Miami boycott yields luxury black-owned hotel

The newest luxury hotel in Miami Beach sprawls along a strip of art deco resorts on South Beach's Collins Avenue. The hotel's young valets, all African American and Hispanic men, greet guests as they step out of expensive cars.

The ease with which employees at the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza perform their tasks gives little hint that the resort was born out of controversy. Plans for the hotel, which opened on May 15, ended a 1993 boycott which ensued after Greater Miami-area business and government leaders snubbed Nelson Mandela in 1990.

The 422-room hotel is the first Black-developed and -owned luxury resort in the nation. It has already snagged a number of prominent African American conventions and is among the hotels the NAACP will patronize during its annual gathering in summer 2003.

"We are having our [nationall convention here because strides have been made," says Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Florida State Conference of the NAACP. "It doesn't mean everything is over. It simply means we [have taken] a step in the right direction."

R. Donahue Peebles, the 42-year-old developer and majority owner of the Royal Palm, says the hotel's opening proves African Americans are willing and able to be players. Peebles, president and CEO of Peebles Atlantic Development Corp., says he doesn't want his hotel to be known as a "Black hotel." He hopes to capture a large chunk of the overall convention and business market. Still, he is actively seeking African American tourists who spend more than $40 billion a year in the U.S, according to the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators and Developers (NABHOOD).

"It's not just a hotel geared to African Americans. What distinguishes us from others is that there is no glass ceiling, and we actively promote and expand career opportunities for African Americans, and African Americans will be welcomed and prized," he says.

At least 70 percent of the hotel's top executives are Black, a fact unheard of in the tourism business. Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based NABHOOD says there are fewer than 100 Black executives in the nation's 30,000 full-service hotels. Many in this small group are striking out on their own. According to NABHOOD, there are currently 32 majority Black-owned hotels in development or already being built around the country.

The construction of a Black-owned luxury resort in Miami Beach was central to the 20-point agreement between activists and business leaders to end the protest in 1993. During negotiations, the city of Miami Beach agreed to provide a $10 million loan toward a Black-owned hotel. Peebles spent $6 million of his own money, $2 million came from a group of African American partners, Crowne Plaza put up $11 million and the balance - $52 million - came from Union Pacific Bank and Ocean Bank. Crowne Plaza, which is part of the Six Continents Hotels, manages the resort.

The 1,000-day boycott was sparked after city officials and business leaders in Miami-Dade County refused to visit with Mandela during his tour in the area. His support for Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat angered local Cuban American and Jewish leaders. Their decision to snub Mandela cost tourism in Miami an estimated $52 million, according to lawyer H. T. Smith, one of the organizers of the protest.

Today, the hotel - which includes two historic art deco buildings and a prominent new structure painted yellow and surrounded by palm trees - is a standout. Passersby stop to admire the water fountain and the terrazzo floors, and guests can sit in their rooms and gaze out at the Atlantic Ocean.

- Tatsha Robertson is a national reporter for the Boston Globe

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