‘Get Back’: Concrete is falling from Miami Beach hotel where Beatles played, city says
In its heyday, the Deauville Beach Resort ushered in Beatlemania to Miami Beach — hosting the Beatles’ second U.S. TV performance on the “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964.
Nearly 60 years since the band brought down the house, what’s left of the hotel is falling apart.
The city shut down a portion of the public boardwalk behind the Deauville on Feb. 26 after pieces of concrete fell off the building, City Manager Jimmy Morales wrote in a letter to the City Commission. The boardwalk remained closed Tuesday, and the property owners are working with a contractor to install scaffolding to protect the public from falling debris.
In the year since the city sued the Deauville’s owners for neglect of a historic building, the conversation about the landmark hotel has changed from one about historic preservation to one focused on public safety.
“It’s terrible what they’re doing to this historic property,” said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber. “And now it’s impacting passersby.”
The Deauville, at 6701 Collins Ave., has been shut down since 2017 after sustaining fire and hurricane damage. The 1957 hotel has been designated historic by the city and is a “contributing” property of the North Beach Resort Local Historic District.
An electrical fire in July of 2017, caused by malfunctioning wiring, forced guests to evacuate and rendered the property “uninhabitable,” according to the lawsuit. Hurricane Irma battered the building later that summer.
The hotel has not reopened since July 2017, and no “substantial” maintenance has been done since the closure, the lawsuit states.
The city found broken windows and concrete after inspecting the property in 2018. Properties in historic districts are required by city law to maintain minimum required maintenance standards.
The owners of the hotel — Belinda, Richard and Homero Meruelo — were sued by the city in February 2019 for failing to maintain the property. They did not respond to a request for comment, but at a Miami-Dade Unsafe Structures Board meeting in 2018, they blamed insurance troubles for the state of disrepair at the hotel.
“Demolition by neglect”
If no renovations take place, the city fears that the Deauville will be beyond saving. Demolition would follow.
In its lawsuit, the city claims that the owners have “no intention of voluntarily undertaking the repairs necessary” and are “hedging [their] bets that the city will eventually allow the demolition of the structure.”
City leaders are calling it a case of possible “demolition by neglect,” where property owners fail — on purpose or not — to comply with maintenance standards.
The city declared the building as being in disrepair in 2018. Miami Beach is asking a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge to appoint a “receiver,” or independent property manager, to oversee the renovations of the hotel and collect the more than $91,000 in resort tax obligations the city says it is owed by the Deauville.
A Deauville employee told the Miami Herald that no construction or renovations are currently taking place at the hotel due to the legal dispute.
Rick Richardson, a Deauville employee, told the Miami Herald that the hotel is working to install a 15-foot-wide, 250-foot-long scaffolding on the public walkway to protect pedestrians from falling debris.
Richardson said the falling debris, which he said was plastering and not concrete, is “typical” of a beachfront hotel. The debris fell about 10 feet west of the boardwalk, he said.
“This is just as a precaution,” he said. “Nothing has ever fallen into the boardwalk.”
Aleksandr Boksner, the chief deputy city attorney, said the city would install its own scaffolding if the Deauville didn’t.
“While we are anticipating that the property owner will do what they are legally required to do, if they fail to do so we will take immediate action,” he said.
Miami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola introduced a proposed law on Feb. 12 to strengthen a current policy requiring that any historic building that is demolished be rebuilt according to its original designs. That will come before the commission for a final vote on March 18.
Arriola filed the legislation with the Deauville in mind. He pointed out that the assessed value of the property has decreased in recent years, from $87 million in 2017 to $64.8 million in 2019, according to the Miami-Dade County property appraiser.
“They keep going to the county tax appraiser and continuing to decrease the assessed value of that property because it’s not in use,” Arriola said. “They are creating an incentive for them to continue to have it fall in value. It’s this virtuous cycle where the more it declines the easier it is for them to carry the property. I want us to stay vigilant on this issue.
Gelber and Commissioner Michael Góngora co-sponsored the proposal. The commission passed it unanimously.
“We really have to send a loud message to everybody in the community that we’re not going to permit demolition by neglect,” Góngora said. “If you think you’re going to neglect your property until it gets to the point where it becomes unsafe and has to be torn down, you’re not going to be able to build anything better.”
Gelber said the new law would remove any incentive for property owners to neglect their buildings. And while the Deauville was not singled out in the proposal, the tougher law would apply to the hotel, Gelber said.
“They want to be allowed to demolish by neglecting the property,” he said. “Obviously, we’re pretty upset about that.”
Beatles in Miami
After the Beatles made their U.S. TV debut before a record 73 million viewers Feb. 9, 1964, on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in New York, the band performed before another 70 million viewers for a second and final live Sullivan Beatles taping at the Deauville on Feb. 16.
The band stayed in Miami longer than they did in New York or Washington, D.C., where they made their U.S. concert debut. They also met a 22-year-old boxer named Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, at the 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach. A black-and-white photo of the Beatles swimming in a pool at a home at 5750 North Bay Rd. was featured on the back page of Life magazine.
“They spent more time in South Florida than any other city; they were here eight days,” Joe Johnson, host of the syndicated radio program “Beatle Brunch,” told the Miami Herald in 2014.
“They only spent a couple days in New York. Even on tour, they played San Francisco and only spent a day or two in the city. In Miami they really interacted with our local celebs. Cassius Clay. They loved the local flavor. I think for Florida to claim the Beatles as part of their own is really important,” Johnson said.
The legacy of Beatlemania in the U.S. — and in South Florida — can be traced back to the Deauville. And that gives the hotel “national and international significance,” said Daniel Ciraldo, the executive director of the Miami Design Preservation League.
“Many people remember where they were when the Beatles performed on Miami Beach,” he said. “It is really the landmark hotel in the North Beach Resort Local Historic District.”
But now, the owners of the hotel are “holding the neighborhood hostage” because they refuse to fix up the hotel, Ciraldo said.
“It continues to be a blight on the neighborhood,” he said. “Now it’s at the point of being a safety hazard.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 7:05 AM with the headline "‘Get Back’: Concrete is falling from Miami Beach hotel where Beatles played, city says."
.JPG)