Cearnal said a variety of questions from the department have been answered, and he is hopeful that the owners' considerable advance footwork will enable the Miramar to reach the Planning Commission 's agenda by the end of the year, which would keep the 2001 completion date within the realm Of possibility.

With key planning questions still unanswered, the owners haven't decided whether the resort will remain open during remodeling- as the 16-story Mondrian did - or close for about a Year, said Dailey, the general manager, who oversees a s I staff of 150 and intends to give the employees ample notice.

The plans for the Miramar, as submitted to the county and elaborated on at the chamber meeting Show considerable changes in the hotel's look and layout Yet few Of the existing cottages will be moved and the total number of rooms will remain at 213.

Perhaps most strikingly, the blacktop that covers about half the Property will be replaced by walkways and the kind of lush gardens that were a point of pride back in the Doulton days.

"It was a very elegant place," Dailey said. "It was beautifully landscaped and it's time it went back to that."

The newly designed and rebuilt lobby, banquet hall and restaurant, along with 14 new cottages along South Jameson Lane, will have rustic board-and-batten exteriors to further evoke the Miramar's farmhouse origins.

The new lobby will line up with a boardwalk promenade that leads straight to the beach. At the end of the promenade, just below the boardwalk a beachfront bar and grill is planned. The boxy Miramar Convention Center, converted from a parking garage in 1957, will be torn down and rebuilt into the banquet hall A single level of Parking will run underneath the hall and the nearby tennis courts.

Toward the beachfront end of the Promenade, a main swimming pool will by added, flanked to the east by the new restaurant, and to the West by an 8,000-Square-foot spa with a gym, juice ice bar and about 20 massage rooms.

The number of oceanfront rooms, currently will be reduced to 26, partly to make space for the Promenade, and partly because about half the rooms will I be converted into two level suites.

Rates for the renovated Miramar have not yet been established. While the oceanfront rooms may fetch the highest prices - similar accommodations at the Delano in Miami Beach cost between $575 and $1,000 per night - the Miramar has a variety of room types and the owners plan to make at least some available for about $120 per night, a nod to the hotel's tradition of relatively low rates.

While many Schrager hotels enjoy a celebrity following and May have prices to match they are also meant to reflect their surrounding, and attract a mix of people. It's all part of the concept of hotel as theater.

Thus the public would be free to join in the show and stroll through the Miramar Property, dine at the restaurant, have a drink at the beachfront bar or schedule a massage at the spa.

At the Delano, where Dailey previously worked, he explained that it would not be unusual to find a star like Sylvester Stallone or the super-model Naomi Campbell "and a couple from Tulsa, all in the same group, all playing Pool and drinking cosmopolitans."

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