Fla. Undergoes Massive High-End Makeover

<B>Fla. Undergoes Massive High-End Makeover</B>

By Rowland Stiteler

When the first Ritz-Carlton Hotel to come to the Miami market was announced, William Talbert, president and CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, was quite pleased. When the deal got sweeter, with two Ritz-Carltons under way in Miami at once, he was thrilled. But now, with three Ritz-Carltons going up in three different parts of metro Miami at once, he's nothing short of ecstatic.

"To have one Ritz-Carlton coming to your city says something important about your appeal as an upscale destination," he said. "But to have all these Ritz-Carltons coming to Miami at the same time makes a very strong statement about us being a hot destination for upscale travelers."

Hotel industry analysts agreed that Miami's triple Ritz blitz represents a wave of high-end hotel development that is not just limited to the three properties under the Ritz flag--in all, almost 2,000 rooms in new, high-end hotels will be opened in Miami in the next 18 months. And the high-ticket projects are not just limited to Miami--neighboring Broward County, home of Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, will be adding roughly 2,000 rooms in four- and five-star properties in the coming 18 months as well.

"It's a matter of demand for four- and five-star hotels in the Miami area being unaccounted for in the marketplace," said Jan Nichols, director of consulting for the Miami office of Hotel Valuations Services International. "And now, with the upscale properties that have started to come into the market doing well, it's as if the doors have been opened for more."

Nichols said her company's research showed that during 1999, high-end hotels throughout Florida had higher occupancy rates than midprice and budget properties. "And hotel developers have become well aware of it," she said.

Scott Berman, Miami-based hotel analyst for PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the 1998 opening and subsequent success of the Loews Miami Beach Hotel--the first convention-size property to be built in Miami Beach in 30 years--has been a catalyst for the current round of development. "You've got a demand for upscale properties that has identified itself in the marketplace here, without a tremendous amount of product that addresses that demand," Berman said. "That's what will be driving more upscale hotel construction in Miami and Fort Lauderdale in the near future."

The most recent Ritz project for Miami, announced in November 1999, will go up in Coconut Grove, an exclusive enclave suburb just south of downtown Miami's financial district. Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman Stephanie Platt said details of the hotel design still are being worked out, but the property will offer 120 rooms and 26 suites, and occupy 3.6 acres of waterfront land in Coconut Grove.

Just across the bay from the Coconut Grove location, a 300-room, beachfront Ritz-Carlton is going up on Key Biscayne. It will be the first of the three Ritzs to open, with ribbon cutting set for this summer. The third Ritz, a 400-room beachfront property in the South Beach district of Miami Beach, is scheduled to open by the end of 2000 at the site of the former DiLido Hotel.

Also announced for a December opening in South Beach is a new W Hotel, one of a line of new upscale properties from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. The hotel also involves the name "Ritz," but not Ritz-Carlton. The new W Hotel will involve totally refurbishing the 132-room Ritz Plaza Hotel, adding about 100 rooms, plus a new restaurant, a lounge and an oceanfront spa. "This will be a luxury property with all the amenities you'd expect from a top-echelon hotel, and we think Miami Beach makes a perfect location for it," said Norbert Beatty, spokesman for Starwood.

Currently under construction in Miami's financial district, along Brickell Avenue, are a new Four Seasons, a JW Marriott and a Mandarin Oriental. Stuart Blumberg, president of the Greater Miami & the Beaches Hotel Association, said the placement of these three properties shows that much of the demand for upscale Miami hotel rooms is being driven by business travelers. "These are financial district hotel projects being driven by the strong activity in that district," he said.

The biggest single upscale project under way in the metro area is going up in Hollywood, in Broward County just south of Fort Lauderdale. The new 1,000-room Diplomat Resort & Country Club is set to open by the end of 2001, with a 50,000-sq.-ft. ballroom, a 26,000-sq.-ft. spa and an 18-hole golf course.

Several other 200-room-plus luxury hotels are scheduled to open in the Fort Lauderdale area in the coming year. They include the 250-room first phase of the 400-room Marriott to open in Sunrise, near Sawgrass Mills by the end of 2000. The property is going up across the street from the National Car Rental Center, which is not a car rental center, but a big new indoor arena that bears the rental car company's name.

Scheduled to open by 2001 is a 233-room Renaissance hotel by Marriott, to be located across the street from the Broward County Convention Center. Renaissance, an upscale property line by Marriott, next year also will open a 250-property near Plantation. And construction is set to begin later this year on a new, luxury beachfront property--the 270-room Castillo Grand to be located on Fort Lauderdale's Beach Boulevard.

Nicki Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale & the Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau, also said the hotel development is representative of an upward trend in the type of properties being built in the community. "This just shows how far we've come from the old spring break days," she said. "We've become a genuine upscale destination with a significant following among both leisure and business travelers who want the high-end resort experience.