The Hotel Mimo on Biscayne Boulevard is undergoing renovations and rebranding to become the latest ZenMotel, The Real Deal has learned.
Sheldon Klein, owner of the ZenMotel Inn and the ZenMotel Residences, has partnered with a group of Cancun, Mexico-based hoteliers who hold a 19-year lease at the Hotel Mimo at 7126 Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. Klein said the partners are spending about $500,000 to renovate the three-story, 31-room hotel, which he acknowledges was “pretty seedy.” Plans are to reopen as the ZenMotel Mimo by Nov. 1.
Investor Todd Leoni owns the nearly 7,500-square-foot building, which was built in 1939. Renovations will include changing the color schemes of the rooms, adding new doors, awnings, a fence, and all new furniture shipped from Bali, as well as new air conditioning and refinished bathrooms, Klein said. The top floor of the hotel will be designated “business class,” with mini-kitchens, wifi and other features for guests who want to live and work onsite. Guests will also have access to a boat for boat rides, he said.
The Biscayne Boulevard hotel represents the first in Miami for the Mexico-based hoteliers, who own more than 80 hotels in Mexico. The aim is for it to become the flagship for the ZenMotel brand, Klein said. “We’re going to take the show on the road. That is the promise of my Spanish partners: ‘Make this one work with the concept and we will open this anywhere in the world for you.'”
Klein opened the eight-room ZenMotel Inn at 575 Northeast 61st Street in Miami in February. He furnished the units with Balinese furniture, rain showers, ceiling fans and kitchenettes, and every room comes equipped with a Buddha, yoga mat and robe. He paid $650,000 for the building in May 2016 and completely renovated it. Rates are $79 a night in the summer, and occupancy is at about 60 percent, Klein said.
ZenMotel Residences, at 515 Northeast 82nd Street in Miami, was his first ZenMotel, and is geared to longer-term stays. It has been operating for about two years.
Klein said he is also looking at a site that could be a co-working space for guests who stay at any of the three ZenMotels in the Mimo District. “Hopefully it happens,” he said. “It’s in negotiations.”