Doral, Florida

In the late 1950s, real estate pioneers Alfred and Doris Kaskel purchased 2,400 acres of swampland between Northwest 36 Street and Northwest 74 Street and from Northwest 79 Avenue to Northwest 117 Avenue for about $49,000, intending to build a golf course and hotel. In 1962, the Doral Country Club opened in western Dade County, featuring the blue, red and par-3 golf courses, along with a hotel on Miami Beach. The "Doral" name combined Doris and Alfred. As Doral's very first structure, the Doral Hotel and Country Club became the area's hot spot: guests were transported from the beach to the country club for a day on the golf course.[6]

In the second year of operations, the Kaskels hosted the first Doral Open Invitational, Florida's major PGA event.[6] Alfred offered $50,000 in prize money to attract well-known golfers. According to the South Florida Golf Foundation, at the time only three other tournaments were held in Florida, offering a combined total of $65,000 prize money.

By the early 1980s, Doral started to experience its first residential growth spurt, when Alfred's and Doris' grandson Bill developed Doral Estates, followed by a joint venture with Lennar Corporation to build Doral Park. Both communities were named after the hotel, a trend that was to be repeated many more times. Although younger families started flooding the area, there were no stores, schools, or parks. Initially, most new homes were investment properties or second homes, but early full-time residents started coming together as a community.

From 1983 to 1985, Miami-Dade County imposed a building moratorium to protect the area's water wells. Once the ban was lifted, Doral experienced tremendous growth. In 1989, Morgan Levy helped organize the West Dade Federation of Homeowner Associations to stand strong against any proposals that threatened the community's welfare. Thus, they secured a police station instead of a jail, as well as convinced county officials to implement higher development standards as well as more lighting, roads and landscaping.

In 1995, residents began lobbying for incorporation in earnest, dissatisfied with the high tax rate relative to the services they received, as well as unchecked growth. The county met the first attempt at incorporation with a year's deferral. Some classified Doral as a "donor community," meaning that the taxes paid were more than the cost of operations.[6] With the deferral, incorporation efforts intensified even more. In 1996, the community elected its first community council: Jose "Pepe" Cancio, Sr., Mario Pita and Barbara B. Thomas were elected and three other members were appointed. The council initially met once every month.[6]

In 2002, Governor Jeb Bush appointed Cancio to fill the remainder of Miami-Dade Commissioner Miriam Alonso's term of office. Doral residents hoped that his appointment would bring the community closer to incorporation, and their hopes were realized. Although Cancio endorsed Juan Carlos Bermudez, the City of Doral's first elected Mayor, as his replacement on the Community Council, Bermudez declined the offer, ran for the seat and was elected. At the time, Bermudez was president of One Doral, a civic organization formed to counteract the perceived influence of the West Dade Federation on the new Council. However, both One Doral and the West Dade Federation proved essential to the incorporation process.

In January 2003, following a seven-year battle, 85% of Doral's voters voted in favor of incorporation. In June of the same year, 92% voted to accept the City Charter and elected their first Mayor and City Council.

The new City of Doral was named as an attractive location for entrepreneurs with an interest in the Latin America market.[7] Mayor Luigi Boria, elected in November 2012, became the second Venezuelan-American mayor in the United States. He was replaced by Juan Carlos Bermudez who won a reelection bid in 2016.[8]

The city of Doral has its own newspaper, Doral Community Newspapers, which is published bi-weekly and is part of Miami Community Newspapers. Also, The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald publish from their headquarters in Doral.[9][10] Two big media outlets have their headquarters in Doral: Univision Network/Fusion and CBS-owned & operated affiliate WFOR-TV, Channel 4. Several studios and other TV operations work out from Doral. In addition, the Telemundo chain has a presence in the City of Doral, with one of its main office and production units located there.

Doral is located at 25°48′29″N 80°21′12″W.[11]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 13.6 square miles (35 km²). 13.2 square miles (34 km²) of it is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km²) of it (3.52%) is water.

As of the 2010, there were 17,785 households, out of which 14.3% were vacant. As of 2000, 38.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.0% were married couples living together, 9.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.6% were non-families. 22.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 1.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.12.

In 2000, the city population was spread out, with 25.1% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 43.6% from 25 to 44, 18.7% from 45 to 64, and 4.8% who were 65 years of age or older. As of 2000, the median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.0 males.

In 2000, the median income for a household in the CDP was $53,060, and the median income for a family was $57,193. Males had a median income of $46,324 versus $32,827 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $27,705. About 9.5% of families and 11.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.8% of those under age 18 and 10.6% of those age 65 or over.

As of 2000, speakers of Spanish as a first language accounted for 74.5%, while English accounted for 16.2%, Portuguese was spoken by 5.0%, Chinese made up 1.0%, Tamil at 0.6%, Japanese at 0.5%, and Arabic was the mother tongue for 0.5% of the population.[13]

As of 2010, Doral had the second-highest percentage of Venezuelans residents in the US, with 8.2% of the population, which is how Doral earned its nickname:”Doralzuela”.[14] It had the thirty-third highest percentage of Cuban residents in the US, at 15.2% of the city's population,[15] and the sixth-highest percentage of Colombian residents in the US, at 8.7% of its population.[16] It also had the tenth-most Peruvians in the US, at 3.0%,[17] while it had the forty-eighth-highest percentage of Dominicans, at 2.6% of all residents.[18] It had the thirteenth-highest concentration of Brazilians, with 2.5% of the city (tied with Newark, N.J. and Oak Bluffs, Mass.)[19] Doral's Nicaraguan community had the twenty-sixth-highest percentage of residents, which comprised 1.7% of the population.[20] It is also home to the fifty-first-highest percentage of Ecuadorian residents, which made up 1.18% of the population.[21]

Carnival Corporation and Carnival Cruise Lines headquarters in Doral

In 2005 Doral had over 10,000 businesses. During that year Carnival Cruise Lines, Ryder, and Univision had operations in Doral. For years leading into 2005, Doral attracted businesses of various sizes.[22]

Carnival Corporation and subsidiary Carnival Cruise Lines have their headquarters in Doral.[23][24][25] In addition, Amadeus North America, AAXICO,[26] Benihana,[27][28][29] and Perry Ellis International have their headquarters in Doral.[25][30][31]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Miami Branch Office, one of the five Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta branch offices, is located in Doral.[32]

Martinair operates its Americas headquarters in the Doral Corporate Center One in Doral.[33][34][35] Avianca operates a Miami-area sales office in Doral.[36] Grupo TACA operates a Miami-area TACA Center in Doral.[37] El Al has its Miami-area office in Doral.[38] Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has its USA head office in Doral.[39]

Before Doral was incorporated, the second (1996–1998) Pan American World Airways had its headquarters in Doral.[40] At one time Ryder had its headquarters in Doral.[41] In 2002 Ryder announced that it would move its headquarters to a new site in Miami-Dade County.[42]

Portions of CSI: Miami episodes were filmed at CBS' Doral studios, which is home to its owned-and-operated affiliate, WFOR-TV, as well as MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFS-TV.

In September 2017, Doral published a comprehensive economic study which noted that "The City is home to 6,802 establishments employing 102,235 workers. The total volume of sales revenue from these companies, concentrated in such a small geographic area, represents $679,634 per worker, or over $1.35 million per resident making Doral one of South Florida’s and the State’s most productive local economies."[43]

The Doral Police Department was started on June 2, 2008,[44] with 93 officers.[45] Previously, the Miami-Dade Police Department served the area with stickers on the sides of its cars showing Doral's logo.

On January 20, 2015, former basketball star Shaquille O'Neal was sworn in as a reserve officer for Doral's police force.[46]

The City of Doral Trolley was launched on February 1, 2008 and has been available to residents and visitors alike for a convenient free ride. The pilot program involved a weekday route that ran from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm with one trolley servicing one route. Since then, the City has added five new trolleys and has expanded service with two additional routes, one of which connects to the Metrorail. Currently the system has three routes serviced by seven trolleys.[53]

• 2000 U.S. Census Map of Doral CDP: Index and pages 1, 2, 3, and 4. -- Also less detailed map at: "Doral CDP, Florida"
• 1990 U.S. Census maps of Dade County (index map) show Doral CDP at the time on pages 55 and 56.

• City of Doral website