1675-4 Delano DATE: Thursday, August 5, 1993 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 1C LENGTH: 59 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: DELANO HOTEL
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: LARRY BIRGER Business Monday Editor
NEW YORK HOTELIER BUYS DELANO
IN MIAMI BEACH FOR $10 MILLION
One of New York City's hottest hoteliers, whose properties have caught the
attention of the hip younger set, has bought the Art Deco-styled Delano Hotel
just north of Lincoln Road on Miami Beach's oceanfront.
Ian Schrager, whose Manhattan hotels include Morgans, the Royalton and
the Paramount, bought the 238-room Delano, which was built in 1951, in a $10
million deal partially bankrolled by Miami's Ocean Bank.
Schrager, who has said in the past that a glut of New York City hotel
rooms had led him to seek sites elsewhere, acknowledged Wednesday that he
closed on the Delano purchase late last week and would spend as much as $20
million to renovate the property.
Schrager also revealed that he has had "serious discussions" with pop
singer Madonna, who owns a bayfront mansion in Miami, about opening a
restaurant under her name in the hotel. Nothing has been finalized.
"I don't want it to appear that I am trying to use her name to promote
the hotel, " Schrager said. "But I have held serious discussions, and I would
love to have her.
"I think it would be a plus for the hotel and certainly bring us instant
worldwide recognition."
Schrager, who emerged from a tax evasion conviction in 1980 to rule over
a Manhattan hotel empire, said he expects renovation of the Delano, at 1685
Collins Ave. , to last until the third or fourth quarter of 1994.
"We're not interested in doing a face-lift; we plan to restore it to the
glory days when it first opened," said Schrager, adding that as a child in the
late 1950s he had spent winter vacations with his parents in the hotel.
That will include, in all probability, a change in the name -- which
hasn't been decided -- as well as a different decor than the Art Deco look.
"We want to do something that is quintessentially Florida, something
tropical," Schrager said. "But we won't be doing something that was done 50
years ago. I want to do something new, fresh and original."
Simon Cruz, Ocean Bank vice president, said Schrager and the bank had
jointly acquired the land under the hotel for $4.2 million. He said that, in
addition, the bank would lend Schrager the final $7.9 million that will be
needed to rehabilitate the Delano, now closed 3 1/2 years.
"We want to be assured that our money completes the renovation, but we
are keenly interested in Mr. Schrager's success because it will help complete
the reconstruction of Miami Beach, " Cruz said.
The hotel was acquired from Imperial Hotel Co., based in California but
controlled by Italian financier Jean Carlo Perretti. He purchased the hotel
some five years ago but was unable for unknown reasons to refurbish and reopen
the hotel.
Schrager, whose New York company is known as Morgans Hotel Group,
expressed the belief that Miami Beach actually is in the early stages of a
rebirth that will reflect once again the boom years of the 1950s and 1960s.
"It began on South Beach, then it spread to Lincoln Road and then
northward to the Fontainebleau Hotel area, and I think it will happen all over
again," said Schrager, who negotiated for but did not buy the Eden Roc Hotel,
at 45th Street and Collins Avenue, in 1992.