1614-4 Various Miami Beach SUN JUL 08 1984 ED: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1B LENGTH: 16 . 60" MEDIUM
ILLUST: photo: Residents outside The Senator, a Deco district
hotel
SOURCE: By PAUL SHANNON Herald Staff Writer
DATELINE:
MEMO: ran lA in the FRST
SIX ART DECO HOTELS FACING RENOVATION
Royale Group Ltd. officials said Saturday six Art Deco- style hotels the
company owns on Miami Beach are set for a multi-million dollar renovation.
Royale secured a $13.5 million loan to pay for the planned renovations --
which include painting and refurbishing in the original Art Deco style -- and
to pay creditors, according to Barry Seidel, an attorney for Royale.
Overdue tax payments and a $500, 000 lawsuit will be settled, Seidel
said. The overdue taxes were left unpaid by the former owner, Art Deco Hotels
Inc . , and the suit was filed in early June after Sunset Commercial Bank said
the former owners had not repaid a loan.
The settlements clear the way for renovations planned by Royale.
Saturday, company representatives gave differing accounts of how the
renovation project will proceed.
Two company employees contacted originally said the six buildings at the
heart of the Beach ' s Art Deco district would be closed for renovation,
resulting in the moving of some tenants and the layoffs of some employees. But
an attorney for the company, Martin Bell of New York, later contacted The
Miami Herald to disavow what the officials had said.
He said the buildings will be renovated, but that it was premature to
discuss any issues related to renovation. He said only three Royale officials
were authorized to speak for the company and they were unavailable for
comment. "I don' t believe the company has a final, definitive plan -- soup to
nuts, " Bell said.
The three persons associated with the company who spoke to The Herald
were Royale Vice President Keith Swenson, Royale Administrator Bonnie Lynn and
Seidel, who is an associate in the Miami office of Bell ' s law firm.
Swenson said the hotels would be closed as the first step in the
project, which would include converting apartments in some buildings back to
hotel rooms. "The object is to get them done before the next winter season. "
The hotels are: The Carlyle and Cardozo, both at the corner of 13th
Street and Ocean Drive;The Cavalier, 1320 Ocean Dr. ; Leslie, 1244 Ocean Dr. ;
The Senator, 1201 Collins Ave. ; and The Victor, 1144 Ocean Dr.
Swenson said the elderly tenants left in the Senator Hotel would be
moved to the Oceanfront Apartments, 1236 Ocean Dr. , a Royale building that is
not part of the renovation project.
"In the context of what will be happening in South Beach . . . I think
there probably is going to be a tremendous amount of movement, " Swenson said.
Lynn also said the hotels would close for renovation. She said some
employees would be laid off. "If your hotels are closed, you don' t need all
those employees, " Lynn said.
Bell said Lynn and Swenson later denied to him making the statements to
The Herald. Neither of them could be reached after Bell called The Herald
Saturday.
The Royale Group, formerly was known as Cavanagh Communities Corp. , a
major Florida real estate developer until it sold most of its holdings to buy
Atlantic City casino-zoned land.
Royale then bought the seven Miami Beach hotels from financially
troubled Art Deco Hotels Inc. , a company run by Andrew Capitman, the son of
Art Deco advocate Barbara Capitman, in exchange for stock and assuming $5. 6-
million in mortgages .
Royale officials have said they hope to aim the hotels and the nighclubs
and cafes they have built into some of them toward the young and affluent, a
group characterized as "Yuppies" -- young, upwardly mobile professionals.
ADDED TERMS: cost mb
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