The Miami Beach Resort and Spa is a historic resort hotel opened in 1963 as the Doral Hotel On-The-Ocean and closed in 2019. It is located on the famous

Millionaire's Row The Millionaires' Mile, Millionaires' Row, Billionaires' Row, Golden Mile or Alpha Street are the exclusive residential neighborhoods of various cities, often along one scenic strip such as a riverside or hilltop drive, or a wide city boulevard. ...

at 4833

Collins Avenue Collins Avenue, partly co-signed State Road A1A, is a major thoroughfare in South Florida, United States. The road runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean in Miami Beach, Florida, one block west. It also runs through the cities of Surfside and Su ...

Miami Beach, Florida Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean ...

History

Philip Birnbaum Philip Birnbaum (; March 30, 1904 – March 19, 1988) was an American religious author and translator. He is best known for his work ''Ha-Siddur ha-Shalem'', a translation and annotation of the Siddur first published in 1949. Biography Birnbaum ...

and constructed by builder Robert Turchin, the hotel, also known as the Doral Beach Hotel, was named for the owner's wife Doris and the owner Alfred Kaskel. The hotel opened on February 15, 1963, as the sister hotel to the Doral Country Club on the mainland (now in

Doral, Florida Doral is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. One of 34 municipalities in the county, it is located west of Miami International Airport and west of Greater Downtown Miami, Downtown Miami. Doral occupies bordered on the west ...

), where the

Doral Open The Doral Open was a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in the southeastern United States. It was played annually for 45 seasons, from 1962 to 2006, on the "Blue Monster" course at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Doral, Florida, a subu ...

was played until 2006. The Doral Beach Hotel was long considered the most elegant and luxurious hotel in the area. It won several of the coveted Mobil Five Star awards. The hotel hosted the headquarters of

George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American politician, diplomat, and historian who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota, and the Democratic Party (United States), Democ ...

during the

1972 Democratic National Convention The 1972 Democratic National Convention was the presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party for the 1972 presidential election. It was held at Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida, also the host city of the Rep ...

. The Doral was home away from home for movie stars and presidents. Several scenes from the hit 1972 film '' The Heartbreak Kid'' were shot on location at the hotel. The movie shows the lobby, room 1704, the bar adjacent to the Starlight Roof restaurant on the 18th floor of the hotel, and the pool area and beach. The Switzerland party scene as well as an elevator scene in Iron Man 2 was filmed in this hotel in 2010. In the 1990s, the hotel changed hands several times. It was purchased from the original family in the early 1990s by OBR, a French company, and renamed the Doral Ocean Beach Resort. OBR company sold the hotel to Interstate Hotels in 1997 and it became a

Westin Westin Hotels & Resorts is an American upscale hotel chain owned by Marriott International. , the Westin Brand has 226 properties with 82,608 rooms in multiple countries in addition to 58 hotels with 15,741 rooms in the pipeline. History Wes ...

, The Westin Resort Miami Beach. In September 1998, Interstate Hotels was purchased by

Wyndham International Wyndham International, previously Patriot American Hospitality, was an American hotel company based in Dallas, Texas. History Patriot American Hospitality was formed in April 1995 as a real estate investment trust (REIT) and made its initial publi ...

and the property was renamed the Wyndham Miami Beach Resort. In 2006, the

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman ...

purchased Wyndham International and the hotel was renamed the Miami Beach Resort and Spa. The Chetrit Group purchased the hotel in 2013 for $117 million. They closed the hotel in 2019 for major renovations that have not begun as of 2025. OBR retained a portion of the hotel's property when it was sold to Interstate. Originally containing a parking lot, two tennis courts and additional beach access, OBR built the Grand Beach Hotel on this land in 2009. In addition, OBR retained the rights to the Doral name.

Gallery

Image:Miami Beach - Doral Beach Hotel.jpg, Doral Beach Hotel, 1960s Image:Miami Beach - View of Doral Beach Hotel.jpg, Doral Beach Hotel, 1960s Image:Miami Beach - The Starlight Roof, Doral Beach Hotel.jpg, The Starlight Roof, circa 1965 Image:Doral-on-the-Ocean (restored).jpg, Doral Beach Hotel lobby, 1973

Sources

ciudad doral newspaper

References

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