The Palm Beach Post

Sun, Jul 04, 1965

Page 41

By JIM SHARP Staff Writer

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Apartments Going Up At Palm Beach Spa

 

Providing the weight reducing and therapeutic functions of the modern spa has become such a growing, elaborate business that the Palm Beach version will soon represent an investment of $4.5 million. Directing the expansion is Milton Hoff, president of Palm Beach Spa on Everglades Avenue, Palm Beach, which is being expanded across the street to include the entire adjacent block to the south.

 

Foundation work is currently under way on a new, luxury type complex of buildings to house 87 apartments at a cost of some $2.7 million. The construction area faces Lake Worth and extends eastward 450 feet to Bradley Place. Because of time limitations, and in order to avoid work during the approaching season, the new construction is being undertaken in two stages.

 

The 1965 stage, now in progress, consists of the construction of two groups of two-story buildings, each extending along an outside line of the property. These are being designated "lanai" for ground floor, and "villa" above. Each unit consists of living and bedroom and each will have an unobstructed view of either Lake Worth or a central pool and landscaped garden dividing the two wings. At the conclusion of the season, work is scheduled to start May 1 on a multi-story building at the rear along Bradley Place, completing a "W" facing Lake Worth. Hoff said that when the new buildings are completed, extensive remodeling will start on the present Palm Beach Spa, which extends from Lake Worth to Bradley.

 

He places a value of $1.5 million on the existing plant, and estimates renovations at approximately $300,000, or a total of $1.8 million. This, added to the $2.7 investment in new construction, would bring total value to some $4.5 million. Prior to the start of the new construction, the storied Beaux Arts Building, including the Beaux Arts Theater, Colony Club and shops — famed landmarks of a vanished Palm Beach era — were demolished.

 

The Beaux Arts Theater was built in 1916. That was, of course, before the United States entered World War I, and before nearly a half century of monetary erosion. Thus it is difficult to realize that the estimated $70,000 cost of the theater must have  represented an impressive investment at the time. An indication of the deterioration of the theater - and the related buildings - came in the fact that the entire complex was knocked down on the auction block for $68,500 in February, 1944.

 

Best bidder, before a turnout of the elite of that other wartime era, was Morris Weinberg, 183 E. Broadway, New York, at the time publisher of "The Day." Interestingly, Weinberg was then a guest at the old Mayflower Hotel, which later became the Palm Beach Spa. Hoff is keenly aware of the historical background of the site of the Spa extension and speaks with regret over the passing of the old landmark. The evolution of the spa itself explains, at least in part, why a multi-million dollar investment is now feasible. In 19th century Europe the spa grew into a fashionable meeting place as well as a resort - usually one or more hotels - situated near springs of supposedly salubrious mineral content.

 

The water, in a word, was good for what ails you. But through the first half of this century therapy at a spa was confined to drinking, or bathing in the benevolent waters. There appears to have been no inclusive effort to offer therapy in conjunction with lodging those seeking better health. In very recent years, probably as a result of the exposure of more Americans to the traditional European spa, the entire concept has changed.

 

The word has become more inclusive, of course, in that all sorts of places, like ski lodges, have called themselves spas. But in the more exact sense, the spa has become a location where health seekers spend a considerable time - weeks or even months - and follow a specified physical regimen, all in virtually the same establishment.

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Keeping Fit Is Lifelong Habit With Milton Hoff

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Keeping fit has been a lifelong habit with Milton Hoff. Coupled with an outgoing personality and an active, observant mind, self-imposed health habits probably account for his apparently boundless activity. This personal fitness has, of course, been a matter of design.

 

But his interest in the "health business" — which resulted in the development of a multi-million dollar Palm Beach enterprise dealing with the health of others — started by accident, or a series of them. Today, Hoff is expanding his Palm Beach Spa into an undertaking which will represent an investment of $4.5 million when it is completed next year.

 

This, of course, is by design, based on long and careful planning. The accidental entry into the business, however, actually started when he left his native Boston for Army service in World War II. Eventually, army service resulted in his being placed in charge of a group of European spas used toward the end of the war for rest and rehabilitation of troops.

 

"These places were not much by our standards," Hoff recalls, "and nobody had made any effort to convert them into modern businesses. "They were simply watering places. I learned something about them, but at the time the information didn't suggest any particular development, except that I became interested in the potentials of health as a business."

 

Immediately after the war, he went to Venezuela, where he spent the next 14 years and what could have been the rest of his life, if a .50 calibre machinegun slug fired by a revolutionist had traveled a slightly different trajectory. Instead, the bullet skinned past his leg and was imbedded, undistorted, in his mattress. He carries it now on a decorative silver chain as a memento of his years in Latin America — and his good luck. The revolution of 1958 was one of the few things Hoff appears not to have started in Venezuela. The things he did start — and enjoy — were numerous.

 

Developing his earlier observations in Europe, he started building spas for the Latin Americans, and for the North American businessmen, investors, oil men and others who were drawn to the booming Venezuela of the fifties. "I also started an import-export business  and a paper mill," he recalls. "What did I know about the paper business and paper mills?" He grins at the question, answering with utter candor, "Nothing." Nevertheless, he explains, the paper mill venture was successful, but the idea of building spas was uppermost. In all, he says, he built 17 of them in Venezuela. Then, of course, came the revolution and not only the old government, but its friends - including North Americans - suddenly became persona non grata.

 

His departure appears to have been both hurried and blessed by fortune, including the spent slug. If he did not return with a paper mill, a collection of spas and a trunkful of treasure, he did have a proven idea. As a result, he started building spas in Florida - seven in all, he says. "But these were for other people, and it was only a couple of years ago that I was able to operate one of my own," Hoff says. At this point, chance again took over and he met, through his work, the kind of people who could afford to invest in his ideas. One of them did; the results are going up in concrete and steel at Bradley Place and Everglades Avenue, where he is building a deluxe addition to Palm Beach Spa.

 

Another happy happenstance has been the recent trend among the financially well heeled to pay more attention to their health, especially their weight as it affects health and longevity. Good medical practice directs that weight be taken off without haste, but under an extremely strict regimen. At this point, the flesh becomes weak and the regimen must be other than self-imposed, in most cases. Therefore, the spa becomes, for those who can afford it, virtually mandatory.

 

Thus, clients not only come to the spa, but they come for weeks, even the entire winter season. The calories are low, but the tariff is high. "We are not interested in being merely a fat rendering plant," Hoff explains. "We want to restore as much good health as possible through exercise, building muscle tone, and a sense of well being.

 

"Most of our people are middle-aged, so we are not trying to operate a 'muscle factory.' But we do try to tone up people physically, and this varies, according to the physical potential and medical history of the individual." Invalids and those with contagious diseases, of course, are not accepted. A medical examination is the first step, and determines the type and amount of therapy needed.

 

For everyone, between three and four hours a day are spent in various forms of treatment, including massage, bathing, various forms of exercise, including isometrics. There is a sauna, with brandy "on the rocks" which Hoff describes as non-intoxicating "although you come out feeling very fine." After temperatures of 180 to 200 degrees - dry heat - it was suggested that merely coming out would make one feel fine, but devotees describe the experience as stimulating.

 

Most complex is the hydrotherapy treatment, which features individual pools, a mixture of salt and sulphur water at various temperatures and indirect pressures up to the equivalent of a fire hose. The hydrotherapy treatment again invokes the matter of chance. Hoff says many of his basic ideas here hark back to Boston and the late Sister Kenny of Australia - and the United States.

 

"Much of her work was controversial and some of it discredited," he explains, "but not her use of hydrotherapy, which drew considerable approval. When I was going to school in Boston I worked for a while at a pool where Sister Kenny was treating patients by hydrotherapy and much I learned and remembered has been proved beneficial." The "health business" apparently will be with the family for another generation, at least. Hoff's son, Michael, a recent graduate of Palm Beach High School, enters Tulane University at New Orleans this fall. And he will study to become a doctor.

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