Colin Au paced the polished marble floors of Miami’s fanciest hotel, waiting for the go-ahead to jumpstart a lavish development plan already on a fast track.

Au and his fellow Genting executives had stunned the city five months earlier on a May morning by announcing the Malaysian casino company’s purchase of The Miami Herald headquarters and plans to build a massive “destination resort” there. Genting promised a resort so spectacular and grand that it would lure vacationers from around the world, with or without a change in Florida’s gambling laws to allow a casino.

That was the plan, and now that plan was about to change dramatically. Minutes before a ballroom reception at the Four Seasons Miami, Genting Chairman K.T. Lim arrived with the news he had just signed a $161 million deal to gain control of the Omni complex adjoining The Miami Herald land. Genting promised to open a casino there within six months of Florida changing its laws.

“We are taking a calculated risk,” Au said just before unveiling his plan to a crowd of local business leaders and elected officials. “We are responding to the concerns and trying to create jobs as fast as possible. The Omni is what’s called a decorator-ready solution.”

For Genting it was a tactical move to entice the Florida Legislature with the promise of immediate jobs. But it also marked a dramatic shift in Genting’s message. Suddenly the focus wasn’t about a gleaming new resort that would help spur economic development. Now it was all about how fast Genting could open a casino.

“It just showed they were a casino-driven company,’’ said Stuart Blumberg, retired head of a leading Miami-Dade lodging trade group and a Genting critic. “You don’t walk into a community, make a land grab... and then say, ‘Within a year, you’re going to have casino gaming.’ ’’

The Omni acquisition wasn’t enough to overcome a conservative Florida Legislature already inclined to vote against new casinos. On Feb 3, one of Genting’s legislative patrons withdrew the bill designed to bring the company’s Resorts World Miami to the downtown waterfront.

The scuttling of the pro-Genting bill wasn’t a surprise to many Tallahassee watchers, who from the start gave Genting and its Las Vegas counterparts slim odds for expanding gambling in the Sunshine State. It also serves as a bookend — at least for this year — for one of the most-spirited debates over the future of South Florida’s tourism industry in recent memory.

A string of notable moments marked the debate. Among them:

Friday morning, May 27, 2011; conference room at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami

Miami’s business community awoke to the biggest real estate story of the year — one that unfolded in secret within the largest media company in town. Southeast Asia’s largest casino company had paid $236 million for The Miami Herald site.

Although the stunning announcement sparked a major fight to come, Genting’s rollout broadcast a different message: harmony with the neighbors. Rather than inviting the cameras to the resort’s future home at the waterfront Herald site, Genting took over a conference room across the street at the Arsht Center. Literally sitting at the table with company executives: Arsht chairman Mike Eidson.