1675-8 Royal Palm Groove \,) (5C-2.1
ROYAL PALM RENOVATION PLANNED 10/22/1992
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1992, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, October 22, 1992 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS NE PAGE: 12 LENGTH: 40 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DAVID KIDWELL Herald Staff Writer
ROYAL PALM RENOVATION PLANNED
A California investor plans to spend upwards of $15 million to renovate
and expand the historic Royal Palm Hotel at 1545 Collins Ave.
Renovations to the 1939 hotel include a 12, 000-square-foot health club, a
Turkish bath, a roof-top recreation area with a swimming pool and a 15-story
addition behind the existing hotel, under plans approved last week by the
city's Design Review Board.
Architect Les Beilinson said his employer, Mchelle Antonn Jiracek, has a
contract to purchase the hotel, but would not discuss the price. Jiracek,
whose address is listed in Malibu, Calif. , could not be reached for comment.
The eight-story, 123-room Royal Palm would be enlarged to 250 rooms.
Arthur Unger, whose family has owned the Royal Palm since it was built 53
years ago, said his first concern is to make sure the hotel is not demolished.
"It's like a member of my family, " Unger said. "We want to make sure the
building is still there. We are preservationists. "
But Unger expressed sadness at the scale of the proposed development.
"I have mixed emotions, " he said. "Our wish is that it be fully renovated
and opened as a first-class hotel, but an operation at this level changes the
quaintness of the hotel, the homeyness we have now."
Although Unger would not discuss whether he had a contract on the
property, he said employees and annual guests at the hotel would be taken care
of.
"Some of those guests have been there since I was born, " Unger said.
"It's the same with the employees. They are all like members of my family. "
Unger said part of his motivation to take action on the property now was
a city plan targeting that block for a convention headquarters hotel
development.
The plan calls for partial demolition of the Royal Palm, Shorecrest and
Bancroft hotels to make room for a larger hotel development. "By doing this
now, we set the tone for future development, " Unger said.
Beilinson said he did not know of a schedule for the renovation project,
but "we're working diligently to get it off the ground. ".
TAG: 9206050777
18 of 45, 17 Terms
mh ROYAL PALM HOTEL 04/21/1988
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1988, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, April 21, 1988 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 14 LENGTH: 53 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Max Blaustin with ROYAL PALM HOTEL owner Artie
Unger
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: STEVE ROTHAUS Herald Staff Writer
MEMO: COVER STORY
ommommmommr. alio
•
ROYAL PALM HOTEL
BRINGS BACK PAST
Less than seven miles away from the Harbor Island Spa is Miami Beach's
Royal Palm Hotel. Built in 1939 by Joseph Rose at 1545 Collins Ave., the hotel
was once "glamorous, " said grandson Artie Unger.
Today it is the permanent home to about 25 elderly Jews. The dining room
is kosher. The card room has become a makeshift synagogue.
"The men die before the women, " said Unger. "It's hard to get a minion. "
The Royal Palm's other 100 rooms are rented to tourists. The top rate is
$85 a night, including three meals.
Unger, his wife, Laine, and friends Michael Milberg and Tina Gaber, began
running the hotel shortly before Rose's death in 1984.
The clientele hasn't changed much during the years, Unger said.
"They didn't stop coming in. They got older, " he said.
In the Royal Palm's heyday, 80 employees were needed to run the hotel.
Today, Unger employs 40.
He and his family have invested $400,000 in the last four years improving
the Royal Palm. Another $500, 000 is needed.
Much of the money has gone to restoring what Unger's grandfather had
covered up in the name of modernization.
The original high Art Deco ceilings had been covered with drop ceilings.
The 1930s keystone and glass front desk was hidden by Formica.
Unger has torn the hotel apart. He removed the garish red wallpaper that
lined the walls. Two years ago, he unearthed a long-forgotten fountain out
front.
Joseph Rose probably wouldn't like the restoration, his grandson said.
"He took everything that was Art Deco and made it modern."
The last several years haven't been the Royal Palm's best.
"The horrible years 1986 and 1987 have created a horrible 1988, " said
Unger, a certified public accountant.
Much of that time was spent battling Miami Beach and the owners of the
Poinciana Hotel next door.
Before the Poinciana was torn down earlier this year, it became a haven
for bums and rodents, driving away Unger's regular customers. They took rooms
at other hotels, he said.
With the Poinciana gone, some regular guests are calling Unger, asking if
he would "mind" if they came back.
Nothing would make him happier.
"We didn't take over to make money, " said Unger. "We bought it from
grandfather's estate just to keep the tradition alive. "
TAG: 8801290033
26 of 45, 26 Terms
mh OWNERS WANT TO RAZE DERELICT HOTEL 11/29/1987
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1987, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, November 29, 1987 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 3 LENGTH: 57 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Artie UNGER
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DAVID HANCOCK Herald Staff Writer
OWNERS WANT TO RAZE DERELICT HOTEL
The Poinciana Hotel -- a gutted, seven-story villa for vagrants on
South Beach -- may be razed because of a suit filed by an irate neighbor.
Owners of the 48-year-old hotel at 1555 Collins Ave. have agreed to tear
it down. The Beach Historic Preservation Board will consider granting the
demolition permit at its Dec. 17 meeting.
In May, Artie Unger, owner of the neighboring Royal Palm Hotel, won a
$604, 000 judgment against the Antun Corp. , the Colombian corporation that owns
the Poinciana.
Unger successfully argued that the vagrants, rats, garbage and other
byproducts of the derelict hotel hurt business at his kosher hotel, which
caters to an elderly clientele that often stays throughout the winter season.
"People see the problems last year, and it's affected in your income with
people not returning," Unger said.
The Royal Palm, 1545 Collins Ave. , has been operated by the Unger family
since Unger's grandfather, Joseph Rose, built it in 1939.
"In 1939, it was the Fontainebleau of Miami Beach, " Unger said.
In addition to the cash award by the court -- which is being appealed by
the Antun Corp. -- the Poinciana's owners were ordered to improve conditions
at the hotel.
Unger returned to court in early November complaining that conditions had
not improved: vagrants still prowl the hotel floors, pool water is still
stagnant and mice still scamper over
from the Poinciana to horrify guests at the Royal Palm.
Faced with continuing litigation, Antun Corp. president Antonio Jaar
decided to raze the hotel, said his lawyer, Gary Phillips. The agreement was
filed Nov. 20 with Dade Circuit Judge Sidney Shapiro.
There are no immediate plans for the property, Phillips said.
Neisen Kasdin, Unger's lawyer, said the suit marks a precedent in Miami
Beach, where more than 140 buildings are empty.
"It serves as an example to property owners that they should take care of
their properties, " he said. "They shouldn't let neighbors bear the
consequences."
Because the Poinciana is within the city's historic district, the
11-member Historic Preservation Board must decide whether to approve the
demolition. If the board disapproves, it can delay demolition for six months.
Kasdin said the Poinciana isn't worth saving.
"The Poinciana is not an outstanding piece of architecture, " Kasdin said.
"It has created a number of problems that were far more serious than the
effects of the demolition."
Preservation board member Doris Meyers said she thinks the board will
probably approve the demolition permit
"I don't see any tremendous significance to the building, " Meyers said.
"Given its condition, perhaps it's better that it's gone.
But Meyers said she worries about property owners who buy buildings in
the historic district and allow them to deteriorate until demolition becomes
desirable.
"We call that demolition-by-neglect syndrome. "
TAG: 8703300872
30 of 45, 15 Terms
mh GOING KOSHER 07/12/1987
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1987, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, July 12, 1987 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 10 LENGTH: 118 lines
ILLUSTRATION: color photo: Russell Martoccio (KOSHER) ; Ralph Glixman
(JEW*) , Eric Jacobs (KOSHER) , Asher Z. Zwebner (KOOSHER) ,
Alex Gemedy (JEW*)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: STEPHEN SMITH Herald Staff Writer
MEMO: COVER STORY
GOING KOSHER
When Rabbi Ralph Glixman goes to the Fontainebleau Hilton, he leaves the
blowtorch at home.
"Instead of blowtorches, they just went and bought brand new," Glixman
said, "and brand new doesn't need to be blowtorched, Thank God."
Thank God, indeed.
And thank the Fontainebleau's owners too, rabbi. They're the ones who
spent $2 million to make the new kosher kitchen that in one day can serve as
many as 10,000 meals in cavernous ballrooms, some with 19 times as much space
as the typical house.
There are blue and white Kosher plates, there are cream pitchers
emblazoned with the word kosher, there are shimmering kosher freezers and
dishwashers.
But there is no holy war being waged among the concrete of Collins
Avenue, no sense of a neophyte Goliath, the Fontainebleau, trying to slay the
Davids down the street, the old-time kosher hotels.
That's because, say the people who run the hotels, we're not comparing
latkas to latkas. We' re comparing latkas to blintzes.
The Fontainebleau angles for the big conventions and big spenders, while
the old-line kosher hotels rely on guests who stay longer and come back year
after year.
"I know my guests, " said Artie Unger, whose family owns the Royal Palm
Hotel, 1545 Collins Ave. "When she doesn't look right, I say, 'What's wrong,
Sadie?'
"They're not going to be able to do that at the Fontainebleau."
But the Fontainebleau can do this: serve thousands of convention and
banquet guests certified kosher meals from separate meat and dairy kitchens
overseen by a Mashgiach and his assistants.
Rabbi Glixman does the overseeing at the Fontainebleau, making sure
nobody breaches the kitchens, opened six weeks ago and used only for kosher
cooking.
In theory, that means he assures the dietary laws prescribed in the Torah
are followed, that meat and milk never mix, that food from an animal with a
cloven hoof never enters.
In practice, that means he assures the steel grates separating the
kitchens from the rest of the hotel are locked every night, that the right
kind of detergent is used on the dishes, that a towel used in another part of
the hotel isn't used in the kosher kitchens.
"If someone were to break that lock, that means I have to re-kosher this
kitchen, " Glixman said. "Fine, that's OK. That just means I have to come in
with the blowtorches, the boiling water."
Make no mistake -- this is no exercise in religious dogmatism. This is
old-fashioned secular marketing. The Fontainebleau saw a potential market and
decided to go after it.
It is a market of at least 550, 000, stretching from Dade through Broward
and Palm Beach counties. The Jewish population in Dade started skidding
downward in mid-1970s and while that continued into the 1980s, it slowed, said
Ira Sheskin, an associate professor of geography at the University of Miami.
About 250,000 Jews live in Dade, and while the Jewish population plummeted by
23,000 on South Beach from 1981-85 it grew by 12, 000 in Northeast Dade.
And in the counties to the north, the Jewish population is growing
exponentially.
The smaller, older kosher hotels lining Collins could handle bar mitzvahs
for 100, maybe a wedding reception for 200. But forget the convention with
2,000 people who want a kosher breakfast, lunch and dinner.
"This is Miami, Miami Beach, " said Herb Rodriguez, the Fontainebleau's
catering director. "It's that population that's keeping us. We don't depend on
Northerners coming here to throw parties."
Nor do the people at the Raleigh Hotel. Asher Z. Zwebner bought the
hotel, 1777 Collins Ave., a year and a half ago, a place in decline and
looking for a new identity after being sold on the courthouse steps.
The new identity was an old Beach identity, but one that could still sell
space in the 126-room hotel.
"There are a lot of young couples from North Miami Beach, where they
don't have a beach, and they stay here for a couple of weeks, " said Zwebner,
sitting in an office overwhelmed with papers and brochures. A calendar on the
wall from a funeral home reads, "Tradition. It's what makes us Jews."
The phone buzzes. He pauses. The conversation alternates between Yiddish
and English, ending up with the cry, "Have a good Shabbas. "
He goes on, talking about the guests who have discovered the Raleigh: "We
have people coming here from Coral Springs, nice big homes. I'm talking about
nice, professional Jewish people. They were under the impression, you walk out
the door on Miami Beach, you get mugged right away, you get murdered, you get
raped. It isn't so. "
Zwebner said he has spent $1 million on the hotel, coating the lobby and
dining room in you-can't-miss-it mauve. He has started programs for the old
and the young. He has gone after a market Jewish and Latin, giving both three
kosher meals a day.
There is more to be done, he said, more to learn.
That much Eric Jacobs has learned in the 15 years since he bought the
hotel at 2469 Collins Ave. , renamed it the Tarleton and made it kosher. His is
still a strictly kosher facility, one that unlike the Raleigh hasn't strayed
much into the European or South American markets.
"If you take the kosher crowd and you take the European crowd and you mix
them with the South American crowd, well . . . , " Jacobs said. "How do I tell
the guy from the UK who was born on cigarettes that he can't have his butt
because it's Shabbas?"
So he keeps going after the same market that has made him a living for
the past 15 years, even as Dade's tourism leaders strike out more and more for
the European and Latin American traveler. Jacobs stays confident. So, too,
Zwebner and Unger.
Their confidence grows even with the opening of the Fontainebleau's
kosher kitchens. Not even Doral on the Ocean feels threatened. Doral has no
kosher kitchen and no plans to build one, a spokesman said.
"I think if we were to put in one it would saturate the market, " said
Jeff Abbaticchio, public relations director of Dorals of Florida. "Anything
that happens on the Beach in a positive manner is good for all of us. I think
Miami Beach realized if we don't all band together and help each other out,
we're all going to sink."
Rabbi Glixman views all of this in a more philosophical glow. He talks of
people finding their roots, of looking for meaning. And that can mean kosher.
"A person does have to belong, because if you don't belong you have
nothing, " the rabbi said. "With the vicissitudes of life, with wondering
whether we're going to blow ourselves up, you've got to have some anchor.
"While we're alive today, believe me, we' re walking through the valley of
death."
TAG: 8702210545