When the Bankers Club opened in downtown Miami in 1972, lawyers, bankers and real estate moguls flocked there for three-hour martini lunches with clients enjoyed in a plush, stately room with panoramic views of Biscayne Bay.

Memberships were $1,000 a year plus $100 a month, but that didn’t deter 1,440 of Miami’s power elite from joining the tony club on the 14th floor of One Biscayne Tower at the height of its popularity in the mid-1990s.