March 26, 2013--A relic from Miami Beach's heyday is poised for a major facelift.

The Blackstone equity group has sold the Miami Beach Resort and Spa to a company controlled by Jacob Chetrit, one of Manhattan's top real estate investors, the hotel said in a press release. The sale price was $117 million -- and the new owners plan to invest more in the property.

The Chetrit group plans a renovation of the resort's 424 rooms, along with public areas and meeting rooms, the release said. The plan is to restore the 1963 hotel to "its former grandeur and into one of the better waterfront properties."

Once known as the Doral, the oceanfront hotel on the 4800 block of Collins Avenue rivaled the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc as the place where stars vacationed and performed when in town. But through the years, the property slipped competitively as both properties underwent renovations and courted new generations of stars.

"It's terrific for the beach,'' Gregory Rumpel, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels and a broker on the deal, said of Chetrit's purchase. "This is a great old lady that is going to get the proper attention and capital."

The Chetrit Group has been busy in Miami Beach: The developer bought the Tides in 2011 and made it part of the boutique King & Grove brand. The group is also working on the Hotel Versailles at 3425 Collins Ave.; a complex with a hotel in the Collins Park neighborhood; a restoration of the closed Fairwind Hotel at 10th Street and Collins Avenue and a project behind the Tides.

Miami Herald staff writer Hannah Sampson contributed to this report.

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