1674-3 N.B.T. Roney RoneHote1
BuilderDies'/'
•,In 72nd Year
Pioneer Played
�. Stellar Role In
'I( Area's Develo nt •
C By JACK ANDE .ON
Herald Staff Writer
p , e on Baker Taylor Ron
fneer wbo playe ase art
prole in the fabulous story of!
11Miami and Miami Beach, died!
Monday morning in Philadel-i
liphia. He was 71.
eI Mr. Roney, builder of the famedi
t{Roney Plaza and other hotels of
i Miami Beach, was fatally stricken i
I by a heart ailment in his and Mrs.'
Roney suite at the Barclay
Hotel.,: p 9 -
They were.visit 1 g�1't4iladel•
phia before returning for the
winter to Miami Beach where
they made their home at 1401
N. View dr., Sunset Island No.
1. They had spent August at
i i Spring Lake, N.J.
a Mr. Roney's death brings. to a
close one of those traditionally
American careers. He got his bus-
t: Ines:: start in life as a newsboy
t in Camden, N.J. He ended up as a
millionaire.
r A shrewd businessman with a
a golden touch, Mr. Roney rode the
crest of South Florida's real es-
0 tate boom of the middle '20s. He
pyramided building and real es-
tate );peculation into millions of
dollars.
In six and a half hours on a
day in 1925 when the boom was
at its height he and James M.Cox
of Ohio made$4,645,000 in the sale
of 530 lots on the oceanfrom
north of Golden Beach.
This fast financial footwork
was characteristic of the soft
spoken, slightly built Mr. Ron.
ti ey. lie had built a fortune in
I I Camden before he ever set foot
o in Florida.
Ii
h His youthful intention ha
1,,been to practice law and at th
of age of 17 he landed his first jo
sa after his newsboy days in a Can
den law office at $2.50 a weel
at He was admitted to the New Je-
w,sey bar -t 21.
`.a But he got interested in buil,
de Turn to Page 9.A, Col. t
ju
ha:+
It was this talent which en-
abled him with Cox to carry
throug their multi-million coup
with those north beach lots only
^0 days before the entire real
In Phil ><in
New Roney Dies,
Beach Hotel Builder
•
,5",,,ffnued from Page 1 Gertrude C. Roney,and his daugh-
ter who with her husband and
ing and real estate and while two children live in Plainfield,
still in his 20's tossed aside his N.J.
law career to follow a calling
Services will be at 2 p.in.
for which he seemed to have a
genius for success. Wednesday at the Oliver II. Bair
l' neral home in Philadelphia.
Mr. Roney became interested in urial will be in Harleigh ceme-
Camden politics, and that city's rv, Camden, N. J.
present form of city government --
was the result of a series of po-i
litical fights headed and financed
by him.
He had first visited Florida in
/909 on a trip to Cuba. His sharp!
eyed appraisal of this area's fu-
ture possibilities brought him
back here to live in 1917.
The•young Camden new-
comer struck the first of many
bonanzas in Miami in 1918
when he bought and sold at a
handsome profit the old Islser
pier property at the foot of
Hagler street.
For the next seven years Mr.
Roney did what many Greater Mi-
amians wished years later they
had done—bought street corners
in Miami and Miami Beach when
they could he had for "peanuts."
. One corner, where Burdine's
now stands, he got for $210,000
and later sold for $1,000,000. Five
oceanfront lots bought for $16,-
000 in his first Miami Beach ven-
ture later sold for $150,000.
Mr. Roney started his build-
ing operation In 1920. By 1923
he had built and owned 200
shop units on Collins ave. be. ,
tween Third and 23rd sts. He
built the Spanish Village, a col-
lection of 18 buildings on Fs.
panola way, and some eight ho-
tels.
The climax to his building ac-
tivity was the great Roney Plaza II
Hotel In 1925, then and still one
of the show places of the area.'
Ile sold controlling interest In the
hotel in 1933 to the late Henry
L. Doherty. Iie disposed of many
of his other hotel holdings that
same year.
Much of Mr. Roney's success is
attributed by those who knew him`
well to an uncanny sense of land I
ivalues. One Miami Beach official
(described him as "one of the great
judges of land values this country
has even seen." I;
It was this talent which en- i
abied him with Cox to carry
throug their multi-million coup]
with those north beach lots only
30 days before the entire real'
estate boom began to bust.
Mr. Roney had been semi-
retired since the early '40s. lie
maintained an office at 605 (
Lincoln Road, largely to admin-
later his properties and those of
his wife and daughter, Mrs. Ed-
win J.Fitzpatrick.
He was a member of the Baths
and Indian Creek Clubs but be.'
cause of 111 health had not been ;
otherwise active in social or civic
matters. He resigned two years
ago as a trustee of the University
of Miami, an office he had held.
for about three years.
His survivors are his wife, Mrs.
1