The developer of Coral Gables, George Merrick, had grand plans that included keeping an eye on competitors who were developing their own big projects nearby. Two days after the first flurry of advertisements announcing the Miami Shores development, Mr. Merrick announced his great hotel, holding a dinner for 200 dignitaries at the Coral Gables County Club to unveil the project.
Mr. Merrick had been secretly negotiating in New York with John McEntee Bowman, owner of the Bowman-Biltmore Hotel Corp., convincing him to become a partner with Mr. Merrick in the new hotel.
Mr. Bowman’s chain, which could well have been the nation’s most prestigious, included the New York Biltmore, the Los Angeles Biltmore, the Sevilla Biltmore in Havana and New York’s Westchester Country Club. A new Atlanta Biltmore soon followed on the way to announcing the Miami-Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. After it opened, Mr. Merrick put his office suite in the Biltmore tower.
The Biltmore held its inaugural dinner on Jan. 15, 1926.
The Miami Biltmore Hotel has a long history. Designed by Schultze and Weaver, the hotel became the tallest building in Florida at 315 feet, holding the record until 1928 when the Dade County Courthouse was built.
It served as a hospital during World War II and as a VA Hospital and campus of the University of Miami medical school until 1968. The grand and luxurious ornamentation, furniture and fixtures were by that time unrecognizable.
Then the Biltmore became a decaying relic, with its city-run golf course in use but no activity at the hotel, which for 17 years was abandoned and uncared for. After heavy renovation and restoration, it reopened as a hotel on Dec. 26, 1986.
The Biltmore has always been a special attraction. The movie “Bad Boys” and television programs like “CSI: Miami” and “Miami Vice” were in part filmed there. The 1977 horror film “Shock Waves” also used the hotel as a major setting when it was in a state of abandoned disrepair.
The Biltmore counted the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Al Capone and the Roosevelt and Vanderbilt families. Franklin D. Roosevelt had a temporary White House office set up in the Biltmore when he went on fishing trips in Miami.
On Feb. 10, 1986, the Biltmore Hotel entered into a 99-year lease with the city with requirements that the Biltmore Hotel Limited Partnership must uphold, including that the Biltmore operate as a luxury first-class hotel center with at least a four-star rating by Forbes Travel Guide. The city owns the land, hotel and golf course at 1200 Anastasia Ave.
The US Department of Interior designated the Biltmore as a National Historic Landmark in 1996.
The hotel from time to time has received financial help from Miami-Dade County and the City of Coral Gables.
In October 2001, the city commission voted unanimously to defer the Biltmore’s October and January quarterly base rent payments of $112,500 each. Low occupancy rates were draining the hotel.
A year later, in October 2002, the Biltmore repaired the tower and cupola using $675,000 from the county and the city.
The Coral Gables City Commission voted unanimously in June 2018 to allow the Biltmore Hotel Limited Partnership to redirect 50% of its annual rent payments to the city to the building’s historic preservation, paying up to half of the historic monument’s improvement costs.
City staff and the historic preservation officer’s staff reviewed a list of needed capital improvements provided by the Biltmore. They determined that about $10.5 million of the $25 million total renovations were targeted to preserve the historic value of the hotel.
Replacing the windows alone was costing $5.5 million, said Gene Prescott, president of Biltmore Hotel Limited Partnership. Other renovations that weren’t considered part of maintaining a historic landmark included hallway renovations, ballroom improvements, room renovations, digital signage and a new garage system.
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