1627-10 Interviews INTERVIEW WITH
ROGER CARLTON
June 9, 2004
Works with Affiliated Computer Services
Was city manager Miami Beach 1992-1995
In search for new hotel, sought consensus of community. Sy Gelber was a reform mayor,
there was a reford commission and I was a reform manager. In conversation with David
Pearlson(413-232-4120), Sy Eisenberg, Kasdin. Finding location was the key. Needed
convention quality rooms. Where to put a new hotel was the issue. An idea: create a city
center for Miami Beach. We had no real downtown. In the middle of what could be a
downtown was a two-story parking garage(17th and Washington); it was like a Chinese
'wall separating TOPA, Lincoln Road, etc. We formed the City Center Redevelopment
District. We needed to find money to bring Lincoln Road up to date and to bring a hotel
here. To do it, everyone got what he wanted. City Center is defined as 23rd on North,
Fifth St. on South, Alton Road on West and the ocean on the East.
A task force of about 25 was formed consisting of all advocacy groups. We brought in a
consultant. Then we made this announcement: If the private sector won't do a hotel, then
the city will. It was like a cannon shot. It got people motivated. Carpe diem. (Make the
most of present opportunities.)Everything started going well. We had a $60 million
inducement. The people of Miami Beach trusted us. Sy Gelber was seen as an elder
statesman. We seized the moment. We put a penny tax on the ballot. The amendment
specified we were to build a hotel. Craig Robbins, buddy of Muss, Steve Ross. We had to
deal with him because he had the most exhibition space and rooms. To make certain we
did not pass Muss' rooms and exhibition space, we set 800 rooms as the maximum and
called for less exhibition space than has the Fontainebleu.
We didn't know at the time that we could buy more than vacant land in the area. But
th4erew.,were the Royal Palm and the St. Moritz. When you added all that land together,
you had a huge tract. When all told, the land averaged $60 a square foot. (Today it would
be ten times that.) There had to be justice for everyone in the deal. Preservationists had a
size limit, the project had to look and feel Art Deco. We promised a first class selection
committee. We brought in the Urban Land Institute. We asked Kasdin to put together a
peer review of the ULI. They concluded that you have to have site control; own the land.
There was a ULI session in Minneapolis. Niesen and Pearlson went. The idea was to buy
the land with the bed tax increase and to cut a deal with the neighborhood. We'd do
landscaping and drainage throughout the neighborhood. The St. Moritz was owned by
Spaniards who didn't want to sell. We began condemnation proceedings. Owner wanted
about two times of what the land was worth. We wound up paying his price because the
land average was still a bargain. Edie Lacuer, Coconut Grove land maven gave us the
advice: What is the average cost in acquisition?
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Now we had to set up a procedure to select a developer. To get an RFP we had to get a
selection committee. I was allowed to pick it. There were 7 selection. Arthur Courshon
was involved. We wanted no more horseplay, we wanted to get a deal approved.
Courshon was an independent. Eight proposals came in. Ritz Carlton wanted a 50-story
building; that was DOA. Hyatt wanted a Fontainebleau South but pink; that was DOA.
Peabody xxxx Jonathan Tisch uncovered the secret of how to do it. He was the only one
who listened to us. We wanted a structure that fit into the community. Loews model
wasn't just of a hotel but of the surrounding four or five blocks. It called for reopening
16th Street from Collins to Washington. It called for saving the facades which, in its way,
would become the west face of the garage of the new hotel.
Near the end
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