1614-13 Various Miami Beach THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1989, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, June 8, 1989 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION:E ON: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 3 LENGTH: 51 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: DAVID ZEMAN Herald Staff Writer
NEW RITZ PLAZA
PLANS TO TARGET
CONVENTIONEERS
Promoters of the Stephen Muss Convention Center have fretted for years
about the shortage of nearby hotel rooms.
That concern was reduced, if only a little, with the announcement this
week that the Ritz Plaza Hotel has been sold and will undergo a $2 million
restoration to attract convention business.
"Wonderful, that's great news," said Eric Jacobs, head of convention
marketing for the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The Ritz Plaza, with only 139 rooms, will not alleviate the room crunch
single-handedly, said Jacobs.
"But it will enable us to market the other hotel rooms close to the
convention facility," he said.
The Malvern Group, a New York City development company, paid almost $3
million last week for the 12-story hotel on Collins Avenue and 17th Street.
Manuel Llerandi, one of three Malvern partners, said Tuesday that the
Ritz Plaza will be renovated "top to bottom" over the next six months. The
hotel's proximity to the Muss Center -- only 2 1/2 blocks away -- was a major
factor in his company's decision to buy the building, Llerandi said. "We
want to restore it very much to what it was in 1940," he said.
That would include refurbishing the hotel's rooms and lobby, installing
new air conditioning and electrical systems, and creating a new restaurant,
bar and beach club.
Beach developer Mel Schlesser headed an investment group that purchased
the hotel two years ago for $1.85 million. Schlesser's group had planned to
convert the 49-year-old hotel into apartments.
"But we came to feel that the best use of the building was as a hotel and
running a hotel of that size is really not our forte, " Schlesser said. "With
all the noise and traffic, it just wasn't proper for a residential setting."
The convention bureau has been successful in the past year in booking
conventions to the recently expanded Muss Center, on Washington Avenue and
18th Street.
But bureau officials say more than 3,000 additional quality hotel rooms
are still needed within a five-mile radius of the center to accommodate
conventioneers. Much of the convention hotel business now goes to large hotels
such as the Fontainebleau, almost two miles to the north.
Malvern partner Ignacio Contreras Iribarren said the Ritz Plaza will
appeal to conventioneers by providing downstairs meeting rooms with facsimile
machines and personal computers.
Malvern has specialized in converting apartment buildings into
condominiums in the New York City area.
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