Miami s exclusive club The Bath Club has reopened with new owners.
After years of excluding Black people, its current owner Don Peebles is African American.
The new owner talks to Insider about his plans to build an exclusively inclusive club to cater to a new generation of private club-goers.
When R. Donahue Peebles first set foot on the sand of the Beach Club in Miami in 1996, toured its three acres of private beach, two clay tennis courts, and 26,000-square-foot clubhouse, he had no idea he would be the private social club s first African American member. It was a beautiful Mediterranean building, said Peebles, who is the founder of the multi-billion dollar real estate development company Peebles Corporation. He d come to Miami to build the Royal Palm Hotel in South Beach a project that would make him the first African American to develop a major hotel in the US.
He was the first African American member of Miami s most exclusive social club. Today, he owns it - and has a plan to recoup his $8 million investment. ddavis@businessinsider.com (Dominic-Madori Davis)
Miami s exclusive club The Bath Club has reopened with new owners.
After years of excluding Black people, its current owner Don Peebles is African American.
The new owner talks to Insider about his plans to build an exclusively inclusive club to cater to a new generation of private club-goers.
When R. Donahue Peebles first set foot on the sand of the Beach Club in Miami in 1996, toured its three acres of private beach, two clay tennis courts, and 26,000-square-foot clubhouse, he had no idea he would be the private social club s first African American member.