The San Juan Star, 1980's

The Normandie Hotel has been declared a national monument and included in the National Register of Historic Places, Making it elegible for federal restoration funds and protecting it from major structural changes, The State Historic Preservation Office announced Tuesday.

The Designation was made by the U.S Interior Department's Heritage Consevation and Recreation Service, at the request of private citizens, the fondo de mejoramiento and the State Historic Preservation Office, which is headed by Rafael Rivera García.

The Art Deco Structure is in process of being sold by the federal Goverment ,which adquired it several years ago in a tax case involving the building's original owner ,the late Felix Benítez Rexach, who built the Hotel in 1938.

As of Tuesday U.S District Judge Juan R. Torruella had not decided which of two offers for the Hotel should be accepted.

One offer, for 1.5 million was made by the PR Industrial Development Co., which presumably wants to reopen the Normandie as a Hotel. The other offer came from Four Winds Rental, a corporation owned by Franklin Delano López and Gabriel Díaz, who want to convert the Hotel into an apartment building.