1675-1 Eden Roc mh HOTEL RESTORED TO '50S GLAMOUR 11/19/1999
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1999, The Miami Herald
DATE: Friday, November 19, 1999 EDITION: Final
SECTION: Local PAGE: 5B LENGTH: 66 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: The Eden Roc Hotel (a)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: By PETER WHORISKEY, pjwhoriskey@herald.com
HOTEL RESTORED TO '50S GLAMOUR
Miami Beach's strip of once-glamorous '50s hotels and apartments is under
siege. Two have been demolished in recent months. They're outdated, some
developers say, and as cheesy as big-finned Cadillacs.
But this mind-set may be changing. On Thursday, the Eden Roc hotel, built
in 1955, celebrated the reopening of its lobby, which has been restored to the
original design precisely because the owners believe in the appeal of '50s
swank.
Once upon a time, after all, the Eden Roc was hip. People lined up for
shows by Frank Sinatra, Eartha Kitt, Johnny Carson, Nat King Cole and Barbra
Streisand. Restoring the hotel's original look - an only-in-America,
anything-is-possible collision of modern architecture and Italian Renaissance
- might just be good for business.
"What brought South Beach back to life is the preservation of the Art Deco
hotels - we realize that, " said Randy Griffin, the marketing director for the
hotel. "This is such a classic property; there is a lot of history here, and
you can't buy that new. "
The 349-room hotel was bought in 1998 by New York's Blackacre Capital Group
in partnership with Destination Hotels & Resorts, a Denver company that owns
and manages 23 four-star properties in North America.
RAT PACK MEMORIES
The restoration of the Eden Roc has raised the hopes of a small group of
preservationists who have begun to call for the protection of Miami Beach's
'50s-era hotels and apartments, the legacy of a time when the Rat Pack roamed
Collins Avenue. Despite preservationists' sign-waving, slogan-chanting
rallies, however, developers in recent months have taken down the Bel-Aire and
the Royal York Hotel, two prominent Miami Beach buildings of the time.
The city's leading preservation organization, the Miami Design Preservation
League, praised the Eden Roc effort, noting that the owners of the Sherry
Frontenac have undertaken a similar effort, too.
"It's superb, " said Heidi Siegel, preservation director for the Miami
Design Preservation League. "There has been a lot of attention given to
making it accurate. We hope that other building owners follow their example. "
LAPIDUS HONORED
The hotel's original architect, Morris Lapidus, now 96, was the
guest-of-honor on Thursday. He announced he was "delighted" with the work, a
clear improvement after years of renovations unsympathetic to his original
vision, a blend of freewheeling geometry and historical touches, like the
bronze statues that ring the lobby's sunken ring.
"I didn't like the last renovation, " Lapidus said. "Too colorful. Too
clever. Too gaudy. I didn't do gaudy - I did elaborate. "
In the renovation, the white glossy paint that had been slathered on the
lobby's elephantine oval columns was stripped to reveal the rosewood
originals. Partitions that had closed off a wing of the lobby were removed.
And a clunky baluster that had been clumsily added to a floating staircase has
been replaced with a more elegant glass rail.
The renovation does not, however, recreate the elaborate chandelier that
once dominated the lobby. It would have cost more than $30,000.
"More than anything else, this was about taking out the junk that had been
added over the years, " said Julio Grabiel, a principal of Spillis Candela
DMJM, the Coral Gables architecture firm that did the restoration. The other
members of the design team were Carlos Prio-Touzet, Emilio Bonilla, Carlos
Fleitas and Donna Tew.
Said Grabiel: "We wanted to reveal the original. "
CAPTION: ORIGINAL LOOK: Miami Beach's Eden Roc Hotel as it appeared in the
1950s. The renovation seeks to create the original design, minus the elaborate
chandelier that once dominated the space.
KEYWORDS:
TAG: 9911200325
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mh CLASSIC MIAMI BEACH HOTEL SOLD 12/11/1997
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1997, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, December 11, 1997 EDITION: Final
SECTION: Business PAGE: 1C LENGTH: 47 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: By DALE K. DuPONT Herald Business Writer
CLASSIC MIAMI BEACH HOTEL SOLD
DEAUVILLE WILL
BE RENOVATED
A storied Miami Beach hotel that has played host to guests ranging from The
Beatles to political conventioneers has been sold to a joint venture that
promises to bring back its luster.
The Deauville will be run by the Davidson Hotel Co. and Prudential Real
Estate Investors, which will put more than $15 million into renovations.
That's on top of an estimated purchase price of $30 million for the 544-room
property at 67th Street and Collins Avenue.
"We want to restore it to its old days of glory" and operate it as a
luxury hotel, David Perella, the new general manager of the second-largest
lodging in Miami Beach, said Wednesday.
The Ramada name will stay for a while, but the hotel -- owned for the past
40 years by the Cohen family -- may get a new brand as it goes after more
meeting and local catering business.
The hotel expects to increase the 255-person work force by at least 100
after renovations are completed next November, said Perella, who came from the
Kansas City Airport Hilton.
Memphis-based Davidson manages 28 hotels and is in joint ventures on 10
properties with Prudential, a division of Prudential Insurance that recently
sold the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables and the Miami Airport Hilton. Prudential
also just bought Loehmann's Plaza in Aventura. Davidson's other South Florida
hotel is the Palm Beach Hilton.
"All the major hotel companies have been on the Beach and exploring their
potential opportunities, " said Scott Berman, director of Coopers & Lybrand's
hospitality consulting group in Miami.
The Deauville has had landmark status from the time the original hotel
opened in the mid-1920s, boasting the largest swimming pool in the state.
The pool was the site of the 1938 Olympic diving trials and was preserved
when Sam Cohen rebuilt the hotel in 1957. Cohen, whose sons sold to the joint
venture, at one time owned outright or partial interest in some of the Beach's
other well-known hotels including the Eden Roc, Sherry Frontenac and Sans
Souci.
The Beatles taped their TV premier with Ed Sullivan at the Deauville in
1964, and the Democrats lodged many of their national convention delegates
there in 1972.
Charles Brent, the hotel's director of marketing, said Alan and Joel Cohen
will concentrate on their other Beach properties, the Saxony and the Crown.
TAG: 9712130237
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