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❑ mh A SEA VIEW 12/17/1987
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1987, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, December 17, 1987 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 12 LENGTH: 104 lines
ILLUSTRATION: color photo: Larry Cliff at SEA VIEW HOTEL; photo: Joe
Cela protects guests at the SEA VIEW HOTEL, guests soak up the
sun at the SEA VIEW pool deck, Howard Baker and Robert Strauss
with Bob Dole and Dwayne ANDREAS, SEA VIEW HOTEL
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: RODRIGO LAZO Herald Staff Writer
MEMO: COVER STORY
R
A SEA VIEW
OF
WEALTH AND POWER
Newsweek calls it "a warm-weather redoubt for the wealthy and politically
connected. "
Former Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole owns an apartment
there, where she vacations with her husband, Republican presidential aspirant
Sen. Bob Dole.
Among other regulars at the Sea View are news commentator David Brinkley,
former Democratic national chairman and powerhouse lawyer Robert Strauss, and
White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker.
Yet this is not one of Miami's most expensive hotels. It is the Sea View
Hotel, which from the outside looks about as remarkable as a 14-story
apartment complex and doesn't charge much more than a Holiday Inn.
What draws the wealthy and powerful to this old-fashioned hotel?
Maybe it's the same thing that attracts the North Shore Kiwanis Club,
which sings God Bless America at the Sea View every Tuesday during its
meeting.
"We needed a place we could call home and the Sea View offered us that, "
said Eli Tourgeman, president of the club, which moved to the Sea View more
than two years ago. "The hotel has a lot of old charm," said Tourgeman.
"They treat us with respect."
There may be another reason.
"They choose the Sea View because of the man that owns it, Dwayne
Andreas," said Arthur Courshon, chairman of Jefferson Bank Corp. Andreas is
the chairman and secretary of the Sea View Hotel and chairman of
Archer-Daniels-Midland, an Illinois-based multibillion-dollar company that is
a leading producer of ethanol.
Courshon said Andreas is not one of the reasons the Washington elite are
attracted to the Sea View. "He's the only reason," Courshon said.
"Andreas has been active in politics on both sides for a long time, "
Courshon said. "He invites them down to his place and when they're down here
they like it."
Andreas said most of the people at the Sea View are close friends. "It's
such a small place we all know each other," Andreas said. "It's a homogenous
group."
For more than a week, The Herald tried to contact Dole, Baker, Brinkley
and Strauss. None of them returned calls.
It's not that we're better," said Larry Cliff. "We're different."
Cliff, general manager of the 212-room hotel, said guests enjoy the
European flavor, including chocolate left on top of pillows each evening.
Except for the rooms, the hotel hasn't been remodeled since it opened in 1947.
The grand piano in the lobby is a 110-year-old Chickering with angels
painted underneath its lid.
Aside from the decor, the Sea View is a quiet place for the powerful. The
hotel's brochure describes it as "isolated from too-crowded confusion."
It's a hotel where the famous can go without being pestered by
autograph-seekers, Cliff said.
"Nobody bothers them here," he said. "The majority of people here are not
your transients, in and out. Some stay here as long as two months, three
months. "
The lobby of the Sea View, complete with an imposing chandelier several
feet from the front door, is calm. Unlike other hotels, few people walk around
the lobby.
"It's a quiet hotel," said Bal Harbour Police Chief Robert Baquero. "We
very rarely get a call there. We had a fire there about a year ago and that
was it. "
The entrance to the Sea View is about 300 feet from the street. Someone
driving north on Collins Avenue can pass the hotel without ever knowing it is
there.
Joe Cela, head of security at the Sea View, boasts of the lack of crime
at the hotel. "Nothing has happened in this place for as long as I can
remember, " said Cela, who has been at the hotel six years.
Cela is one of several security people who patrol the hotel. His job also
includes dealing with Secret Service personnel, who often arrive at the Sea
View to look after the powerful.
"I do my thing and they do theirs, " said Cela, who wouldn't elaborate on
what type of security precautions are taken when someone like Dole lounges
around the pool.
In some ways, the Sea View is not much different than other hotels. A
room for two ranges from $48 to $70 a night during off-season and from $86 to
$140 a night during the season. Many European tourists stay at the hotel
during the summer.
Unit owners like the Doles don't actually have a title for their
apartments. Instead they own shares in the hotel, which is a corporation.
Dealing with powerful people is nothing new at the Sea View.
"We've had top-notch people connected with it for years, " Cliff said.
Hubert Humphrey was a regular at the hotel before he died.
Thomas Dewey, former governor of New York and presidential candidate,
owned a unit at the Sea View.
The morning of March 16, 1971, Dewey joined Dwayne Andreas and two other
friends at the Indian Creek Country Club golf course to shoot a few holes.
Dewey played well, the friends later said.
He returned to the Sea View to pack for a trip to Washington.
He was supposed to have dinner with President Richard Nixon at the White
House. Instead, Dewey had a heart attack in his seventh-floor apartment at the
Sea View. It was in a room at the Sea View that Thomas Dewey spent his last
minutes.
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