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❑ mh NEW BLACKSTONE STARS 02/14/1988
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1988, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, February 14, 1988 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 4 LENGTH: 66 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Simon Salter in his apartment at the Blackstone
(SENIOR CITIZEN *)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DAN FROOMKIN Herald Staff Writer
NEW BLACKSTONE STARS
SUBSIDIZED APARTMENTS
The 12-story peach-colored building that looms over South Beach may look
like one of those sparkling renovated yuppie buildings, but it is, in fact, a
sparkling renovated building for the elderly and disabled.
The Blackstone Apartments, 800 Washington Ave. , contains 131 apartments
that are federally subsidized and available only to people who are disabled or
62 and older.
The building reopened last month after a yearlong renovation that brought
back much of the grandeur it had when it opened as the Blackstone Hotel in
1929. Its most recent incarnation was as the King David Manor, a much-maligned
retirement hotel shut down by authorities in 1986.
So far, 40 of Blackstone's 131 apartments are filled. The tenants are
ecstatic. For most of them, the Blackstone's apartments are not only far more
pleasant than where they lived before, they're also a lot cheaper.
Their new homes are classy one- and two-bedroom apartments that are
spacious and airy. The apartments have beige wall-to- wall carpeting, white
walls and full kitchens. The lobby, though not yet furnished, has tile floors,
gold-colored relief sculptures and ornate columns.
Because the apartments are federally subsidized, rent is set at a third
of the tenant's gross income, minus 'a $30 utility subsidy. That means many
tenants are paying between $40 and $100 a month.
Under the terms of a 15-year contract between the Blackstone and the
Miami Beach Housing Authority, the rest of the rent is paid by the federal
government.
Murray Gilman, housing authority director, said that through a federal
formula that assures that developers make a profit on such rehabilitations,
the total amount paid for the one-bedrooms is $550 a month; $683 for the
two-bedrooms.
That means the Blackstone will be collecting considerably more than the
"fair market rent" -- about $440 for a one-bedroom -- paid by the government
in most other subsidized housing.
The Blackstone is owned by Related Companies of Florida. George Perez,
the company's owner, said he bought the hotel for $1.8 million and spent about
$4 million renovating it. "Except for the walls, it's got all new everything,"
said Perez, who also owns the Roney Plaza.
Closed for fire safety violations in 1986, the building now has smoke
alarms and sprinklers at almost every turn. The 250 hotel rooms have been
transformed into 131 apartments.
Simon Salter, 70, moved into the Blackstone two weeks ago. "This was a
godsend for me, " he said. "You should see what I was living in before."
Salter used to live in a run-down, termite-infested South Beach hotel in
a tiny room with appliances that didn't work, he said. He said of his new
home: "I love it. I'll never give it up."
Salter was paying $235 a month for his old room. He's paying $77 a month
for his new apartment.
The Blackstone is unfurnished, posing some problems for Salter and others
who lived in furnished rooms. But Salter got a bed from a friend and found a
table and chest of drawers in an
alley. He's put those in his living room and, with the money he's saving on
rent, expects to buy furniture for the bedroom, too.
Mildred Reale, coordinator of subsidized housing for the Miami Beach
Housing Authority, said too many people have already applied to live at the
Blackstone. But, she said, elderly or disabled people making less than $10,800
a year (single) or $12,300 a year (couple) should still come see her at the
authority's office at 150 Alton Rd. if they are interested.
TAG: 8801120029
13 of 39, 2 Terms
mh DEADLY OFFICIALS CLOSE 'OPEN' HOTEL DOORS 11/20/1983
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1983, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1983 EDITION: NEIGHBORS
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 3 LENGTH: 66 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Abe Mutnick
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: PAUL SHANNON Herald Staff Writer
DEADLY OFFICIALS CLOSE 'OPEN' HOTEL DOORS
On warm nights, the slats in Abe Mutnick's door keep his Collins Avenue
efficiency cool and breezy. Mutnick, 80, refuses to use air conditioning. "I
get more air by using a fan and the door," he said.
A few hotels down, 87-year-old Mitchell Karr enjoys an ocean breeze that
flows into jalousie windows and out the slats in his ventilated door.
"This is a lifesaver, " he said, pointing yo the door. "We can't take the
air conditioning. It makes the room so cold, and we can't take the cold."
Mutnick and Karr are two of the hundreds of retirees South Beach hotel
owners say will be hurt by a fire regulation requiring that the slatted doors,
known as "tropical" doors, be permanently sealed. The doors are a hazard,
according to Beach fire officials. The breeze that flows through them would
help a fire race through a building.
"If there was a fire. . . the smoke and heat would go right through, " said
Beach Fire Chief Ed Walterman. "It adds to the danger of the occupant."
"Nothing is going to burn here. . . We are not using hot plates, " said
Anna Schandler, owner of the Tiffany Hotel, 801 Collins Ave. Esther Wirth, who
operates the Premier Hotel at 745 Collins Ave. with her husband, Sam, said,
"If we have to close the doors we can throw the whole hotel in the garbage. "
Sam Wirth, who could not be reached, and Schandler both have met several
times with city officials to protest the fire regulation.
Wirth already unsuccessfully has challenged the regulation in court.
After being cited for not sealing the doors, Wirth
went to trial. He wrote a letter to Judge Joan A. Stember that read: "This is
an immoral, unlegal (sic) law, a hazard to health for the senior citizens. .
The city, according to Assistant City Attorney Christopher Korge, had to
prove only that a violation occurred and Wirth owned the Premier. He said the
city did not answer Wirth's charge that the regulation should be changed
because it is part of a county code.
"We cannot change it, " he said.
Wirth was found guilty and will be sentenced in mid—January. The penalty
for such code violations normally is a fine or an order to correct violations.
Like many small, South Beach hotels, the Tiffany and the Premier were
built before central air conditioning. They depend on cross ventilation
provided by hallway windows and the tropical doors to keep cool.
Wirth told officials that the sealed doors would make the hotels stuffy
and humid. His elderly tenants would swelter, he has said, because they can't
take air conditioning. "They prefer the tropical door, " Esther Wirth said.
"He has a point," Walterman said of Sam Wirth's complaint. "But I have to
weigh his point against mine."
The fire regulation is part of the Dade Life Safety Code, which states
that doors have to be able to stall the advance of a fire and keep out most
smoke. The tropical doors don't, Walterman said. The Beach Fire Department is
required by law to enforce the code.
"Even if I wanted to I couldn't change it, " he said.
"I think it stinks," Schandler said. She said her walls mold when the
doors are sealed and her remaining tenants will leave.
Not all hotel owners agree with Wirth and Schandler. "I saw for myself
the doors> were bad, " said Sam Burstyn, owner of the Blackstone Hotel.
Several years ago, he said he replaced 250 tropical doors in the hotel with
solid ones.
He said tenants complained at first, but got used to them.
Esther Wirth said she and other hotel owners will continue to fight the
regulation. She said her husband asked for a stay of sentencing so he could
meet with county officials.
KEYWORDS: CLOSING HOTEL MB FIRE-DEPT PREVENTION
TAG: 8304020815
30 of 39, 2 Terms
mh DEADLY OFFICIALS CLOSE 'OPEN' HOTEL DOORS 11/20/1983
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1983, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1983 EDITION: NEIGHBORS
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 3 LENGTH: 66 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Abe Mutnick
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: PAUL SHANNON Herald Staff Writer
DEADLY OFFICIALS CLOSE 'OPEN' HOTEL DOORS
On warm nights, the slats in Abe Mutnick's door keep his Collins Avenue
efficiency cool and breezy. Mutnick, 80, refuses to use air conditioning. "I
get more air by using a fan and the door, " he said.
A few hotels down, 87-year-old Mitchell Karr enjoys an ocean breeze that
flows into jalousie windows and out the slats in his ventilated door.
"This is a lifesaver," he said, pointing to the door. "We can't take the
air conditioning. It makes the room so cold, and we can't take the cold."
Mutnick and Karr are two of the hundreds of retirees South Beach hotel
owners say will be hurt by a fire regulation requiring that the slatted doors,
known as "tropical" doors, be permanently sealed. The doors are a hazard,
according to Beach fire officials. The breeze that flows through them would
help a fire race through a building.
"If there was a fire. . . the smoke and heat would go right through," said
Beach Fire Chief Ed Walterman. "It adds to the danger of the occupant."
"Nothing is going to burn here. . . We are not using hot plates," said
Anna Schandler, owner of the Tiffany Hotel, 801 Collins Ave. Esther Wirth, who
operates the Premier Hotel at 745 Collins Ave. with her husband, Sam, said,
"If we have to close the doors we can throw the whole hotel in the garbage. "
Sam Wirth, who could not be reached, and Schandler both have met several
times with city officials to protest the fire regulation.
Wirth already unsuccessfully has challenged the regulation in court.
After being cited for not sealing the doors, Wirth
went to trial. He wrote a letter to Judge Joan A. Stember that read: "This is
an immoral, unlegal (sic) law, a hazard to health for the senior citizens. .
The city, according to Assistant City Attorney Christopher Korge, had to
prove only that a violation occurred and Wirth owned the Premier. He said the
city did not answer Wirth's charge that the regulation should be changed
because it is part of a county code.
"We cannot change it, " he said.
Wirth was found guilty and will be sentenced in mid- January. The penalty
for such code violations normally is a fine or an order to correct violations.
Like many small, South Beach hotels, the Tiffany and the Premier were
built before central air conditioning. They depend on cross ventilation
provided by hallway windows and the tropical doors to keep cool.
Wirth told officials that the sealed doors would make the hotels stuffy
and humid. His elderly tenants would swelter, he has said, because they can't
take air conditioning. "They prefer the tropical door," Esther Wirth said.
"He has a point, " Walterman said of Sam Wirth's complaint. "But I have to
weigh his point against mine."
The fire regulation is part of the Dade Life Safety Code, which states
that doors have to be able to stall the advance of a fire and keep out most
smoke. The tropical doors don't, Walterman said. The Beach Fire Department is
required by law to enforce the code.
"Even if I wanted to I couldn't change it," he said.
"I think it stinks," Schandler said. She said her walls mold when the
doors are sealed and her remaining tenants will leave.
Not all hotel owners agree with Wirth and Schandler. "I saw for myself
the doors> were bad," said Sam Burstyn, owner of the Blackstone Hotel.
Several years ago, he said he replaced 250 tropical doors in the hotel with
solid ones.
He said tenants complained at first, but got used to them.
Esther Wirth said she and other hotel owners will continue to fight the
regulation. She said her husband asked for a stay of sentencing so he could
meet with county officials.
KEYWORDS: CLOSING HOTEL MB FIRE-DEPT PREVENTION
TAG: 8304020551
31 of 39, 2 Terms
mh BLACKSTONE HOTEL IS IN THE PINK 06/26/1983
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1983, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, June 26, 1983 EDITION: NEIGHBORS
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 8 LENGTH: 43 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DORY OWENS Herald Staff Writer
BLACKSTONE HOTEL IS IN THE PINK
Owners of the Blackstone Hotel are spending $50,000 to refurbish the
54-year-old Miami Beach landmark.
Next week work crews will begin applying 230 gallons of pink paint to the
exterior of the twelve-story building at 800 Washington Ave.
The majority of the building, now a home for retirees, will be painted
pastel pink while a darker shade of pink will be used on the 40-foot clock
tower.
Contemporary Restoration and Finishes, which restored Friedman's Bakery
and 15 other stores in the 600 block of Washington Avenue, is painting the
Blackstone, one of the tallest of the Beach's early hotels. Painters will
cover 55,000 square feet of wall area with paint.
"This project is particularly interesting because of the scale, " said Lynn
Bernstein, director of the Miami Beach Development Corporation, which helped
to design the project.
"The two men on the scaffolding against the wall make it look like a
monumental kind of project, " Bernstein said.
The Mediterranean Revival-style building, orignally built as a Jewish
hotel at a cost of $300,000, has had a colorful past.
Composer George Gershwin and his mother used to rent rooms there. Gershwin
is reputed to have sunbathed nude on the roof and to have written "Porgy and
Bess" while staying there, according to records kept by the Dade County
Community Development Department's Historic Preservation Division.
In 1943, the Blackstone won a suit filed by six guests who sought to
recover $47,000 in damages for jewelry stolen in a machine gun holdup four
years earlier.
Part owner Judah Burstyn said last week in addition tothe painting, he
will add a neon sign displaying the building's name on the tower. Burstyn said
he had hoped to have the huge clock repaired but that parts were unavailable.
Two years ago the Burstyn family also spent $200,000 to renovate the Ritz
Plaza, 1701 Collins Ave., and last year paid for a $50,000 facelift for the
Charles Hotel, 1475 Collins Ave.
"I think the tourists are going to come back. The economy is getting
better, " Burstyn said of the investments. "It's just a matter of holding on."
KEYWORDS: MB BLACKSTONE HOTEL PROFILE
TAG: 8302190953
32 of 39, 6 Terms
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