Sep. 10--The La Quinta hotel chain has closed a deal to buy downtown Miami's Everglades Hotel and plans on refurbishing the storied building once at the center of the city's resort scene, according to two sources familiar with the agreement. 

The Dallas-based hotelier known for no-frills lodging plans a major renovation of the 1926 hotel, which has previously attracted developers interested in razing the building and erecting office or residential towers there, brokers and city officials said. 

"Everyone who has talked to the owners over the past four or five years has wanted to come in with a wrecking ball," said City Commissioner Arthur Teele Jr., a lawyer who has represented the Everglades. Preserving the hotel "was something nobody local was willing to do." 

The Teamsters union owned the Everglades until the late 1970s, and it remains one of the few union shops in South Florida's hotel industry. La Quinta has no unions in its 350 hotels, a spokeswoman said Monday, and the union representing Everglades workers anticipates a fight. 

"What we believe they're going to do is let go of all the workers and shut the building down" for renovations, said Andy Balash, secretary and treasurer of the Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees Union's local chapter. "We're trying to do everything we can to keep these workers employed." 

Balash said union officials have met with Everglades management to discuss La Quinta's plans but have not spoken with anyone at the chain itself. La Quinta spokeswoman Teresa Ferguson declined to comment Monday on the pending deal or to confirm that a purchase contract had been signed. 

A source familiar with the deal said La Quinta has agreed to pay about $25 million for the hotel, about $10 million less than the asking price. The current owners are offshore investors and have declined to identify themselves for this article, said broker Edie Laquer, of Laquer Corporate Realty. 

The 16-story hotel occupies half of the three-acre site facing Biscayne Boulevard, and Laquer said La Quinta wants to sell the remaining land to a commercial developer. Teele said he expects the Everglades deal to close in about six months. 

La Quinta's purchase would come in the midst of a retreat by hotel developers in South Florida, where lending for resort properties has slowed considerably this year in the face of new projects and tourism declines. 

Teele described the La Quinta deal as another sign of a growing confidence in a looming renaissance for downtown, which has attracted developers in recent years but still lacks much of a nightlife. 

Though it sits across from the Bayside Marketplace and its higher floors overlook Biscayne Bay, the small rooms and tired look of the $75-a-night Everglades offer little competition for the area's modern hotels. Still, PricewaterhouseCoopers analyst Scott Berman praised the site as a prize for any hotel chain. 

It is a "great location... and extremely visible," said Berman, who follows the national hotel industry from his Miami office. "Every picture of the skyline, you can't miss it." 

Laquer would not confirm La Quinta's involvement in the deal but said the buyer is "sensitive to the history of the property. They are taking great care" in researching historical archives to preserve the Everglades exterior, she said. 

Identifiable by its yellow block letters atop its roof, the 376-room Everglades opened in 1926 at roughly the same time as the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. The Teamsters bought it in 1960, placing the Everglades in the periphery of the union's most colorful era. Union boss Jimmy Hoffa was once indicted on corruption charges that involved funds used to renovate the Everglades in the 1960s. 

The Everglades was one of the first hotels in the South to open its doors to black guests, Teele said, helping it emerge as one of the city's most accommodating destinations. He said he is relieved the Everglades will remain a Miami hotel. 

"It speaks of many stories and many lessons learned," he said. "I'm excited." 

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