Doral is a city located in north-central Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. An industrial and suburban mixed neighborhood of Miami, it lies North-West of Miami International Airport. It takes its name from the Doral Golf Resort & Spa located within its municipal boundaries. Originally built by Doris and Alfred Kaskel, who coined “Doral” by combining their first names, who dredged the swamp to build, in 1962, the Doral Hotel and Country Club, (now Donald Trump’s Trump National Doral) a wildly popular wealthy golfer retreat and sibling hotel to the Doral Beach Resort in Miami Beach. The city of Doral is also known as Doralzuela due to the city’s large and affluent Venezuelan community. Doral has a large number of shops, financial institutions and businesses, especially importers and exporters, primarily because of its proximity to the Miami International Airport. In 2008, Fortune Small Business and CNN Money ranked Doral as 51 on a list of 100 cities with the best mix of business advantages and lifestyle appeal.

By the early 1980s, Doral started to experience the first spurts of growth when Alfred’s and Doris’ grandson Bill developed Doral Estates that was followed by a joint venture with Lennar Homes to build Doral Park. Both communities were named after the Hotel, a trend that was to be repeated many more times. Younger families started flooding the area but had to travel to purchase even the most basic essentials, because there were no stores, schools, or parks. Although the majority of the original homes were investment properties or second homes, the early fulltime residents believed that the quality of life and the low housing costs far exceeded the lack of amenities and started coming together as a community.

In 2002, the Governor appointed Cancio to fill the remainder of Commissioner Miriam Alonso’s term of office. Doral residents hoped that his appointment would be the impetus to bring the community closer to incorporation, and Cancio did not let his community down. In the meantime, Cancio named Juan Carlos Bermudez, the City of Doral’s first elected Mayor, as his replacement to the Community Council. Bermudez declined the offer and 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 Council. One Doral and the West Dade Federation were instrumental in the incorporation process.

In January 2003, following a seven-year battle, 85% of the voters in Doral voted in favor of incorporation. At long last, they had their own new city with a local government and more service for their tax dollars. In June of the same year, 92% voted to accept the City Charter and elected their first Mayor and City Council.

The City of Doral has come a very long way in a very short time and is attracting positive attention from Fortune 100 corporations, mom-and-pop businesses, young families and retirees.

Interested in Selling, Buying, Renting a home/townhouse in Doral? Call me 786.554.8063; I can help, because working with someone who knows the numbers and area is crucial.