French investors buy MiMo motel, Blue Collar restaurant

A French real estate investment family bought a long-closed motel in the MiMo Biscayne Boulevard Historic District, with ground-floor commercial space that is home to Blue Collar restaurant. 

Eric Shea, through an affiliate, sold the 52-key Biscayne Inn at 6730 Biscayne Boulevard, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The buyers — patriarch and matriarch Armand and Ledicia Amsellem, their sons Eric and Stephane Amsellem, as well as daughter Sylvie Amsellem-Mouyal and her husband, Eric Mouyal — paid nearly $180,000 per key. 

The deal marks a new chapter for the Biscayne Inn. Built in 1956 on 0.7 acres, the two-story property is part of a string of motels along Biscayne Boulevard designed in the Miami Modern, or MiMo, architectural style popularized after World War II. The Biscayne Inn was undergoing renovation when the pandemic hit, and subsequently never re-opened, according to Eric Mouyal. 

Now, the buyers plan to re-open the Biscayne Inn after giving the property a roughly $400,000 facelift, Mouyal said. Blue Collar, known for its American comfort food, will remain. 

The Amsellems and Mouyal took out a $4.3 million loan for the property from Interaudi Bank, according to records and Vizzda. 

The family, who moved to South Florida about a decade ago, has invested in condos, as well as the two-story, 16-key Leeward Motel at 11790 Biscayne Boulevard near North Miami, according to Mouyal. They paid $3.4 million for the property in 2019, records show. 

The Amsellems and Mouyal also own the Hôtel Canella Beach in Pointe de la Verdure, Guadeloupe, Mouyal said. 

The impending re-opening of the Biscayne Inn will join in on the rebirth of the MiMo district. By the early 2000s, the area had been long overlooked and was a hotbed for crime. Developer Avra Jain bought and re-opened most of the motels, while also preserving the properties’ 1950s and ‘1960s historic character. Her conquests include The Vagabond Motel at 7301 Biscayne Boulevard and The South Pacific Motel at 6300 Biscayne Boulevard. The district has since become one of Miami’s popular dining and entertainment neighborhoods.

The MiMo district has been largely devoid of new construction, with the exception of The Boulevard apartment building. Late last year, Arnaud Karsenti’s 13th Floor Investments and Ben Mandell’s Tricera Capital completed the eight-story, 282-unit building at 5700 Biscayne Boulevard, and sold it to Pantzer Properties for $175 million.