West Palm Beach historic Hotel Biba, formerly a druggie flophouse, is getting a new life
A venerated historic motel once defiled by drug addicts, prostitutes and ne'er-do-wells is being resurrected for a second time with plans to restore a roadside glamour that catered to America’s craving for car travel.
The Mount Vernon Motor Lodge opened in 1941 beckoning tourists on Dixie Highway with its vehicle-friendly U-shaped design and promises of tiled bathrooms and "cross ventilation." It had a telephone in every room and a Howard Johnson’s across the street.
But by the 1980s and early 1990s the West Palm Beach motel was in disrepair and ill-used. A name change to Hotel Biba and a chic revival in 2000 lasted for more than a decade before fizzling.
A new owner now has plans for a full renovation that will maintain historic details of the hotel, which was designed by celebrated architect Belford Shoumate, while adding modern amenities, a restaurant, outdoor grill and bar area, and a rooftop deck.
Elizabeth Rad purchased the hotel at 310 Belvedere Road in late 2020 for $4.5 million, according to property appraiser records. She said construction began this past spring on the nearly 1-acre property, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
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“The Palm Beach Preservation Foundation was very kind and we were able to get many, many documents from them on the original architecture, plans and details,” said Rad, who bought the hotel under the limited liability company Royal Palm WPB Hospitality. “We’ve incorporated those into our design.”
Rad is also listed in state records as the manager of Palm Beach-based Corrado Properties, which owns and develops boutique luxury hotels and resorts including the Sorrel River Ranch Resort and Spa in Moab, Utah.
Renovation cost is estimated at $15 million
Plans for the estimated $15 million renovation of Hotel Biba were approved in April 2022 by the West Palm Beach Historic Preservation Board. Its original design by Shoumate, who died in 1991, was in the colonial revival style featuring a columned porch and front door sidelights (vertical pieces of glass on either side of the door).
There are also characteristics of first U.S. president George Washington’s home in Virginia, including an ornamental cupola, hence the name Mount Vernon. Shoumate designed two other Mount Vernon Motor Lodges in Daytona Beach and Jacksonville.
The age of the West Palm Beach structure is in some small dispute with the property appraiser listing it as having been built in 1938 and the city's preservation planner showing it being constructed in 1941.
In the new design, the exterior's burnt umber paint color will be returned to its original white, and the number of rooms will be reduced from 44 to 26, which West Palm Beach Historic Preservation Planner Friederike Mittner said last year will be beneficial for the historic El Cid neighborhood. El Cid, which is south of downtown West Palm Beach, has limited parking on streets it shares with businesses on South Dixie Highway.
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Irma Hale, who owns the only single-family home that is a direct neighbor to the hotel, said she is looking forward to a new restaurant, which is in the hotel’s plans. She is also in the process of transforming part of her 1925 house into a museum dedicated to her late father Reuben Hale, who was a sculptor.
Hale believes her museum, which will be open to the public, and the renovated historic hotel will compliment each other.
“I think it’s going to be a good thing, good for us and good for the neighborhood,” Hale said.
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The renovation of the hotel in 2000 turned it from a flophouse to a trendy place to stay with a stylish bar that attracted happy-hour crowds with DJs spinning house music and live jazz acts. Fashion icon and South Beach decorator Barbara Hulanicki helped with the interior designs. Hulanicki is renowned for her clothing store Biba, which she opened in London in 1964. The store was a go-to boutique and hangout for movie stars, models and musicians, and the namesake for the renovated hotel on Belvedere Road.
Rad said she plans to keep the name Biba but doesn’t have a timeline for when the renovations will be complete and was reluctant to share too many details.
A website for the hotel also has limited information but says the project is “not a makeover, it’s a new beginning.”
Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm Beach Hotel Biba is being restored to its historic glory
