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1663-21 Art Deco/Preservation SUN MAR 15 1992 ED: FINAL SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 1K LENGTH: 32 .77" LONG ILLUST: color photo: FORT LAUDERDALE / BROWARD COUNTY CONVENTION CENTER; photo: Nicki GROSSMAN SOURCE: LORE CROGHAN Herald Business Writer DATELINE: MEMO: WANTED: HOTELS AT DADE, BROWARD CONVENTION SITES BUT PRIVATE FINANCING HAS BEEN HARD TO COME BY THERE ' S a basic premise in the hospitality industry: to lure the really big business, a convention center must have a large, high-class hotel to go with it, either on-site or close at hand. But the two handsome convention centers in South Florida are without hotel companions, a nettlesome situation because convention business is a mainstay of Dade tourism, and a promising newcomer in Broward. The problem is basic too: financing for hotel construction is nearly nonexistent these days . Blame it on the hotel- *construction*glut of the 1980s, recession, the savings-and- loan debacle. "It ' s just not there, " said Fort Lauderdale developer Ed Deutsch. He has spent three years searching for private financing to build the hotel at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/ Broward County Convention Center, a 150, 000-square- foot facility which opened last September. Deutsch said he hasn't had a potential investor on the hook for months. In both counties, task forces have just been formed to work toward a solution. Although the hotels were originally expected to be built with private funds, it appears that public financing may be the only short-term answer for South Florida -- as it is for a growing number of convention-host cities throughout the United States . Nicki Grossman, county commissioner and chairman of Broward' s Tourist Development Council, launched Broward' s task force in January. Dade ' s group had its first meeting Thursday, called by Merrett R. Stierheim, the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau president. Both groups include representatives of local governments and private industry, marshaling the strongest political clout and the best business connections the two counties can muster. The Broward group will try to succeed where the convention center' s developer, Northport Venture Associates, has so far failed: to find financing to build a hotel on convention-center property. The Dade group has an even longer road to travel. Its financing hunt is on hold until a consulting group identifies a site for a convention hotel and determines how it could fit in with neighboring Art Deco hotels. The Miami Beach Convention Center, which recently completed an expansion to 503 , 000 square feet, does not have land on the property designated for a hotel. In Broward, any immediate hotel deal will require the involvement of Northport, which built the convention center with bonds issued by local government. Northport was also supposed to build a hotel, a retail and entertainment complex and a cruise terminal with private financing. The developer has contractual rights until the end of 1993 to start construction on some part of the privately financed project. "Our relationship is not confrontational, not adversarial, " Deutsch, Northport ' s managing partner, said of the task force. "We ' ll be cooperating with them. " Robert E. Huebner, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer who chairs the task force, hopes the group will develop a plan by year' s end. The hotel needs to have 400 to 600 rooms to serve as a convention facility, said C. Dean Hofmeister, the convention center' s executive director. He is helping the task force but is not a member of it. Grossman has told the group to consider both private and public sources of funds. She thinks the answer to the money crunch might be industrial revenue development bonds or public lending. "We need to get more innovative with public financing, " she said. The hotel must promise to be a viable business proposition once it ' s built, or it ' s no go, said task force member Bernie Budd, who is vice chairman of development company Michael Swerdlow/Hollywood Inc: "I wouldn't want ongoing subsidies of the hotel. " In a meeting Tuesday, the Broward task force agreed to look into the example of Providence, R. I . , where a convention hotel is being built with a package of public and private financing. The developer there despaired of finding private funds for the hotel, so the Rhode Island legislature decided last May to allow $40 million worth of tax-exempt bonds to be floated for a 300-room hotel, said John Conway, executive director of the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority. The developer put up $3 million. The bonds are financing instruments issued by the convention authority and sold publicly. Rhode Island tax-payers are not expected to repay the debt. That money will be collected by taxing hotel guests. Construction is expected to start this spring on the Providence Hotel, which will belong to the Westin Hotels & Resorts chain and will be managed by TCC, the Miami-based company that owns or runs a slew of hotels including the Grand Bay Hotel, the Sheraton River House and Key West ' s Pier House. The purpose of Dade ' s task force is to bolster efforts already under way by the city of Miami Beach. The task force won' t start shopping for financing for at least six months, until the completion of a Miami Beach- commissioned study. It will be done by Coral Gables-based urban planners Wallace Roberts & Todd and a group of architects, preservation experts and hotel-industry consultants . Local preservationists are currently on the convention hotel bandwagon. "We ' re willing to play along as a partner as long as historic preservation ideals are honored, " said Nancy Liebman, chairman of the Historic Preservation Board of Miami Beach. She is already working with a Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce task force to promote the construction of first-class hotels on Miami Beach. Stuart L. Blumberg, president of the Miami Beach Resort Hotel Association, is even more eager than Liebman to get the project rolling. "The last new hotel on the Beach opened 25 years ago, " Blumberg said. It was the Hilton Plaza, at 5445 Collins Ave. , the building that' s now the Castle Beach Club. He was the Hilton' s general manager. "I 'd like to be there when the next one opens. " NEEDS HOTELS: The Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center. ADDED TERMS: END OF DOCUMENT.