Clubland revival: New blood on lower Washington Avenue wants to restore the strip to its former glory

BY MICHAEL HAMERSLY

mhamersly@MiamiHerald.com

DAVID ADAME / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD

Jorge Diaz and Tatiana Cortes dance at Gem, which a former New Yorker opened seven months ago at 671 Washington Ave., former home of the The Strand/Living Room.

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• Slideshow | Washington Avenue by night

A dozen years ago, a night on the town in South Beach meant dressing to kill and heading for Washington Avenue. The area between Fifth and Eighth streets was ground zero for South Beach's international nightlife explosion. Bash and Living Room drew supermodels, European high-rollers and stars including Madonna and Sylvester Stallone.

The success of the strip quickly inspired other business owners to open clubs all over South Beach, including Liquid and Shadow Lounge farther north on Washington Avenue. Over time, lower Washington fell out of favor. Venues closed, and 18-and-older establishments attracted younger crowds more prone to mischief. Many people were reluctant even to walk there after dark.

''I'd feel a little strange, a little threatened, especially if I was with my girlfriend,'' says Ricardo Langores, 22, of Miami, who was waiting in line outside Gem Nightclub one recent Saturday night. ``You'd see people drunk all the time, walking around looking for trouble.''

But a new group of club owners and promoters is determined to resurrect the area, maybe not to the glamour of its glory days but at least to the point of making it an attractive and safe party destination.

At the forefront of the movement is Camilo Gonzalez, owner of Gem, which opened seven months ago at 671 Washington Ave., the former home of The Strand/Living Room. A transplanted New Yorker who started as a bouncer for Palladium when he was 19 -- he's 44 now -- Gonzalez saw potential in the strategically located block and invested more than $1 million to open Gem's doors.

''I've been coming down here for many years, since the days of the Living Room, and I've seen how it's changed,'' he says. ``When we first saw the area, we saw that [investing] probably wasn't the best idea. Everyone was pretty nervous because the area was still kind of in disarray, . . . and there were a lot of empty spots. But we knew the Angler's [Boutique Resort] Hotel was going up across the street, and we knew Dek23 nearby. So then we thought it would be a good idea to grab this space now.''

Steven Polisar, chairman of the Miami Beach Nightlife Task Force, says that while specific crime statistics aren't available for the strip, ambitious entrepreneurs are taking an aggressive stance on keeping the neighborhood safe.

''They are first-class operators, and they know the importance of working with the city and community to ensure a safe and enjoyable environment,'' he says. ``Because of this, we are noticing a significant decrease in the amount of serious crime in that area compared to previous years.''

It's easy to see the difference. During the day, the 600 block of Washington Avenue is peaceful and calm, with the various clubs still closed and scattered patrons casually visiting several pizzerias, a tanning salon and a hardware store. Across the street, valet attendants are on hand for the business people who lunch at Maison d'Azur. And on any given night, the strip is clean, well-lit and full of people looking for a good time.

''We believe that change is definitely well on its way,'' says Gonzalez, who owned the famed club Ohm in New York before moving to Miami Beach three years ago. ``We see how the city put in the new palm trees, and it's well-maintained, and at 7 in the morning you see guys out there vacuuming the sidewalks. . . . I walk down this area here, and I see a real beautiful space. . . . It wasn't like that six months ago.''

MAJOR BOOST

Miami Beach Commissioner Saul Gross agrees.

''I think the Angler's being completed has been a major boost for lower Washington Avenue because that's really a first-class hotel,'' he says. ``And that French restaurant there [Maison d'Azur] is really doing well and has a fantastic following and gets great crowds.''

Tove Nord, co-owner of Maison d'Azur, marvels at the turnaround.

''First the Angler's was a crack house, then it was condemned, and the Angler's owners brought it back to life,'' she said. ``We heard there were deadly shootings about 15 years ago in the alley right behind where we take our deliveries now. There were drug addicts living there, and it was just the pits -- nothing at all like it is now. Now, it's completely safe.''

Another high-end nightclub, the U.K.-inspired Heathrow, will open in June, at 681 Washington.

''I look at Sixth Street like a meat-packing district, where at first it was very undesirable, but, little by little, those places just couldn't afford to be there anymore,'' says longtime Beach promoter Jochy Ortiz, who is creative director and partner of Heathrow. ``Six or seven years ago, I took on a project called Honey in the same block, and it was during a much more undesirable time. The big problem it used to have was . . . 18-and-over parties. And they are very low-class, with people getting into fights, and it's not the element you see there now. All those 18-and-over clubs that never made much money just can't afford to be there anymore. So that hasn't been as big of a problem in the last year or so, other than there hasn't been a reason for people to go to Sixth or Seventh street until the Angler's came out.''

Justin Rundle, Heathrow partner and son of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, did his homework before investing.

''We did a market analysis and neighborhood search and stuff like that,'' says Rundle, 24. ``And we heard rumors that the garage at Seventh Street had new ownership and was tripling the budget for security. Plus, I knew that [18-and-older] Club Deep was being shut down, I knew that the Angler's was in production, and so the block had already started to kind of come up when we got there.''

Mocca Shabaz, a longtime promoter in Miami Beach who does marketing for The Forge's popular Wednesday night parties, recently joined Gem's team.

''A year ago, this strip was a no-man's-land,'' he says. 'It takes people like Camilo . . . to say, `You know what? This is where I'm gonna make my stand' and turn things around.''

Gonzalez says that, to be successful, owners must treat their investments like a labor of love.

''A lot of new owners come into the clubs, and they grab 'em as they are, and they open the doors and try to bring 'em in like cattle,'' he says. ``When I walked in, and I saw what was here, we had to rip out every piece of wire in this place.''

Gonzalez made the interior of Gem sleek and elegant, with all-white decor, chandeliers and lavish curtains in the main room. Sexy house music and Latin beats complete the effect.

''Most of the owners on the Beach made their investments where it's easy to get a return,'' Shabaz says. ``It's a tough place to be -- and not everyone is up to that challenge.''

Longtime South Beach nightlife impresario Gerry Kelly was the owner of Bash from 1993 to '97, the area's heyday but got out when he sensed its sophistication waning.

''It was a gradual decline from 1996 onward -- you could just see it,'' he says. 'There was a huge influx of people that came to South Beach and saw all the models, all the success of Bash and others, and one year later a lot of people said, `Owning a club is the next best thing to being a rock star,' so you had a lot of inexperienced nightclub operators . . . who didn't share the same dress code or the same marketing values.''

Commissioner Gross agrees that the quick-buck owners contributed to the area's decline.

''When you get nightclubs that change hands over a period of time and are not doing well, then eventually you get an operator who is looking for the lowest common denominator, catering to an audience that is probably young and tough,'' he says. ``So I saw that happening, certainly.''

DAYS GONE BY

Kelly now owns the club The Fifth, where Fifth Street meets Lenox Avenue, but still sounds nostalgic for Bash's days of glamour.

``The clientele was the European playboy-type customer with the 18-year-old model girlfriend. It was very chic, Euro jet-set. I was dealing with celebs like Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Cher, Anjelica Huston, Sly Stallone, Madonna.''

Though lower Washington Avenue is unlikely to regain its former level of fame, Kelly sees signs of hope. ``My personal opinion is it will take another five to seven years before the area will have the right vendors at every block, but it's a huge improvement.''

Gonzalez agrees there's still much work to be done, but he's pleased with the progress so far.

''There's still a kind of stigma of this area being what it was, so until you come down here and actually see for yourself the changes and the people, you don't know,'' he says. ``In New York, for instance, everybody was always afraid of Harlem. You go to Harlem now, and it's gorgeous -- and that's pretty much what's happening here.''