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]