Peebles sues for control of Royal Palm [South Florida]
Don Peebles sold off most of the Royal Palm three years ago. But now he’s suing to take over the South Beach resort, saying management is ruining the hotel.
Three years after giving up control of the Royal Palm Hotel in a sale, R. Donahue Peebles is fighting to take charge of the resort again.
The Coral Gables developer retained a 12 percent stake in the South Beach hotel when he sold it to condominium converter Robert Falor and partners in 2004. Now Peebles wants his company installed as the 417-room hotel’s manager, accusing Falor of ”gross negligence” in running it — including a $12 million loss last year amid record revenues for South Beach’s lodging industry.
”Falor Group has miserably failed,” Peebles’ lawyers wrote in a Miami-Dade civil suit asking a judge to put Peebles in charge of the hotel or appoint a trustee to run it.