For Hoteliers, Summer Has Become The Hot Season

<H1> For Hoteliers, Summer Has Become The Hot Season</H1>By Rowland Stiteler

<I>Miami </I>- This city has been experiencing one of the hottest summers in the past five years, and no one is talking about the temperature; they're talking occupancy rates.

"I can't say this is necessarily going to be a record for the year as a whole, because last year we had the Super Bowl and that was a tremendous winter season," said Debbie Castillo, director of marketing for the Doral Ocean Beach Resort in Miami Beach. "But I can say that we've had one of the best summers ever for both group and transient business bookings, and it looks like the final numbers on August are going to be extraordinary."

Castillo said the bulk of the summer group business has been from domestic meeting and incentive groups, although an ever-increasing number of international travelers, both from South America and Europe, have boosted the totals significantly.

Merrett Stierheim, president and CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, attributes much of the business to the maturing of Miami as a destination. The city celebrated its 100th anniversary in July, and the level of hotel construction is at an all-time high, with the focal point of much of that development being trendy Miami Beach.

The biggest item of interest in decades for the South Florida travel industry has been the coming of the Loew's Miami Beach Hotel, which is scheduled to open in two years (<I>BTN</I>, April 22). After several delays, hotel officials have set a firm groundbreaking date of Sept. 26 for the facility. Stierheim said the hotel, which will give the city an 830-room property within walking distance of the Miami Beach Convention Center, has more significance than just its size. The beachfront hotel, which is being built on property surrounded by a number of small, old hotels in the popular South Beach area, will act as an economic magnet that will spur even more growth and improve the entire market, he said.

Local developers say they see a number of the 150- to 200-room hotels in the area of the Loews, which currently are low-ticket properties, being renovated into historic art deco hotels. A good example of that is the 56-year-old Shorecrest Hotel at 1535 Collins Ave., two doors south of the Loews' site.

Washington D.C.-based developer R. Donahue Peebles has a contract to buy the Shorecrest, where efficiencies rent for $45 a night, and plans to build a 152-suite hotel with suites going for $178 a night. The developer said he plans to put $22 million into upgrading the Shorecrest. Peebles also has a contract to develop a 200-room corporate business-oriented hotel between the Loews and the Shorecrest. The new Royal Crowne Plaza hotel will be constructed on the property currently occupied by the old Royal Palm hotel. The Royal Crowne Plaza, which is being developed under a city program that called for a minority-owned company to build the property, is set to open at the same time as the Loews.

Peebles said the entire block on which the Loews will be located will be redeveloped along with the new hotel, and city officials in Miami Beach said several plans for high-end shops and restaurants are being considered for the surrounding area.

Many hotel developers in Miami Beach are by no means waiting for the Loews before starting their own major renovations. The 49-year-old Delano hotel, just a few blocks north of the Loews' site, has become one of the trendiest properties on the beachfront after a $20 million renovation and the opening of a restaurant operated by singer Madonna, who frequents the eatery. A 275-room, 44-year-old Miami Beach classic, the Casablanca Hotel, recently completed a $10 rebuilding project.

Many of the newer hotels in the Miami Beach area are getting in on the major renovation act as well. The Sheraton Bal Harbour hotel, in the upscale town that is immediately north of Miami Beach, recently completed a $12 million redo, which includes a massive beachfront pool area with a huge tropical garden.

Greg Kurdian, CEO of Sunbound, Inc., one of Florida's biggest incentive travel houses, said he thinks the almost limitless budgets that have been put into redoing Miami Beach-area hotels and building new restaurants have had a major impact on the destination's appeal. "Let's face it," he said, "the entire beach strip is considered a hot spot these days, and South Beach is one of the hottest of the hot."

Mike Gentry, an associate vice president of the Greater Miami CVB who tracks statistics, said it's too early to quantify the summer occupancy increase, but it's clear from surveying hoteliers that most are having their best "off" season since the 1980s.