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MARICE COHN BAND/HERALD FILE
MADE HOTEL A HOT SPOT:Ian Schrager,owner of the
Delano Hotel on South Beach,renovated the property in 1995.
Hotelier Ian Schrager
still sold on the Beach
BY BARBARA De LOLLIS Zecha is doing on Collins
bdelollis@herald.com Avenue and 20th Street.
Zecha is building the five-star
It has been five years since Setai hotel—and selling cont
Ian Schrager transformed the dominiums to buyers willing
Delano Hotel from Dilapi- to pay big bucks for the e
dated Deco to Instant Scene. Zecha touch.
With its white gauze cur- "I have a tremendous :
tain walls,40-foot mahogany amount of respect for Adrian
doors,Dali-esque furniture,a Zecha,4 Schrager said."He's:
Honey,I Shrunk the Kids one of the few people in the
decor,and fabulously famous business who I really a
guests,the Delano,at 16th respect." .
Street and Collins,remains Schrager owns eight prop„
the crowd-pleaser.No matter erties in New York,London,:
Madonna throws her parties Los Angeles and Miami.
elsewhere.No matter compe- Another two are underway in
tition's Santa Monica and San Fran-.,.
THE springing cisco.Yet Miami remains
up all over near and dear for the Brook-.
South lyn native.Eight years ago,ht
QDICK Beach. married Rita Narona,a ;•
"We'll Cuban-American from
run out of Miami and former dancer
al-TAland and with the New York City Bal-
TAKE
KE run out of let.They have two daughters.
space
before we SOUTH FLORIDA TIES
IAN run out ofSchrager's roots here pre.
SCHRAGER ideas as to date the Delano.
how to "I've been coming to '.
improve it,"the 54-year-old Miami since the 1950s.I •:
Schrager said on his cell- understand its moods.I've
phone the other day from the seen its booms and busts.I :
backseat of a chauffeured think what's happening now:
limousine in New York. is incredibly exciting."
"We're in the entertainment Schrager's parents moved
business" the family down here from
These days,as Schrager Brooklyn in 1963 when he
expands his hotel empire to was 16,and graduated from
Europe,he entertains the Miami Beach High.He stud-;
thought of opening another ied law at Syracuse Univer- y —
site in Miami.He's had sev- sity,but set aside his young s
eral hotels under contract law career in 1977,when he o
over the years,from the Eden got together with college 'z.
Roc to the National,but churn Steven Rubell.The du§
backed away. bought an old television the-
"Hook look at every single deal ater in mid-town New York
that comes forward on Miami and invented the quintessen-
Beach,"he said."I may be a tial party scene.They called
little spoiled because we it Studio 54.
went and purchased the Schrager and Rubell cre-
Delano for$3 million in 1993. ated a larger-than-life image
We went down there when for their dance room that
Miami Beach was virtually attracted celebrities and the
vacant." rich and famous.They hand-
Today,South Beach is far picked people to walk
from vacant.It's on the map, through the doors at$10 a
and several former Schrager- pop,adding to the mystique.
ites have contributed to the Then in 1979,Internal
scene.Jonathan Morr,for Revenue Service agents
instance,opened Townhouse raided the disco,finding
Hotel on 20th Street.The nearly$1 million stashed in
competition doesn't keep the bags hidden in the ceiling of
man who invented the bou- the office.The club closed
tique hotel concept awake the following year,and
nights. Schrager and Rubell were
"I don't define any new sentenced to three years in
hotel as competition,but as jail.They served one year at
increasing the critical mass the Maxwell Federal Prison
which we desperately need Camp in Montgomery,Ala.
on Miami Beach." Rubell died in 1989 of AIDS.
`SURPRISE'IN WORKS
Jail was a lonely and humili-
ating experience,he told The
Schrager won't say what's Independent of London. •
next beyond a cryptic com- In the next two weeks,
ment."I may pull a surprise." meanwhile,Schrager will fly
Sources in the business hear back to sunny Florida,scout-
he's interested in a new con- ing deals and schmoozing
cept:a condo-hotel.The with friends.
celeb hotelier admires what Where will he stay?
ultra-luxury hotelier Adrian "Where do you think?"
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