Piola, the popular pizza place, is opening another restaurant in Miami Beach as it continues to expand in South Florida.
The restaurant just signed a lease for 1,753 square feet on the ground floor and 853 square feet of outdoor patio at 4000 Collins Avenue, Irma Figueroa, director of retail leasing and sales for Comras Company, told The Real Deal. Figueroa represented Piola; Jonathan Carter and Robin Weiner of Comras Company represented the landlord.
The property is a future Hampton Inn. In October 2015, Pebb Capital and Duncan Hillsley Capital, two investment firms based in Boca Raton, bought the site of the aging Continental on Collins condo-hotel in Mid-Beach. The joint venture paid about $23.36 million to buy out the owners of all 102 condos and 18 commercial units at the building, according to county records. Some of the units were transferred using a quit claim deed, so the full price is unknown.
Pebb and Duncan Hillsley completely gutted the building’s interiors to transform the five-story building into a 90-key Hampton Inn with ground-floor restaurant space. The renovations are still ongoing, and Figueroa said Piola is waiting for the owners to turn over the space so it can begin its buildout.
Piola has been adding new locations in South Florida, recently leasing space at 705 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach, at Suniland Shopping Center in Pinecrest and at Gateway Plaza in Doral. Piola also has locations on Brickell in Miami, in Hallandale Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Weston, as well as in Houston, Texas; Arlington, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and Raleigh, North Carolina, according to its website. The company had operated at 1625 Alton Road, near the corner of Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, for 15 years before its lease expired at the end of August 2015.