In 1992 a Miami Beach, Florida company named South Beach Furniture became the owner of Heywood-Wakefield. Here's how it happened. As far back as the mid-seventies, the southern tip of Miami Beach, Florida, was attracting attention because of its wealth of architecturally significant hotels, apartment buildings and stores, a large number of which were built in the years immediately following a disastrous 1926 hurricane, which nearly leveled the young city. Many of these structures were erected in a style which came to be known as "Tropical Deco", and in fact, this area today is the fabulous play-land now called "South Beach". In the early eighties, entrepreneurs began locating new businesses in the so-called "Art Deco District" of South Beach, and it was during this period that The South Beach Furniture Company was founded. Originally specializing in finding and restoring unusual or interesting furniture and decorative items from the Art Deco, '40s and '50s periods, Leonard Riforgiato,
