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About Doral Cay and the City of
Doral
Doral is a city
located in north-central Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States.
A suburb of Miami, it lies north-west of Miami International
Airport. It takes its name from the famous golf and spa resort
located within its municipal boundaries. The Doral Golf Resort & Spa
was originally built by Doris and Alfred Kaskel, who coined "Doral"
by combining their names. The City of Doral was incorporated along
with Miami Gardens in 2003. As of the 2000 census, the population
was 20,438. According to 2009 U.S. Census estimates, the city had a
population of 46,000 making it one of the fastest growing cities in
Miami-Dade County. For a city of its size, Doral has a large number
of shops, financial institutions and businesses, especially
importers and exporters, primarily because of its proximity to the
Miami International Airport. In 2008, Fortune Small Business and CNN
Money ranked Doral as 51 on a list of 100 cities with the best mix
of business advantages and lifestyle appeal.
Doral Cay Clubhouse - Developer
Rendering
History of the City
of Doral, Florida
From Everglades to
Industrial Center to Hometown - The City of Doral (Based on
information provided by Ciudad Doral article written by Cindy
Rodriguez-Pereira)
1950-1980 In the late
1950s, real estate pioneer Alfred and Doris Kaskel purchased 2,400
acres of swampland between NW 36 Street and NW 74 Street and from NW
79 Avenue to NW 117 Avenue for about $49,000 with the intention of
building a golf course and hotel. In 1962, the Kaskel's dream came
true when they opened a hotel and country club that featured the
Blue, Red and Par 3 golf courses. They named it Doral - a
combination of Alfred and Doris.
According to a story
in The Miami Herald, Alfred was born in Poland and migrated to New
York when he was 21 years old and became a real estate developer.
His first project was building 15,000 apartments in New York. After
marrying Doris, the Kaskels moved south and built the Doral Beach
Hotel and the Carillon Hotel on Miami Beach. Once the Country Club
was built, guests were transported from the Beach to the Country
Club for a day on the golf course. As Doral's very first structure,
the Doral Hotel and Country Club became the area's hot spot. In the
second year of operation, the Kaskels hosted the first Doral Open
Invitational, Florida's major PGA event. Alfred offered $50,000 in
prize money to attract well-known golfers. To put it in perspective,
according to the South Florida Golf Foundation, there were only
three other tournaments being held in Florida at the time with a
combined total of $65,000 prize money.
Today, the Doral Golf
Resort & Spa, located at NW 87 Avenue and NW 36 Street, is
internationally famous for its golf courses, especially the Blue
Monster, and still hosts the PGA Tour Tournament every year. The
Spa, originally called the Saturnia International Spa, was added to
the Resort in 1987 and is ranked as one of the top spa destinations
in the US and the largest in the state of Florida. 1980-2000 By the
early '80s, Doral started to experience the first spurts of growth
when Alfred's and Doris' grandson Bill developed Doral Cay that
was followed by a joint venture with Lennar Homes to build Doral
Park. Both communities were named after the Hotel, a trend that was
to be repeated many more times.
Younger families
started flooding the area but had to travel to purchase even the
most basic essentials, because there were no stores - or schools or
parks. Although the majority of the original homes were investment
properties or second homes, the early fulltime residents believed
that the quality of life and the low housing costs far exceeded the
lack of amenities and started coming together as a community.
Traffic problems were nonexistent, except for the occasional escaped
cow. There were more farms with cows, horses and chickens that
people on NW 107 Avenue; NW 87 Avenue was just two lanes and NW 41
Street ended at NW 104 Avenue. From 1983-85, the county imposed a
building moratorium for the area to protect the well fields. Once
the ban was lifted, Doral experienced tremendous growth. The West
Dade Federation of Homeowner Associations was formed in 1989 under
t he leadership of Morgan Levy to stand strong against any proposals
that threatened the community's welfare. As a result of their
efforts, a police station instead of a jail was built, higher
development standards were implemented, and more lighting, roads and
landscaping appeared in the area.
Incorporation began
in earnest in 1995 with the realization that residents were paying a
very high price for services received; they wanted more services at
a reasonable price. The County met the first attempt at
incorporation with a year's deferral. Doral had been classified as a
"donor community," meaning that the taxes paid were more than the
cost of operations. With the defferal, incorporation efforts
intensified even more. The County was allowing unchecked growth that
was detrimental to the residents. In 1996, the first election of the
Community Council was held and soon-to-be County Commissioner Jose "Pepe"
Cancio, Sr., Mario Pita and Barbara B. Thomas were elected and three
other members were appointed. The Council met every month to work on
different projects and to address the needs of the community.
2000-Present In 2002,
the Governor appointed Cancio to fill the remainder of Commissioner
Miriam Alonso's term of office; she had been suspended after an
arrest on felony charges. Doral residents hoped that his appointment
would be the impetus to bring the community closer to incorporation,
and Cancio did not let his community down. In the meantime, Cancio
named Juan Carlos Bermudez, the City of Doral's first elected Mayor,
as his replacement to the Community Council. Bermudez declined the
offer and ran for the seat and was elected. At the time, Bermudez
was president of One Doral, a civic organization formed to
counteract the perceived influence of the West Dade Federation on
the Council. The Miami Herald reported that Bermudez intended to
create a transparent government in Doral by bringing a balance to
the table. One Doral and the West Dade Federation were instrumental
in the incorporation process.
In January 2003,
following a seven year battle, 85% of the voters in Doral voted in
favor of incorporation. At long last, they had their own new city
with a local government and more service for their tax dollars. In
June of the same year, 92% voted to accept the City Charter and
elected their first Mayor and City Council - Mayor Juan Carlos
Bermudez, Vice Mayor Pete Cabrera, and Council Members Mike DiPietro,
Sandra Ruiz, and Robert Van Name. In August, the City Council took
their oath of office. In 2002, the KSL Hotel Corporation, the
company now operating Doral Golf Resort & Spa, filed a lawsuit
against Hotel Intercontinental for using Doral in its name. They
also wanted the new City to pay $1,000 a month for 22 years for use
of the name Doral. The elected officials went to bat and the Resort
agreed not to charge for the name usage. The Hotel also reached an
agreement and changed its name to Intercontinental at Doral Miami.
The City of Doral has come a very long way in a very short time and
is attracting positive attention from Fortune 100 corporations,
mom-and-pop businesses, young families and retirees. More and more
people are choosing Doral every day - For all the right reasons! |
