1674-30 Gerry Sanchez - - • _ - • . r• • ' P 1 1 ' • vas y
"Louie Louie": The Complete, Unexpurgated Lyrics, by Bob Greene
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So this Friday night, in the twenty exact seconds on The
course of a wander from the ne Need to Prm PGreserve
Oeed, ur
rrDeco Heri-
eo rmber to
• �� plus ultra Strand restaurant to rag
• the Terrace of the Carlyle,where hold up my book,
Miami:City of
' everybody(and anybody)goes to the Future.
see and he seen, I pass, among Soon as 1 get in, of course, I
I - many others: a covey of eighty- rush down to the legendary
h
isJewish men in prayer shawls Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant's
...
disputing the Talmud; a ncwtakcout for some legendary
Marielito transvestite; a Miami Joe's stone crab claws. Then,
Vice starlet and a Florida state around 8:00,under a ceiling fan, ,
legislator walking hand in hand; listening to Coleman Haw-
•
and a proselyte of the Holy kins
sco
records,
at
eat a
ltl edoidesner
Alamo Christian Church("Tony pretty picture
Alamo—Pastor, President") Arts. But after my encounter
F who hands me a pamphlet cx- with Sanchez and Barron,I real-
- _ posing the papist plot to subvert
'i4�:$::
the Constitution.
THE ENLIGHTENED TRAVELER I also glimpse the famous Scull
Siters, HydccandSahara—
middle-aged Cubans who always
in I_ktomesesiht, arNights 4 01,
mous for their magnificently
kitschy s
lmura ,the most magnif- k
icently kitschymurals of which can be f_1__ _I_ 1_L LI- 1 .'
t e un seen in the Puerto Sagua restau-
rant at Collins and Seventh. I
pass some Anglo creatures, ize it's z:oo A.M. In between,I've
BY T D ALL M A N
blond and blue-eyed as the partied at Woody's on the Beach.
American Dream, scoring coke (Ron Wood of the Rolling
auren Hutton's trying to "Some Very Important People in
ca BMW,finthen co come Militants around the
or- Stplone thenes,a re wiowner,sometimes
es
ii.
Bo
got her beauty sleep up- arc trying to sleep."
stairs. Sting's carrying on "C�et lost!" bellows Barron, Gtotgclimax just inttPmetfor D dd����Y;dcnitfiablcht I see the
by his
like a rogue locomotive who is, roughly speaking, to gearedleauriant moustache and auris
downstairs. And just out- heavy metal what Sanchez is to the i I:oo news.
side the Edison Hotel in the building cranes."Rock'n'roll is •
testeavers Oant.ur SeSator!"ve h e pro-otel able
air.) I've
Deuce(v eery
South Miami Beach Deco here to stay."
inter-
District, Manic Preservationist Hurricane-force ego clashes Senator!"—a classic deco cdi- esting,but watch your wallet).
ch
Gerry SanchezBarronnare Impre- arc nothing new in this one bespeaks an astonishing aleiami, but ,Group,its
with they aesthetic wind Now,
down like a windup grams
each Boarc circling
each other like scorpions. transformation. Until recently, values definitive of the specula- ophone at Casona de Carlitos,it
ose
o replace with
You see, the visiting Euro-es inethe most
DecorDitsictthing
was get a parking garage tI arrived only carrrryson me:a medians chestarving.
sandwch
staying and New York Huta
butcis infer- back to the hotel and pour some
staying at the Edison would like mugged. Now suddenly, it's the this afternoon, hype
dearly a get ack he,but there's- i)n town ottest,nEveryonost e fromted thescene
Mob Frazier,a st nniami. ng black TV re- Ri sling I boughtroom-temperature
earlier atChilean the
a problem.Back when no one ue
lieved the Deco District would to the Culture Vultures is squab- p°rtfarCesticks
notaonllcrope Vick c ticItalian
cup!Iq(Ior store into a plas-
really take off, Sanchez leased bling for a piece of the action._ mY y g The window's The
the Tropics International night- wind, tinged with cold,open. The
ttles
club on the ground floor to Bar- -. ` the palm trees. Offshore, the
ran—and Barron's happy only lights of the big white cruise
iwt
the theesadjacentloud that ships and big tan container ships
is makes Allan- twinkle in the Gulf Scream.
tic Ocean seem like a shrinking Others may come here search-
violet. i ing for sun,sex,and a substance
"Cut the noise!" shouts San- resembling confectioners' sugar
chez,who,besides whole blocks that can destroy your life,but as 1
here, has helped refurbish the stuff down every last chunk of
Statue of Liberty and now wants
to do"a really first-class restoCuban bread, I realize I'm on a
s carbohydrate high.
tion job" on the Taj Mahal. : -
' :
50 ESQUIRE/SEPTEMBER 1988 itMICHAEL O'CONNOR
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3A The Miami Herald /Monthly,A ugust 4. 19SG s
y - : mini 1.1
JOHNS KNIGHT '!5:.4 ?i : JAMES L KNIGHT.Chair"ren E.,n-,Uu. `
RICHARD G CAPEN.JR..Che+rmon and PuGuaher •
PHIL DEMCN'rMOLLIN JIM.HAMPTON HEATH 3 MERIWETHER
P+eaident and Gene•n!Manager Ediiue Eserut+te Editor
-.,JOANNA WRACG,,A44o:wre 6d:tor PETE WEITZEL.Mao-vine Etior
— - .- :a I
•
- .�;c3.-, : , .�fI : the Beach
1
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• NEW YORK restorer-developer before many others dhi. They set itt
turns a profit of about $1 million in motion a preservation movement that
• two months on the.sale of two Art drew national attention and a few
Deco hotels on South Beach. Friday private developers. In the past year,
nights and through the weekend's wee many more developers have bought Deco
hours of the morning, the sidewalks on properties. Fortunately, Miami Beach
South Beach are clogged with young city commissioners also understand the
people making their way to trendy jazz hotels' promise. Last month they created
and disco clubs in Art Deco hotels. two historic-preservation districts, pro-
Suddenly, in small and large ways, life tecting Deco buildings against willy-nil-
and vitality are returning to South ly demolition. They also approved new
Beach, a locale long synonymous with zoning to make the hotels more attrac-
bl{ght and boredom. tive to investors and developers:
`The fanciful, pastel-colored Art Deco Shill, if private developers can't make
hotels area piece of this infant money there, nothing would happen.
• renaissance, much as they were during That's why developer-restorer Gerry
another disheartening time. Erected dear- Sanchez's $1-million profit from the sale
log the Depression and World War i'I, -of two Deco hotels is worth celebrating.
these buildings have giddy curves and
stylish swoops that buoyed spirits bur- As Woody Graber of the Miami Beach
dented by rationing and long separation. Development Corp. says of the Waldorf
The Art Deco hotels promised a better sale: "This is the first time a fully
• tothorrow then. And for Miami Beach, restored Art Dei o hotel has been sold,
which has America's largest ooncentra- and it is the kind of transaction that
tion of them, that promise still holds. people have warted decades to see
The Capitman family on the Beach happen. Now you should see the area
saw the promise of these' properties rouhroom."Let's all hope so.
•
i
i
mom
' '
. ` mistakes, Sanchez set out to prove he could turn cont e
ted...MM.
into gold. He bought The Clevelander Hotel,gave it a quick
t ' • �� • .;�;et .?r. ;a;: ' . r face lift and flipped it for a cool half million-dollor-Profit.
t •t Today, he owns seven prime properties, cruises town in a
�" iv far i smoked-glass Rolls Royce and fancies himself the messiah
Ili lr I.-, F`" III of Miami Beach. He even hod his face painted on the bot-
•; -° pool of The Edison for posterity. "Christopher
k T r7�RT ` z tom of the
4 �' l Co-
'l. lumbus was a great developer, and so is Gerry Sanchez,'
• �" —_~ r he says,gently twisting history.
l'
11,« k re-dating Disney, deco
blended elements of ancient
Nautical narcissism: Hot-shot developer Gerry Sanchez had his big face Egypt with the sleek lines of
mosaicked on the bottom of the pool at The Edison Hotel.Right,Memphis
meets Miami in the Tropics Restaurant in The Edison Hotel, designed by the machine age.
Victor farinas.
scenes there's a battle raging for the beach. On one side, a
uys
few historically conscious developers
to ave formed return the arrtndeo and tthesbad starts oefuzztAs line
gentrbetween
ifiers like the
Sanchezood con-
con-
buildings likely
alliance with former splendor;
is to fix
buildings s theirare
only the bottom line, would anderutthlessllydturinn g thebultngs, they long-time aesidre enotsalthe eldersing -
rather
whose eyesd are fixed on y _
with raze paradise, pave it with parking lots and cram it pie figure e into refugees.
schemehen s Sanchezked re the gliblyald peo-
tolld me
n
with high-rises.swere Thesides were drawn in 1975 when
loae r New York ad- henthwith ore
a wolf'splenty
grin,vacant
rolled his eyes �p tothebeach.
blue
led by Barbara Capitman, a 67-yearplace,"he said.
vertising copywriter, founded the Miami Beach Design skies:"Or maybe they'll go to a better
t Those
to landmark oneLeague.
Together with
deco buildings in Sogut�h nothing newo know on an island where the cash thateach know speculation
hast always
landmark one square mile of o
Beach as a National Historic District. I
her
been and where dreams
been turned
came true and apstarted making big pas. "Weinmoney-makng fantasies. They also know that respect
had a vision of a mixed where
for 1Pralve little future, because
could cat with atourists andpeoPlfamatin in MprBehhistory began onlyyesterday
America," she says. "We imagined
rl
ice cream stands, juice the BOdeanto9build poradaeein millionaire,
mosquito-infested tFischer,
n-
bars,dances under the stars and a return to romance.' of
But visionwstarted tg sour °dila dilapidated deco years later yrove swamp a few miles years, he dredged the swamp and builtrup the tbayl bottom,
when she and her two sons bought two P
cashl The hea ondThe butChitlale.snagey whenethe banks, eenough ach last grain oforting l sand.Sospindly
n 35 mcoconut long Mi mitees to
Beach
h to rebuild the hotels, exclusively playground
who hod written off South Beach
as thehmphroughotheielean foreaheer�hbA signvrecentlytuncovered inoa restoration on
area, refused to grant loans
yeyrs. Just as their hotels were starting to catch fire, bank- Espanola Way expressed the town's ugly sentiment toward
ruptcy forced the Capitmans to board up their doors. atm' ;
Development in the district reached a standstill until �` �. .'t a,
Gerry Sanchez, a Cuban-born,New York-based building
restorer, hit town two years ago. Learning from Capitman's :
, ),, , .. . .,,, ., . ,., .., .„, ,,, . . , ,.._ . ,.%
, .
, . HE ;� STRANO
4 , '
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Moll s well that ends well Guillermo Gon,cilr'" jewelry de-
signer (left), and Juan Valdez., co.owner of the '50s furniii
store, So Be It. located on Lincoln Road Mali Gonrales, wh
__"rd__ "Lincoln Moll was suppose,
__. • studio is across the street, says,
( i revive the arts community that moved to Coconut Grove ye
Ill
Mi.. .►.►►►►►►►►►►►►u .►►l.►►ib.t.►►►► ago The rents went up there, so Beach Now ttx,i Bits ore going up here re moving bock to
The Strand Restaurant:where the elite meet to eat.
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