For Avra Jain and Biscayne Boulevard, what’s old is new again.
Avra Jain at the Vagabond Hotel, one of the Upper East Side’s MiMo gems she’s restoring to its former glory.
Miami’s Upper East Side—the area many erroneously call “MiMo” because of Biscayne Boulevard’s main architectural style—is booming, and developer Avra Jain has emerged as its champion. Jain is, more than anybody else, the person who represents the unique underdog nature of the neighborhood.
As archaic as it seems, real estate development in Miami is dominated by men, but Jain is making her mark by going against the grain. Instead of going for new and flashy, she’s restoring an eclectic mélange of faded MiMo gems to their former glory along this iconic stretch of Biscayne Boulevard between 50th Street and 79th Street.
Jain’s Upper East Side flagship is the Vagabond Hotel, a midcentury classic long shuttered but the trophy of Biscayne Boulevard’s motel row. “Everyone wanted the Vagabond, but I got it,” says Jain in her beautifully candid way, and she’s since put it through a massive renovation. The Vagabond shines via its details: Guest rooms are decorated with cool, flamboyant retro furniture. Underground gas lines circle the pool deck, awaiting the installation of tiki torches, and waterspouts decoratively gush into the pool. A retractable screen will descend behind the poolside bandstand for outdoor movies and, when not swimming, guests can relax in custom made rattan chaise lounges.
A rendering of the Knoxon Motel, formerly The Royal Motel, originally built in 1951.
Designed in 1953 by B. Robert Swartburg, a prominent architect of his day who also designed the Delano Hotel in South Beach, the Vagabond has always stood out. “As a building, it functions very well,” says Jain. “In the way the pool is placed, the way the pool deck is elevated, and the way the rooms are oriented around it, all with an amphitheater-like setting. The only thing ‘motel’ about it is the parking on the exterior.”
Jain is also saving The Royal Motel next door, dating from 1951, as an annex to the Vagabond. The Royal—to be renamed the Knoxon Motel postrevamp—is a full gut job, and will house a cooking school from chef Norman Van Aken, a pioneer in Floribbean cuisine, and fellow chef Candace Walsh. With John Kunkel’s 50 Eggs headquarters going in a former Art Deco motel just across the street, it seems this neck of the district has a great gastronomical future ahead of it. Up the street at Motel Blu, a new restaurant will come to the old Red Light space and, word is, the long-shuttered Gold Dust lounge in the Blu’s basement (after the Blu’s original name, Gold Dust) is eventually reopening, too. Back at the Vagabond, the hotel’s new restaurant will be operated by Alvaro Perez Miranda, a former New York gallerist making his culinary debut.
The old Bayside Motor Inn on 51st Street will be preserved as an operating motel, seen in this rendering.
At 64th Street, Jain is working on the Stephen’s International Motel, where she has maintained the building’s two Midcentury Modern “bookends.” Between them, she’s inserting a new glassy vitrinelike building, with a Starbucks and a drive-through window. A block south, she’ll convert the circa-1953 South Pacific Motel into offices (but keep the lovely signage and angled stone façade), and The Bayside Motor Inn on 51st Street, built in the same era as the others, will be preserved as an operating motel with the help of the architect she’s using on many of her projects, Dean Lewis.
Jain is also widening her sphere of influence. “You begin to see things in corridors, and the way the corridors relate to each other shows how neighborhood populations shift to other neighborhoods,” she says. Just this summer, she bought the beloved piano bar Magnum Lounge just east of the boulevard on 79th Street, but won’t change much, since she’s charmed by what previous owner Jeffrey Landsman was doing. As Miami’s Upper East Side grows, the frontier naturally expands west to Little River. Jain says she is “digging” the area: “It’s the alternative to Wynwood. Artists have already moved there, and galleries are looking.” She sees the area attracting people from Wynwood and the Design District, forming an artist neighborhood of creatives. “It could become the ‘back of house’ for the Design District,” Jain says. “Still industrial, but artistic.”
To facilitate this vision, Jain is partnering with realtor and fellow developer Tony Cho to buy and manage a large warehouse at the center of a railroad junction called Rail 71, where they will create work space for small manufacturers, start-ups, and other creative types. It’s just another example of Jain’s knack for seeing possibilities before others do.