Take a look inside the Deauville. Video shows hotel’s condition before demolition order
Damaged columns. Graffiti. A flooded mechanical room.
Body-camera footage from a January site visit to the historic Deauville Beach Resort offers a rare look inside the Miami Beach hotel just days before the city issued a demolition order for the oceanfront property at 6701 Collins Ave.
Wearing white hazmat suits, gloves and respirators, a team of city engineers and consultants with flashlights and cameras toured the Deauville on Jan. 14 after the city received an engineering report from the hotel’s owners recommending demolition.
The report, by engineer Heather Anesta, concluded that the concrete throughout the building was corroded and deteriorating and suffering from construction defects.
A city team led by Building Official Ana Salgueiro visited the site to confirm the findings. They were warned of mold in the building and to watch their footing.
The city said the visit marked the first time in more than five years that the owners of the Deauville, the Meruelo family, allowed city inspectors inside the building.
On Monday, real estate developer and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross announced he would purchase the Deauville to build a luxury condo and hotel after the building is demolished. He has not released other details on his plans.
The hotel has been closed since a 2017 electrical fire forced out guests. The city then sued the owners for not doing necessary repairs on the building.
The body-cam footage, taken by a city engineer on Jan. 14 and obtained by the Miami Herald, shows Anesta leading the city team past graffiti-covered walls, under exposed wires and through dark hallways to show them areas that she tested as part of her report. The visit took less than an hour. It mainly focused on the pool deck area and the lower levels of the hotel complex, including a gym, office area and the mechanical room.
After touring the ground floor, the team walked upstairs to the lobby and through the famed Napoleon Ballroom, where the Beatles played on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. The lobby and ballroom were adorned with chandeliers. The team did not tour the 15-story tower portion of the hotel.
Salgueiro ultimately issued an order to demolish the hotel after she said she verified the conditions in the report.
After the city issued a permit, workers demolished the hotel’s parking canopy in March and took down the metallic red sign on its facade. Asbestos is being removed from the building prior to moving forward with the rest of the demolition.
Salgueiro said the current permit is to bulldoze the lower stories of the complex, and that the owners of the building need a separate permit to implode the tower portion of the building.
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