildings on Espanola Way filed for protection
from creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court this week. Gerry Sanchez, a flamboyant
preservationist, is the primary partner in the group.
* A foreclosure suit has been filed against the owner of the Tides Hotel
on Ocean Drive. An affiliate of the Royale Group, which operates several
nearby hotels, owns the Tides.
Goldman, Sanchez and Royale are the leading pioneers in the South Beach
restoration effort. All three own groups of hotels on Ocean Drive, the focus
of the historic district's new restaurant and entertainment business.
"The city and the banks aren't doing enough for the Deco developers and
this proves it," Sanchez said. He said he will sell one of his Ocean Drive
hotels to raise money to pay debts on the Espanola Way properties. Sanchez
owns the Edison, Breakwater, Waldorf Towers and Betsy Ross hotels on Ocean
Drive.
"We're all human beings, not some sort of bigger than life creatures who
never have troubles, " Goldman said. Goldman is restoring the Park Central
hotel and several apartment houses on Ocean Drive.
Foreclosure proceedings were filed against Ocean Properties of Delaware,
a company tied to the Royale Group, for failing to pay loans on the Tides
Hotel, 1220 Ocean Dr. Royale owns the Carlyle and Cardozo hotels nearby. It
bought the Tides for $2.3 million in December 1986 and announced plans to
restore it, then manage it with other nearby hotels under the group's control.
Dennis Richards, attorney for Ocean Properties, said the Tides owners
never missed a loan payment.
"We have a mortgage holder here who is trying to take advantage of
increased property values on Ocean Drive, " Richards said. "Regardless of the
other problems investors on South Beach are having, this company will survive
and will win this one."
Denis Russ, acting director of the Miami Beach Development Corp., said he
hoped financial problems in the district wouldn't reverse efforts to restore
hoped financial problems in the district wouldn't reverse efforts to restore
buildings in the neighborhood.
"There is certain, positive momentum here, " said Russ, whose company
promotes South Beach investment. "There are individual events that run
contrary to it. Frankly, we haven't solved a problem of getting banks to make
loans. This problem may be a manifestation of the banking problem. "
The historic district contains about 800 buildings, most in the
Mediterranean and Art Deco styles. In the past two years, the three developers
have spearheaded efforts to renovate crumbling buildings in South Beach.
Goldman and Sanchez said they plan to continue restoration of their other
properties.
"I'm planning to finish restoring the Park Central Hotel in February, "
Goldman said. "I've decided to focus on what I can do. I'm not ready to do a
complete renovation of another building right now. It would have been too much
for me."
Goldman paid $650,000 for the Metropole in 1986.. It sold in auction for
$325, 900. Clinton Capital Corp. , which held a $125,000 mortgage on the hotel,
was the high bidder.
Sanchez said he has $700,000 tied up in two hotels, 16 apartments and 20
shops on Espanola Way. He said he invested $300,000 for restorations to the
Mediterranean-style buildings. Despite his Chapter 11 filing, Sanchez said he
is confident he won't lose them.
"We still believe in South Beach, but we have to shrink a little, "
Sanchez said. "We're going to pass this crisis somehow. I won't lose Espanola
Way, not over my dead body. "
TAG: 8801020673
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mh BEACH IS ON A ROLL 11/26/1987
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1987, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, November 26, 1987 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 11 LENGTH: 60 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Expansion of the MIAMI BEACH CONVENTION CENTER
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: STEPHEN SMITH Herald Staff Writer
MEMO: COVER STORY
BEACH IS ON A ROLL
Seasons change.
On Thanksgiving Day 1987, they're saying this tourist season is critical,
roll the dice, make or break. But when haven't they said that in Miami Beach?
What's different this season is who's saying it. The voices clamor from
somewhere other than just Ocean Drive. There's new money, buckets of it,
behind the serene Art Deco of 21st Street, along the concrete monoliths of
Collins.
And money is the language everybody speaks in the Beach.
The pioneers, as they call themselves, still dwell on Ocean Drive, Gerry
Sanchez and Tony Goldman and the Royale Group among them. This year, though,
they've been in the headlines more for what they don't have -- money -- and
haven't done -- completing projects.
"It's not unusual that the original group of investors may for a while
take a bath, " says Maria Suarez Pellerin, part owner and manager of Wimbish
Commercial Real Estate. "It's tough breaking new ground. "
Not so tough that Sanchez and Goldman have left. Sanchez
keeps working on the Breakwater, trying to make a suitable companion for the
Edison. And Goldman keeps making plans to open restaurants in his properties.
It's not so tough that others aren't willing to take a gamble on Ocean
Drive. What's news this season in South Beach isn't old hotels getting new
life. It's all the businesses -- ice cream parlors and trendy furniture stores
and chain pizza places -- trying to score the capitalist dream.
They're there, all right, even if they haven't pealed the trumpets.
"We're just not out there pounding our breasts, " says Don Meginley, who's
directing marketing efforts at Royale's Cavalier, one of the newest old hotels
to open on Ocean Drive. "The people who are investing now are not hand wavers
as much."
Maybe not on Ocean Drive, but, then again, Abe Hirschfeld isn't on Ocean
Drive. He's on Collins Avenue, in the 50s, rolling in from New York. He paid
cash for the old Konover, slapped a new name on it and has pumped $4 million
into it so far.
Hirschfeld isn't the only one on a spending frenzy in the concrete
canyon. There are other new names, the Shawnee Group
from Pennsylvania, and old names, Resnick and Dunaevsky, spending millions
like spare change.
After all, big spending could beget even bigger returns, which is the
incentive for stripping apart hundreds of rooms and starting from scratched-up
walls.
They are different worlds, different philosophies, Ocean Drive and upper
Collins Avenue.
Consider these, from two of the most pungent personalities, immigrants
who found fortune in New York and have brought it to Miami Beach:
Hirschfeld on the Deco District and why his 20-year-old, 500-room hotel
is better: "I'll explain what it is. When you have secondary merchandise, you
can't make it primary. When a girl is ugly, no matter how you dress her she
will never become a beauty queen."
Sanchez on the virtues of Deco: "Of course we have the best product in
terms of sex appeal. The rest is tacky or boring or not sexy."
Ah, well, another season swings open.
TAG: 8703290575
DEVELOPER RACES CLOCK TO BAR DEMOLITION 11/22/1987
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1987, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, November 22, 1987 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 3 LENGTH: 52 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DAVID HANCOCK Herald Staff Writer
DEVELOPER RACES CLOCK TO BAR DEMOLITION
Time is running out for developer Gerry Sanchez and the Whitehart Hotel .
On Wednesday, Sanchez fought off the second demolition action in four
months against the Whitehart, a boarded-up 73- unit hotel at 315 Ocean Dr. But
he has until Jan. 19 to make structural repairs.
The hotel, which Sanchez bought for $693,000 in January, has been under a
demolition order from the Dade County Unsafe Structures Board since October
1985. In June, Sanchez persuaded the Miami Beach City Commission not to
demolish the building, which he hopes to convert into 17 luxury oceanfront
apartments.
The commission gave Sanchez until Aug. 19 to obtain a building permit,
which he has done. He was required to make structural repairs in the building
by Jan. 19, 1988.
City Attorney Arnold Weiner and Building Department Director Paul Gioia
said Sanchez was supposed start the structural repairs by Sept. 19. He has
not.
"Those were drop-dead dates, " said Weiner, referring to deadlines in a
June agreement Sanchez signed with the city. It spells out what Sanchez must
do to stave off demolition of the Whitehart.
The agreement required Sanchez to post a $34,000 letter of credit -- the
estimated cost of demolishing the Whitehart -- that the city could turn to
cash if Sanchez missed deadlines.
Earlier this month, Weiner cashed in the $34, 000 and deposited it in a
city account.
Sanchez said he has started some work. He said the city slowed his
efforts by not allowing a garbage container on Ocean Drive. He said he
believes the city should leave him alone until Jan. 19, when he's supposed to
be finished.
"One part of the city is saying 'come develop. ' And the other part is
waiting for you to slip up, " Sanchez said.
While defending Gioia for his enforcement of the contract, city
commissioners decided to give Sanchez until January to make good on the
repairs. They voted to waive the default and reinstate the letter of credit.
Sanchez, who last year lost a demolition battle with the city over the
Biscaya Hotel, had other troubles last week. Two of his properties -- the
Breakwater, 940 Ocean Drive, and the Sharon Hotel, 110 20th St., were named in
foreclosure actions.
Sanchez said the tumbling fortunes on Wall Street scared off investors in
the hotels. "It hurt me a lot. A few investors who were supposed to invest
were hurt."
Sanchez said he was lining up new investors, and that the foreclosure
suits soon will be settled.
Weiner, who told commissioners there was no legal reason to give Sanchez
more time, told Sanchez, "I'm sure I'll see you back here in January. "
TAG: 8703280906
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mh 2 SANCHEZ PROPERTIES 11/18/1987
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1987, The Miami Herald
DATE: Wednesday, November 18, 1987 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 6B LENGTH: 41 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Gerry SANCHEZ
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: GREGG FIELDS Herald Business Writer
2 SANCHEZ PROPERTIES
NAMED IN FORECLOSURES
Two properties owned by Miami Beach developer Gerry Sanchez have been
named in foreclosure actions.
One case involves an apartment building at 1035 Collins Ave. , Miami
Beach.
That suit was filed by Ocean Bank and alleges that Sanchez is in default
on a $140,000 loan he assumed when he purchased the property.
The other involves a Miami Beach hotel, the Breakwater, at 940 Ocean Dr. ,
which is the focus of two foreclosure suits.
The cases were filed by Burton Sherman and Carl Platt, each of whom hold
mortgages on the hotel. The men have filed foreclosure actions before -- since
settled out-of-court -- against Sanchez regarding the Breakwater.
Richard Allbritton, a management consultant who works for Sanchez, said
arrangements have been made to deal with the Breakwater foreclosure and a
resolution is expected by the end of the month.
Sanchez said he wants to build a parking deck on the property. He said he
owes about $115,000 on the property at Collins Avenue.
"Somehow my accountant was late in making the payment to the bank and the
bank refused to accept a late payment, " Sanchez said.
According to Allbritton, the loan was to be paid by proceeds from the
sale of the Sharon hotel, another Sanchez property, which is at 110 20th St.
in Miami Beach.
Allbritton said the Sharon sale came undone "due to Black Monday, "
referring to the Oct. 19 crash of the stock market. One of the people buying
the Sharon lost money in the crash and was unable to go through with the
transaction, Allbritton said.
In another transaction, a second mortgage of $250, 000 was placed on
Sanchez's Edison hotel, 960 Ocean Dr. in Miami Beach. The mortgage was
obtained from Miami Beach Development Corp., a nonprofit agency that
encourages development in the Miami Beach area. The $250,000 came from the
state.
TAG: 8703270590
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mh SANCHEZ'S 11/05/1987
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1987, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, November 5, 1987 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 3 LENGTH: 64 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: STEPHEN SMITH Herald Staff Writer
SANCHEZ'S
HOTELS ARE
FOR SALE
Inside the new offices of a South Beach real estate company hang pictures
of Gerry Sanchez's signature properties -- the Breakwater and Edison hotels,
the Waldorf Towers, Espanola Way.
The pictures aren't on the wall because they're pretty.
Wimbish Commercial Real Estate Services is trying to sell the properties
for Sanchez, the self-styled savior of South Beach who swept into the city in
1985.
He didn't buy a parcel at a time. He bought whole blocks.
Now, he has whole blocks on the market. The list includes five Ocean
Drive hotels and an apartment house. That's 385 hotel rooms and apartments --
and, potentially, millions in fresh cash.
"Am I leaving town? No, I'm not, " Sanchez said Tuesday. "There is going
to be Gerry and Gerry Development for quite a while."
That's not just Sanchez talking.
"Ultimately, I think he will keep one or two of these and look at other
projects, " said Maria Suarez Pellerin, manager and part owner of Wimbish
Commercial. "That's his MO, to keep going. He doesn't just want to stay with
one building forever."
Said Michael Cannon, president of Appraisal and Real Estate Economics
Associates, "Maybe he feels he needs the money to do the things he wants to
do. "
That is precisely what Sanchez wants. By selling some of what he owns, he
can use that money to buy new properties or complete renovation work on what
he owns already.
"I don't see any significance in it, " said Mel Schlesser, the
lawyer-turned-developer whose most ambitious project so far is the restoration
of the Alamac. "Almost from the time Gerry Sanchez came to Ocean Drive, I saw
for sale signs on his buildings. I 'm not really quite sure how Gerry does
business."
Sanchez appeared, bubbly and wisecracking as ever, at a developers'
conference last week. After asking why bankers aren't lending money for fixing
up South Beach hotels, he gave his own answer: Forget the bankers. Sanchez
announced he is looking for partners, people with new ideas and new money.
That jibes with his desire to sell some of what he owns.
The asking price for some of the buildings is more than double what
Sanchez paid. But that's hardly a fair comparison -- he has spent hundreds of
thousands repairing and renovating some of the hotels.
Take, for instance, the Waldorf Towers. Sanchez bought it for $430,000.
He's asking $1.8 million.
"The Waldorf is ready so that somebody can just walk in and operate the
whole thing tomorrow, " Pellerin said. "That's a room already with bookings,
brochures, lots of publicity."
The Betsy Ross Hotel is something else. Sanchez gave it a fresh coat of
paint but not much more. He bought it for $1.25 million. He's asking $1.6
million.
To prove the point: That's nearly $95 a square foot for the swank and
swinging Waldorf Towers, and barely $50 a square foot for the
we've-got-a-lot-to-do Betsy Ross.
Pellerin figures she will have buyers for at least a couple of the
properties by year's end.
"What I'm really looking for is partners, " Sanchez said. "I'd rather not
sell anything. But if they insist, I might sell."
KEYWORDS: SANCHEZ ASSET
TAG: 8703240003
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mh PROPERTIES OWNED BY GERRY SANCHEZ 11/05/1987
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1987, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, November 5, 1987 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 4 LENGTH: 55 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: WALDORF TOWERS, EDISON HOTEL
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: Herald Staff
PROPERTIES OWNED BY GERRY SANCHEZ
BREAKWATER AND EDISON HOTELS
940-960 Ocean Dr.
Built in 1939, 1935, respectively
143 rooms combined
Sanchez bought for $2.3 million combined
Asking price for both properties: $6 million
WALDORF TOWERS HOTEL
860 Ocean Dr.
Built in 1937
45 rooms
Sanchez bought for $430,000
Asking price: $1.8 million
BETSY ROSS HOTEL
1440 Ocean Dr.
102 rooms
Built in 1940
Sanchez bought for $1.25 million
Asking price: $1.6 million
405-443 ESPANOLA WAY
Built in 1925
75 hotel rooms; 16 one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments; 13 store spaces;
2,400 square feet in office space
Sanchez bought for $1 million
Asking price: $1.5 million
The Edison Hotel
The Waldorf Towers
WHITEHART HOTEL
315 Ocean Dr.
Built in 1939
73 rooms
Sanchez bought for $693,000
Asking price: $850,000
SHARON HOTEL
110 20th St.
Built in 1939
102 rooms
Sanchez bought for $750, 000
Asking price: $1.6 million
AMSTERDAM PALACE
1116 Ocean Dr.
26 units
Built in 1930
Sanchez bought for $1.2 million
Make an offer
KEYWORDS: LIST SANCHEZ ASSET
TAG: 8703240000
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mh HOT WATER'S BACK ON IN SANCHEZ BUILDING AFTER 4 DAYS 09/17/1987
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1987, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, September 17, 1987 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 8 LENGTH: 33 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: CARLOS HARRISON Herald Staff Writer
HOT WATER'S BACK ON IN SANCHEZ BUILDING AFTER 4 DAYS
An Ocean Drive building owned by developer Gerry Sanchez was briefly
declared unfit for human habitation Monday afternoon after tenants spent four
nights without hot water.
Tenants said the hot water was back late Monday. The "unfit" designation
placed on the building at 1116 Ocean Dr. about noon Monday was removed Tuesday
after Peoples Gas System turned on the gas needed to heat the water.
"It was all a misunderstanding with the gas company, " said Sanchez's
assistant, Gladys Benvenuto. Benvenuto said Sanchez was in New York and could
not be reached for comment.
A Peoples Gas spokesman said the company shut off the gas Thursday
because of a delinquent bill. The payment, overdue at least 30 days, was
received Friday, Peoples commercial manager Elias Franco said.
But by the time the gas was turned back on, a Miami Beach code
enforcement inspector had already put up a placard declaring the building
unfit for habitation.
Inspector Janice Pye said the division received an anonymous complaint
last week about the lack of hot water. She immediately inspected the building
and issued a 48-hour warning requiring the hot water problem be cleared up or
threatening to declare the apartment building unfit.
When Pye went back Monday, the gas was still off. So was the hot water.
She put up the "unfit" placard, giving the building owner 30 days to fix the
problem.
The designation prohibits new tenants from moving in but doesn't force
residents to move out until the 30 days are up.
TAG: 8703110069
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mh HIS DECO DARE: TURN 09/13/1987
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mh TOWER PAINT JOB SPARKS HUE AND CRY 09/02/1987
SANCHEZ MAKES MONEY, BUT LOSES DREAM 08/06/1987
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1987, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, August 6, 1987 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 4 LENGTH: 71 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: SHARON HOTEL
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: STEPHEN SMITH Herald Staff Writer
SANCHEZ MAKES MONEY, BUT LOSES DREAM
DEVELOPER
SELLS SHELL
OF A HOTEL
So you're Gerry Sanchez, you buy a hotel in December, you sell it in
August, you make $540, 000 on the deal.
You're a happy man, right?
"It is not a good profit. That hotel is worth $2 million, " Sanchez said.
"It is a very cheap price. I'm extremely upset. I'm serious. "
Really, he is. Here's why: The hotel, the Sharon, sits hard on the beach
at 20th Street. It is a ramrod straight, sturdy, seven-story inn built in
It is, in hotel terms, an Ideal Piece of Property. Capital Center Group,
a Rhode Island real estate developer, is in the process of buying it for $1.29
million. Sanchez grabbed the Sharon, at 110 20th St., for $750,000 on Dec. 30.
million. Sanchez grabbed the Sharon, at 110 20th St., for $750,000 on Dec. 30.
His thinking then extended beyond the Sharon -- to the Sasson Hotel down
the street and the Sea Gull half a block north. The idea seemed simple and
lucrative: meld a partnership, make three hotels into one and create the
convention center hotel that everybody talks about but nobody succeeds in
creating.
But this is Miami Beach and these are hotels and never the minds shall
meet: "Too many partners, too many people, too many complications, " Sanchez
said.
Too little hope. Sanchez, who owns nine hotels in South Beach, decided to
sell the Sharon, but not to the first millionaire who walked in off the
street. He wanted somebody interested in Art Deco, a company that would spruce
it up, not tear it down.
"It's a good location. The streets will improve in a couple years, I
think," said Irwin Loft, president of Capital Center Group. "It's on the
beach. That's a positive thing, I think."
Loft isn't the only one thinking this is a pretty good deal. His
company has already talked to Days Inn about making the Sharon part of that
chain, and Loft planned to speak this week with executives from Park Inns,
another chain of moderately priced hotels.
Days Inn executives couldn't be reached Tuesday evening, and a Park Inns
manager didn't return a phone message left at the company's Dallas
headquarters.
"All these chains have many hotels near the Disney World complex, " Loft
said. "They say a lot of their clientele gets tired of Disney World after a
few days and wants to go to a beach to relax."
There's plenty of towel space on the beach just footsteps
from the Sharon. Wide swaths of sand lie untouched most days.
The Sharon rises above the emptiness, robed in those Art Deco colors of
faded white and dingy rust. Jagged pieces of glass are the only windows in
some rooms.
The place has been closed for two or three years, depending on who you
talk to. Nobody sits on the green vinyl stools inside the La Campina coffee
shop, which once boasted "Comidas Colombianas" -- Colombian food.
It needs some paint, and the plumbing and, probably, the floors will have
to be replaced. Otherwise, Sanchez and Loft said, the Sharon survived the
years of neglect pretty well.
The neighborhood has felt it more acutely. Moti Boaziz manages the
Sasson, at 20th and Collins Avenue. That means he must manage the streets,
too, bereft of tourists.
"At this moment, the Town House, next to the Sharon, is
closed, too, " Boaziz said. "And all of this causes, let's call it, bums. The
best idea in this area would be to buy the Sasson and the Sea Gull and build,
let's call it, a nice hotel."
The two men sitting in one of the abandoned cabanas at the Sharon had
another idea. They want the place left alone.
"Yeah, " said the man wearing the T-shirt emblazoned with the words Virgin
Islands. "I just come here to get high. On everything, man. Everything."
TAG: 8702270391
[RETURN) to continue or type q to return to Menu:
l mh DEVELOPER PULLS OUT; BISCAYA TO BE RAZED 02/27/1987
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1987, The Miami Herald
DATE: Friday, February 27, 1987 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1C LENGTH: 32 lines
0
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mh SANCHEZ TO GET 09/21/1986
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1986, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, September 21, 1986 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 2 LENGTH: 22 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Gerry SANCHEZ
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: Herald Staff
SANCHEZ TO GET
PEPPER AWARD
Developer Gerry Sanchez, whose Art Deco renovation projects have helped
spur the redevelopment of Ocean Drive, has been selected to receive the 1986
Claude Pepper Community Service Award from South Shore Hospital and Medical
Center.
Sanchez, 44, is president of Polonia Restoration South Co. and the owner
of several properties on Ocean Drive and Espanola Way.
U.S. Rep. Claude Pepper, for whom the award was named 17 years ago, will
give Sanchez the honor Oct. 11 during a banquet at the Fontainebleau Hilton.
Reservations for the black-tie dinner, which costs $175 a plate, can be
made by calling 538-0385 or by visiting the hospital development office at 600
Alton Rd.
TAG: 8603140386
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mh DEVELOPER CASHING IN ON S. BEACH RESTORATIONS 07/31/1986
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1986, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, July 31, 1986 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1B LENGTH: 48 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Gerry SANCHEZ
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DEBBIE SONTAG Herald Staff Writer
DEVELOPER CASHING IN ON S. BEACH RESTORATIONS
Developer Gerry Sanchez has sold the newly restored Waldorf Towers Hotel
for $1.5 million, more than 3 1/2 times what he paid for the 45-room Ocean
Drive hotel 10 months ago.
With that sale, Sanchez has turned a profit of almost $1 million in South
Beach in two months, proving that there's money to be made in the
long-depressed area and luring other investors to follow suit.
"This is the first time a fully restored Art Deco hotel has been sold,
and it is the kind of transaction that people have waited decades to see
happen, " said Woody Graber, spokesman for the Miami Beach Development Corp.
"Now you should see this area mushroom."
Sanchez bought the 50-year-old Waldorf for $430,000 in
December, restored it for $600, 000 by April and handed it over to Clearwater
native and professional hotelier Don Meginley this week.
In so doing, he earned a quick profit of $500,000 one month after earning
an even quicker profit of $450,000 on Ocean Drive's Clevelander Hotel. Sanchez
sold the Clevelander for $1.65 million in late June to two young hoteliers
from Chicago so eager to buy it that they didn't even wait for the
restoration to be completed.
has plunged head first into South Beach, investing $15 million there in less
than a year. He has so far accumulated eight South Beach hotels, two parking
lo Sanchez, a New York contractor who specializes in historic preservation,
is and an entire block of Espanola Way.
Meginley, who has managed three hotels on the West Coast of Florida, said
Wednesday that he will operate the Waldorf "like a small, classy, family-run
European pensione. "
Meginley said he invested in Ocean Drive because he believed that Sanchez
was single-handedly turning the depressed strip around, "creating a magic,
like honey with monied flies dancing all around him."
Hialeah-based contractors Tatum, Smith, Gomez and Vitale were similarly
impressed. They joined forces with Sanchez this week, investing an initial $1
million in four of his projects.
"South Beach is the last bastion of developability, " Gerry Vitale said.
Says Sanchez: "Nobody believed Gerry when he said money could be made on
Ocean Drive.
"I spoke at a developers' conference in January and I told everyone, 'You
go out and buy a hotel during the lunch break or you're going to be buying it
from me. ' "
KEYWORDS: MB SUCCESS SANCHEZ ASSET FINANCE
TAG: 8602270892
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mh INVESTOR PLAYS MONOPOLY ON BEACH 07/13/1986
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1986, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, July 13, 1986 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1B LENGTH: 125 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Gerry SANCHEZ*
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DEBBIE SONTAG Herald Staff Writer
ngINVESTOR PLAYS MONOPOLY ON BEACH
Ten months ago, Gerry Sanchez quietly started playing Monopoly in South
Miami Beach, buying up deteriorated property as if Ocean Drive were a board
game and he the only player.
First he bought the Waldorf Towers, then the Clevelander Hotel. And
before long, Sanchez -- a New York contractor who restored the U.S. Capitol
and the Brooklyn Bridge -- had sunk $15 million into an area few investors
would touch.
"Gerry saw a gold mine. Everybody else saw a slum," Sanchez said.
So far, Sanchez has accumulated eight South Beach hotels, two parking
lots and an entire block of Espanola Way. One hotel, the Waldorf, is renovated
and opened as a hotel and jazz supper club. Another, the Clevelander, has
already been resold at a profit of $400,000 -- to prove that money can be
made in South Beach, Sanchez said.
Although he has his skeptics, most in Miami Beach see Sanchez as a
pioneer -- an outsider who not only saw value in dilapidated oceanfront
property, but moved quickly to buy it and develop it.
"He's the kind of investor we've been dreaming of, " said Stuart Rogel,
the city's economic development director. "Number one, he's a developer with a
background in historic preservation, making him sensitive to the potentials of
the Art Deco district. Secondly, he has the financial strength to move
quickly and aggressively."
For three years, the city waited for the financially troubled Royale
Group Ltd. -- which owns the Carlyle and four other Ocean Drive Hotels -- to
show nervous investors that the Art Deco district was worth the risk. It
didn't. Its properties are in receivership, with only the Carlyle and the
Leslie open.
Then along came Sanchez. And now, following right behind him, two other
New Yorkers, Tony Goldman and Arthur Leeds, have bought five hotels among
them.
Said Beach Commissioner Stanley Arkin of Sanchez: "He's the snow that has
started the snowball rolling."
The fast-walking, fast-talking Sanchez makes no pretense of being the
South Beach savior -- "I'm merely the agent provocateur." And his bottom line
is the bottom line.
But in Sanchez, Miami Beach has acquired a manic worker, a colorful
character and a man who shoots for the sky.
He's so quirky that he moved to Dade County expressly to buy Richard
Nixon's winter house on Key Biscayne -- in which Nixon lived, behind
bullet-proof windows, surrounded by Secret Service paraphernalia, until the
Spanish singer Rafael bought it
from him for $1.5 million, almost two and a half times what Sanchez paid.
Now he rents Kirk Douglas' house.
He's so compulsive that he calls up his partners at 3 a.m. "when he gets
an idea. And he has just that kind of charisma, that he actually gets you to
wake up and listen, " said Todd Tragash, an architect who works with Sanchez.
He's such a dreamer that -- at the same time as he drapes banners with the
name of his firm, Polonia, across hotel porches in South Beach -- Sanchez is
trying to convince the government of India to let him restore the Taj Mahal.
And even as Polonia workers wearing bright yellow slickers wash down the
76-room Breakwater with enormous green hoses, Sanchez has his eyes on the
Vatican.
"If it's not famous or historic, forget it, " Sanchez said.
Sanchez's expectations have grown with his business, which now counts 500
employees in New York, New Jersey, San Francisco and Miami.
He grew up in Havana, working as a bank auditor there and, after he
emigrated in 1961, in New York. He studied banking at the American Institute
of Banking, accounting and business administration at Pace University and law
at the City University of New York.
His studies took him to the University of Warsaw for a year. He loved the
country, naming his company, Polonia, after it.
Polonia began as a realty company in 1976, a time when the
financial crisis in New York City was almost at its worst and real estate was
cheap. He bought up old buildings in rundown areas of Upper Manhattan,
Brooklyn and Queens and hired contractors to restore them. He didn't like
their work.
So he set out to learn the art of historic restoration
himself. He took a 10-month course at RESTORE, a nonprofit training program in
masonry preservation for people already working in the building trades.
Now "he's one of the best in the field, certainly in facade work. No one
even tries to compete with him in cleaning" historic buildings, said Jan
Anderson, founder of RESTORE. "That's why Polonia gets some of the best
contracts around."
Among those contracts: the New York Public Library, Trinity Church, the
New York Stock Exchange, the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw and, currently, the U.S.
Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba.
With such projects come stories.
There was, for example, the time that he was restoring the facade of the
New York Stock Exchange, working, as is his style, around the clock. Late one
night, his workers short-circuited the Wall Street building's power. The
computers stopped.
"Oh, my God. We could have been sued all over the world. I was praying, "
Sanchez said. "We managed to solve the problem. And the market was up the next
day."
Sanchez never intended to spend any time in Miami Beach.
He had enough of the city one week 25 years ago, he said. He had just
arrived from Cuba and took a job in the kitchen of a Beach hotel. He expected
to be fed. He wasn't.
"So there I am peeling eggs. Every third egg I peel, I eat. I get sick. I
almost die. That was enough of Miami Beach for me . . . I still smell eggs
around here."
What pricked his interest in the city was a conference sponsored by the
nonprofit Miami Beach Development Corp.
"I couldn't believe my very eyes. All this oceanfront property. I smelled
money in the breeze of the sea."
He had a vision of Ocean Drive as a Bourbon Street by the Atlantic. He
also knew a tax shelter -- owing to the tax credits granted preservationists
-- when he saw one. He set off full speed ahead.
And the fever of acquisition continues, as Sanchez negotiates with the
owners of at least six more buildings -- including Beach Commissioner Abe
Resnick, who owns the shuttered Bancroft Hotel.
Resnick, for one, is hesitant to pat Sanchez on the back for investing in
South Beach.
"It's good for the community, but it's not a question of courage, "
Resnick said. "He's a serious person and he knows what he's doing, but it's
like playing the market for him. He knows the game."
Meanwhile, Sanchez is branching out into other parts of Dade County:
working as a contractor restoring the Florida National Bank in Coral Gables,
bidding to buy the Opa-locka Hotel and train station, and looking for
financing to buy the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami.
What he most wants, however, is to see South Beach flush with money and
hopping with activity. And then Sanchez wants one thing back from the city, he
said.
"You know Lummus Park? Well, I want at least half of it. It should be
Gerry Park. With all due respect to Mr. Lummus."
TAG: 8602230522
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mh YOUNG HOTELIERS: INHERITING THE BEACH 04/10/1986
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1986, The Miami Herald
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 10 LENGTH: 55 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DEBBIE SONTAG Herald Staff Writer
MEMO: COVER STORY
YOUNG HOTELIERS: INHERITING THE BEACH
A man who knows more about Miami Beach hotels than almost anyone else can
tell in a flash whether a property is in young or old hands. The litmus of his
A man who knows more about Miami Beach hotels than almost anyone else can
tell in a flash whether a property is in young or old hands. The litmus of his
test: carpets and televisions.
"Examine the state of the building and you'll know who's in charge. In
the majority of cases, if there are stains in the carpet, the hotel owner is
older. If the carpet's fresh, if there's color TV and cable, it's young
people," said Murray Gold, executive director of the Miami Beach Resort Hotel
Association.
The city is seeing more and more new carpets every year.
A new generation of hoteliers is inheriting the Beach. They're young.
Most are Beach natives. They're fixing up deteriorated hotels. And they're
taking a gamble on a future they hope will bring back the bustling city of
their youth.
"We, too, could allow the properties to run down, " said Laine Unger,
managing director of the Royal Palm Hotel. "But we're young. These places are
extensions of our own ego. We want to feel proud."
At hotels such as the Royal Palm, the Adams-Tyler, the Netherland and the
Sagamore, children in their 30s are marching in to salvage or sustain the
family business. Many were ensconced in other careers and had no intention of
following in their parents' footsteps.
But, "what with inheritance taxes, selling these places would mean
forfeiting a lifetime of work. So you must perpetuate them, " said David
Pearlson, owner of the Adams-Tyler.
In other instances, young investors or contractors, such as Russell
Galbut at the Shelborne and Gerry Sanchez with many Ocean Drive hotels, are
taking a gamble.
"It's a gold mine here. My word of advice to anyone who listens is: Buy, "
Sanchez said.
The philosophy of these new, young owners is not as isolationist as that
of their seniors.
"You can do all we want to fix up your property. But if it looks as if a
neutron bomb has hit the area around you, it's not going to do you a whole lot
of good, " said Michael Milberg, general manager of the Royal Palm.
They know their own success depends on the redevelopment of Miami Beach.
So they join allthe boards and committees they can to create new promotional
campaigns and new special events in the city.
"We have no choice but to hustle, really. We can't stay in business
without moving ahead, " said Galbut.
Eric Jacobs of the Tarleton is skeptical that all this young energy can
make a difference, given the relatively few properties in young hands. Lloyd
Mandell, 38, of the Marseilles says only a sweeping change, such as the
legalization of gambling, will make a significant impact.
Most consider themselves pioneers.
"More fresh blood would be welcome, " said Milberg. "Let's get rid of the
dinosaurs. "
TAG: 8601270784
SANCHEZ CLOSES SALE 04/07/1988
THE MIAMI NEWS
Copyright (c) 1988, The Miami News
DATE: Thursday, April 7, 1988 EDITION: THREE-STAR
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 8A LENGTH: 19 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: BRIEFLY
SANCHEZ CLOSES SALE
OF TWO BEACH HOTELS
MIAMI BEACH HOTEL OWNER GERRY SANCHEZ ANNOUNCED THE CLOSING
YESTERDAY OF THE SALE OF THE BREAKWATER AND EDISON HOTELS ON
OCEAN DRIVE FOR $5.1 MILLION. THE PROPERTIES WERE SOLD TO
UNIFIED INVESTORS GROUPS, WHICH IN MARCH AGREED TO BUY A PACKAGE
OF
SANCHEZ-OWNED PROPERTIES ALONG OCEAN DRIVE, INCLUDING THE BETSY
ROSS HOTEL AND WALDORF TOWERS. UNDER THE $11 MILLION AGREEMENT,
SANCHEZ WILL RETAIN AN INTEREST IN THE PROPERTIES AS A DIRECTOR
OF UNIFIED INVESTORS GROUPS. THE GROUP PLANS TO INVEST MORE
THAN $1 MILLION TO FINISH RENOVATING THE BREAKWATER.
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