Boycott-ending hotel is set for sale
/The owner of the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza Resort, the key concession
that ended a three-year black tourist boycott of Miami-Dade County, has
signed a contract to sell it to a white-owned hotel development
company, according to documents obtained by The Herald. The deal, which
could face significant hurdles, calls for R. Donahue Peebles to sell
the oceanfront resort for $128 million and pay back city subsidies
requiring black ownership. Industry experts said the price would be the
highest ever paid for a Miami Beach hotel. The tourism boycott began
after local leaders snubbed South African President Nelson Mandela
during his visit here in 1990 because of his support for Fidel Castro.
Eager to end the boycott, Miami Beach in 1993 invited black developers
to bid on building a large, convention-headquarters hotel on city-owned
oceanfront. Peebles, then a Washington-based developer, won the contest
and spent a reported $84 million building the 417-room Royal Palm,
which opened in 2002. [more]