Miami, FL – Real-estate developer Jeff Soffer picked a tough time to open his huge Miami Beach hotel, the relaunched Fontainebleau.
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While Soffer seems to be still living large, the mogul hasn’t had a smooth ride over the past year.
Soffer – who’s opening a huge new Fontainebleau casino hotel in Las Vegas this fall – is disappointed he can’t also have a casino at the legendary Miami original.
“The hotel is obviously set up in a way that would be highly conducive to housing a casino,” said one source.
In September, the Miami Herald reported, “When Jeffrey Soffer acquired the resort in 2005, he made it clear he sees it as a Vegas outpost in Miami Beach.”
Although casino gambling is not currently permitted in Miami or Miami Beach, the paper noted that a pro-casino petition filed last year by developers of the nine-block, downtown Miami World Center included provisions for a similar casino at the Fontainebleau.
But one hotel insider said that, “A casino was not part of Jeff’s initial plan. It would be a great thing if it happened, but it was never expected.”
The source also denied hotel-world rumors that the recession had forced the Fontainebleau to steeply discount its rates to fill its 1,504 rooms: “It’s a tough environment, but the Fontainebleau is doing well and generating cash flow. It’s still filling rooms.”
Meanwhile, Miami developer Craig Robins said he filed a lawsuit against Soffer last April over a fender-bender on the tarmac of a Virginia airport.
Soffer’s Boeing Business Jet allegedly crashed into Robins’ Challenger in May of 2007. The case is still pending.
Just what we needed in Miami Beach (which is a haven of preitzus anyway)>
dont visit if you dont like it
If Casino gambling were allowed decades ago, Yiddishe Retirees would have owned a gold mine of real estate. Today, while there is still a small kehilla, there is little room to grow with the extremely high home prices. Amazingly though Rav Zweig’s Talmudic University has purchased a former hotel and is building a huge Yeshiva Complex there. If only this had happened in the 1950s !!! Maybe there still is time for Torah in Miami Beach.
I think that guy was jealous that Soffer has a Boeing Biz jet (it is the size of a 737)