1675-19 New Hotels ❑ mh94 LOEWS WINS BATTLE TO BUILD BEACH HOTEL 07/22/1994
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1994, The Miami Herald
DATE: Friday, July 22, 1994 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 1C LENGTH: 65 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: ANTHONY FAIOLA Herald Business Writer
LOEWS WINS BATTLE TO BUILD BEACH HOTEL
Soon to be towering 16 stories over the sands of South Beach, a curvaceous
new landmark hotel meant to turn back the clock on Dade County tourism.
The 830-room Loews Hotel Miami Beach, of a scope and grandeur not seen on
this oceanside town in more than two decades, won a fierce contest Thursday
before city commissioners for more than $70 million in city incentives.
The hotel would become Dade's second largest after the 1,266-room
Fontainebleau Hilton on Miami Beach. Construction is slated to begin early
next year, and should be completed in 1997. The commission also voted
unanimously to begin negotiations for up to $10 million in loans to help build
a 265- room Sheraton Suites Resort proposed by four Miami black businessmen.
The measure was part of Miami Beach's promise to lure a black hotelier to the
island after the end of Dade's black tourism boycott.
"This is a historic moment for Miami Beach," Mayor Seymour Gelber said
after unanimous votes on both projects. "We've suffered through some bad
times, but if anything is a sign of our new prosperity, this is."
The Loews Hotel, a blue and white modern deco palace, will be situated on
a city-owned oceanfront site at 16th Street and Collins Avenue. The project,
which incorporates a renovation of the historic St. Moritz Hotel, is expected
to buoy the island's vast but money-losing convention center.
The next step: City-hired negotiators begin crafting a final contract
with the winning partnership between the 14- property Loews chain, controlled
by the powerful Tisch Family of New York, and Forest City Ratner Cos., a huge
real estate developer led by the Ratner family of Cleveland. In addition to
the city's incentives, the group also needs to line up additional financing to
complete the $165.7 million project.
If for some reason those negotiations break down, waiting in the wings
will be the other finalists: No. 2 Peabody Hotels and No. 3 Hyatt Hotels.
"This is the foundation for a new era in Miami Beach tourism," said
Jonathan Tisch, Loews president. The Tisch family developed the Americana
Hotel, now the Sheraton Bal Harbour. The Ratners built the Clevelander Hotel
on Ocean Drive.
"The Tisch and the Ratners have returned to Miami Beach at a time when
the world has rediscovered it," Tisch said. "This a major statement that the
beach is back."
Of the three finalists, the Loews proposal demanded the most from the
city -- $70.8 million in loans, land and a parking garage. It also took the
longest to return the money -- 25 years, compared to five to ten for the other
two. However, in the end, commissioners based their decisions on appreciation
for the sublime design of the Loews building, and faith in the corporate
history of the Tisch and Ratner families.
"It's a project that would respect the neighborhood in what has become
the popular place for the world, " said Nancy Liebman, Miami Beach
commissioner. "A unique blending of the old and new, it contains a sense of
scale that respects the historic nature of this community."
The new black-owned hotel, to be constructed directly south of the Loews
project, calls for the renovation of the Royal Palm and Shorecrest hotels, and
construction of a hotel tower fronting the ocean. The project is being put up
by four local entrepreneurs: American Express Vice President Peter J. Calin,
Texaco attorney Jerry D. Bailey, Miami investor Marvin Holloway and Eugene
Ford Jr., chief executive of Miami-based Argus Construction.
On Thursday, along with the vote, came a flurry of hopes that the two
hotels would help spark new era in the region's stagnant hotel industry.
"The key is not today, but tomorrow, and the long term impact this is
going to have on the town, " said Stu Blumberg, president of the Miami Beach
Hotel Resort Association, who built the last major hotel on Miami Beach, the
Hilton Plaza (now the Castle Beach) back in 1967.
TAG: 9402200118