Boutique hotel and speakeasy-type social club are on the way to Mississippi Coast
The historic Salloum building in downtown Gulfport is being transformed into a new boutique hotel and social club.
The Thrash Group real estate developer, based in Hattiesburg, will open Hotel Vela at 1409 24th Ave., just north of 14th Street. It’s within walking distance of the beach, Jones Park, the Mississippi Aquarium and downtown restaurants.
Billed on the hotel website as “a seductive boutique beauty,” Hotel Vela is expected be ready for its debut this spring or early summer.
The 16-room hotel on two levels will be all new, the website says, “yet rooted in a bygone era of sultry jazz and secret speakeasies.”
Siren Social Club will add to the experience.
Chef Austin and Tresse Sumrall, who own and operate White Pillars fine dining restaurant and lounge in Biloxi, will add food and beverages to the experience.
The hotel and restaurant will retain some of the architectural elements of the 1902 building that was enlarged years later when the Salloum family operated a clothing store there. It’s been empty for years.
A $1 million dollar renovation in 2016 was to see the building become Hotel Vogue, after an owner from New Orleans planned an upscale hotel and restaurant, said Coast realtor and developer Frank Bertucci Jr.
With this new incarnation, guests will feel Gulfport’s legacy in every original brick and floorboard, the new owners say. It will combine “boutique amenities and decorative nods to local history and coastal culture.”
This is the first hotel in Gulfport for The Thrash Group, which owns Current Apartments in Biloxi. The company develops and builds hotels, restaurants, condominiums, retail, offices, apartments and townhomes.
This story was originally published March 27, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
