Before the Towers: Remembering Old Sunny Isles Beach

Published on June 01, 2026

by Larisa Svechin, Mayor

If you've lived in Sunny Isles Beach long enough, or even if you've just heard the stories, you know this city didn't always look the way it does today.

Before the towers went up, Collins Avenue was something else entirely. As many as fifty motels lined the strip, each one trying to outdo the next: the Dunes with its pharaoh sculptures, the Driftwood, the Castaways, the Sea Breeze, the Tahiti, the Waikiki, the Thunderbird, the Tangiers, and so many more. The Sahara with the life-size concrete camels standing guard on the lawn. The Suez had a fiberglass pyramid flanked by sphinxes. The Blue Mist had mermaids. Rooms went for eighteen dollars a night, and every motel had a tiki bar out back where bands played under the stars and where Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were spotted.

The pier was built in 1936, nearly 900 feet of wood stretching into the Atlantic. That’s where everybody ended up: fishermen at dawn, families in the afternoon, teens at sunset. Down at the Castaways, the Wreck Bar was the place to be after dark. The Newport's 7 Seas Lounge hosted Tina Turner and Chuck Berry. Legend has it that The Beatles hung out there after filming The Ed Sullivan Show at the Deauville Hotel. And when you were hungry, you walked into the Rascal House at 172nd and Collins.

A lot has changed since then, but not everything. The Newport (now The Sunny) is still standing, as are Marco Polo and the Sahara. The restored and reopened pier still stretches into the ocean. And if you look around the city, you'll find relics of that era we've made a point to keep, because progress and memory don't have to be at odds.

That's something I think about often as we plan for the future of Sunny Isles Beach. We're growing, and we should. But we also owe something to the people and the places that made this community worth building in the first place.

If you have old photos or memories of the Sunny Isles Beach you grew up with, I'd love to see them. This city's history belongs to all of us.

Contact Mayor Larisa Svechin at mayor@sibfl.net or call 305.792.1753.