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1616-68 Various Miami Beach r A RESORTS /MO I J; I Loewsi c to pay ■ ■ : tallill 1 Beach . ' $ ■The Loews hotel will pay back$28 million on Miami Beach's$60 million investment,which officials credit with having created a resort renaissance in the city and throughout the region. BY DOUGLAS HANKS III dhanks aherald.corn The Loews hotel plans to pay $28 million to buy out Miami Beach's share in the partnership that built the oceanfront resort six years ago, a venture that cost the city nearly $60 million, city offi- cials said Tuesday. The hotel's 1996 lease with the city sets a value of$24 million for the city-owned land,based on the appreciation schedule written into the deal. The lease's pricing for- mula would add $4 million to the purchase price this year,based on the hotel's profit. The price becomes available to Loews on Dec. 1 and represents a deep discount for one of the region's choicest pieces of real estate, at 16th Street and Collins Avenue. Property-tax records show the hotel valued at more than 'TURN TO LOEWS,4C •MORE ONLINE:TO SEE LOEWS'STOCK QUOTES,GO TO WWW.HERALD.COM/ BUSINESS AND ENTER LTR IN THE SEARCH FIELD L aauu 011 _..... wnere they could be done." RESORTS Loews to •buy out Miami Beach •LOEWS,FROM 1C inside and outside the new Dermer said.Others,he said, didn't treat us equally." hotel, sprucing up the will make the case that "you Miami Beach could use the $90 million. • grounds, the ballroom and had one of the prime pieces of bulk of the $28 million from But city officials note that other common areas. The land on the Eastern Seaboard" Loews to pay off its debt on the steep appreciation Beach had been struggling to and that hotels "were lining the bonds,which amounts to occurred,in large part,thanks rent out its convention center up to do it." ut$19.8 lon,or it coud to the Loews venture. It was because there was no nearby Miami Beach funded the cont nue paying about $1.8 the first large hotel to go up in hotel capable of housing large land purchase with $25 mil- . million a year in loan pay- Miami Beach in 30 years and business groups. lion in bonds, and 10 years ments on the bonds and spend has been credited with help- The 790-room Loews after the bonds were issued, the $28 million on other ing to launch a building boom Miami Beach and, soon after Loews had the option of pay- things, Walker said. of resort properties that lured that,the 417-room Royal Palm ing market price for the city The buyout will end the the Four Seasons, Ritz-Carl- Crowne Plaza Resort were land. After that, e$24 ton and other marquee chains the two subsidized hotels lion price for the propeerrty city, revenue ba ednon to the profit to the area. designed to ease the Beach's kicked in. The 10-year mark and that hit a high-water mark "There's a huge economic conventioneer squeeze.Both arrives Dec.1,and the buyout last year of$23 million. stimulus with this project. It projects drew criticism for deal would close Dec.2. City was an amazing deal," said funding private ventures with The Royal Palm also has a Smith, ho was not Iin office Patricia Walker,Miami Beach public dollars — and Loews' buyout option,but developer when the original lease was finance director. decision to exercise its pur- R. Donahue Peebles com- negotiated, said he saw the She estimated that the chase option is bound to plained Tuesday that he was Loews venture as a stimulus, Loews has paid about$23 mil- revive questions about the required to pay back all of the not a revenue source. lion in taxes and rent to the deals. $10 million the city invested "While you "can wonder city since the hotel's 1998 "You'll have people tell in the Royal Palm opening. you it was worth it as a stimu- [about] the specificslfwhat of the Miami peach "The city did the right Loews deal itself, was it paid $21.7 lant for tourism, for other thing with the Loews deal," the city was trying to accom- million to buy the Loews site hotels opening in the area," Peebles said of the Miami plish 10 years ago?"he asked. and spent another$38 million Miami Beach Mayor David Beach subsidy. "They just It was an economic deal."