Palm Beach Daily News – 28th October 2022

The Chesterfield will undergo a complete renovation, offering updated bars, a restaurant, and a smaller number of rooms

Goodbye, Chesterfield. Hello, Vineta.

The historic Chesterfield, a landmark boutique hotel in the heart of Palm Beach that sold for $42 million in April and closed in September, will have new life under its new owners, with a name that hearkens back to its founding.

The pale pink building at 363 Cocoanut Row that closed in September for renovations now will be called The Vineta Hotel, a nod to its name from 1928 through the late 1970s, the new owners, London-based Reuben Brothers and family-run luxury hoteliers Oetker Collection, announced this week. The hotel’s reopening date is planned for late 2023, according to a news release.

“This is a monumental moment in the brand’s history as we announce our first Masterpiece Hotel in the United States,” Oetker Collection CEO Timo Gruenert said, adding that many of the brand’s guests regularly visit or live in Palm Beach. “We, therefore, look forward to extending Oetker Collection’s unique hospitality ethos based on our values of family spirit, elegance and genuine kindness, to this wonderful town with The Vineta Hotel.”

The Oetker Collection now has 12 hotels, with 10 open and two in development. In addition to Palm Beach, the brand has properties in vacation destinations such as Geneva, St. Barth’s, the French Riviera and Capri.

Originally named the Lido-Venice, The Vineta has a storied history. It opened in 1926 as a hotel, whose owner, Lido-Venice Corp. of New York, had the building’s interior decorated in an appropriately Venetian style.

It was renamed The Vineta in 1928 and became condos in 1980, and by 1985 was operating as The Palm Court hotel-condominium. In 1989, it became part of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection and was renamed The Chesterfield.

For decades, the Palm Beach hotel today known as the Chesterfield operated as The Vineta, seen here in an undated photograph.

For decades, the Palm Beach hotel known as The Chesterfield operated as The Vineta, seen here in an undated photograph. The new owners of the hotel have renamed the venue The Venita Hotel and reopening is planned for 2023.

 

The history and central location of The Vineta Hotel was a major draw for the Oetker Collection, spokeswoman Nicole Vassallo said. “They really will only open hotels where guests frequent and had experiences there they really enjoyed,” she said.

From famous celebrities to royalty: It’s last call for fans of the Leopard Lounge in Palm Beach

Client input is so important to the organization that when Oetker Collection was developing The Vineta concept, general managers at other locations reached out to guests with whom they have strong relationships to get their thoughts, Vassallo said.

“The response that they got was overwhelmingly positive,” she said.

In 1986, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1991, Palm Beach designated the building a landmark, which protects its exterior walls from significant alterations without permission from the town’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. Without that approval, the iconic pale pink and Mediterranean Revival architecture will remain unchanged.

Inside the building is a different story.

Paris-based interior designer Tino Zervudachi is leading a sweeping renovation of the hotel, the owners said in a news release. The number of rooms will be reduced from 53 to 41, the release said.

“The concept behind the interior design for The Vineta Hotel is to infuse it with a fresh Palm Beach feel by bringing in clean lines, a relaxed ambiance, and a stylish and younger feeling palette of colors,” Zervudachi said in the news release. “It’s my aim to create a real new venue for visitors and residents alike — taking extra care to enhance the exterior dining spaces both at the pool and the courtyard — by establishing a cosmopolitan look that blends European design cues with the destination’s unmistakable aesthetic.”

But what will become of the popular Leopard Lounge, which drew locals, travelers and celebrities to sit in its glossy black booths with slits of light coming in through the shuttered windows, under a hand-painted ceiling? The leopard-print carpet and the leopard statue that sat atop the slick black piano were iconic.

The former Leopard Lounge will be one of four dining and entertainment environments on the first floor of the Vineta. 

It’s still too soon to say, but Vassallo said the team hopes to “breathe new life” into the space while honoring its heritage.

The former Leopard Lounge will be one of four dining and entertainment environments on the first floor of the Vineta. The iconic courtyard, with its flowering vines and lush palms, will become an al fresco dining area. Oetker Collection plans to add a new “statement bar” with a handful of seats. A Mediterranean-inspired indoor-outdoor poolside restaurant will round out the dining options.

“We are incredibly excited to be working with Oetker Collection on The Vineta Hotel in Palm Beach — a place very close to my and my family’s heart,” Jamie Reuben of Reuben Brothers said. “With Oetker Collection’s renowned and refined approach to luxury hospitality, I am confident that the hotel will become a staple in Palm Beach for generations to come.”