Post #622629 by TikiTomD on Fri, Jan 27, 2012 12:43 PM

Thank you, Sven, for the very nice words. Armchair archaeology, while not Indiana Jones exciting, can be quite effective when you are chasing ghosts. It’s still a thrill to connect the dots on a story about people and places that no longer inhabit the physical realm.

I did some fine tuning on the dials of my time machine (search engine) last night and came up with a July 14, 1957 article that indicated the Royal Hawaiian Motel was constructed in 1957. It noted that Marvin Cooper had pulled the biggest motel permit in the first half of that year for $145,000 to build 51 units (exactly the size of the Royal Hawaiian Motel). Another article mentioned that the Reef Beach Motel was built in 1958.

The following diagram summarizes the progression to date on tracing the history of the Royal Hawaiian Motel...

I came across another close-up of the Reef Beach Motel pool, prior to its acquisition by Perkins, posted on Flickr by Edge and corner wear...

In the next article, we learn that Del Perkins, owner of the Quality Inn Reef (which includes the old Royal Hawaiian Motel) holds an interest in a new hotel venture, the Marco Polo Oceanside; that fact will become significant later...

Daytona Beach Morning Journal August 30, 1969 (page 29)

The new 150-unit hotel opened in 1970...

Daytona Beach Morning Journal September 6, 1970 (page 27)

Here’s an old postcard of the Marco Polo Oceanside, for sale at CardCow.com...

And here is another postcard photo showing the beach end of the Marco Polo Oceanside, posted on Flickr by Edge and corner wear. A portion of the Quality Inn Reef can be seen just to the north in this view...

In 1975, Del Perkins and a new business partner, Jim Bazemore, operating as Reef Tower, Inc., took over the Marco Polo Oceanside and merged it with the Quality Inn Reef, renaming the Marco Polo part of the enlarged motel-hotel complex as the Reef Tower. The old Quality Inn Reef office at 921 South Atlantic Avenue moved southward into the new acquisition at 935 South Atlantic Avenue. The new complex went by the name Quality Inn Reef...

Daytona Beach Morning Journal January 4, 1975 (page 45)

Also in 1975, a restaurant and a lounge were added to the newly expanded Quality Inn Reef complex, the latter feature in spite of Marvin Cooper’s cautionary advice as the original Royal Hawaiian Motel owner...

Daytona Beach Morning Journal October 5, 1975 (page 89)

Here’s an ad for the new lounge...

Daytona Beach Morning Journal May 13, 1976 (page 26)

And here is an ad for the new restaurant, and another one for the ice cream parlor...

Daytona Beach Morning Journal October 19, 1975 (page 85)

Then, in 1979, Del & Kiki Perkins sold the Quality Inn Reef for $4.6M to a New York investment group; from that point on the archival records refer to it as the Reef Hotel...

Daytona Beach Morning Journal August 11, 1979 (page 116)

In 1987, the hotel complex went into bankruptcy proceedings, and, in 1988, SouthTrust Bank of Volusia County in South Daytona took over the hotel through foreclosure.

In 1989, a new 20's Jazz Club opened on the sixth floor of the Reef, featuring a bar that was once Al Capone’s...

The Daytona Beach News-Journal August 19, 1989 (page 33)

In 1996, the Reef Hotel property was purchased by Developer Investment Equities out of Miami, Florida and converted into a hotel-condominium called Ocean Jewels Club...

Orlando Sentinel June 6, 1996

As of 2012, Ocean Jewels Club remains as the last incarnation of the old Royal Hawaiian Motel, in the first block or so north of the Silver Beach Avenue Causeway on A1A. I drive by it at least twice a week. Here are a couple of street side Google Map photos of it...

And here are a couple of beach side views...

The completed event diagram tracing key milestones from the old Royal Hawaiian Motel in 1957 to today...

-Tom

[ Edited by: TikiTomD 2012-01-27 18:26 ]