Something unexpected welcomes people to this new getaway in downtown Biloxi
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- Hotel Biloxi opens this week as an 11-room boutique hotel in downtown Biloxi.
- The property includes a disguised 12th room that functions as a speakeasy meeting bar.
- Hotel Biloxi sits across U.S. 90 from Beau Rivage and near Amtrak, casinos, and stadium.
Welcome to Hotel Biloxi, opening this week and just in time for summer getaways in downtown Biloxi.
This hotel is the latest project of the Nicaud Group, which operates restaurants, lodging and other hospitality businesses under the Secret Coast Stay Eat Play brand.
What was Fillup with Billups restaurant at the corner of U.S. 90 and Caillavet Street now is an 11-room boutique hotel. Biloxi contractor Shaun Parker and architect Jason Harrell of New Orleans, who also designed the Bungalows and other projects for the Nicaud Group in Pass Christian, flipped the building. The back is now the front, giving guests a hideaway in the middle of the downtown action.
The 12th room at the hotel looks just like the others from the outside, with a keypad entry. When guests use their key card in this door, it opens to a speakeasy called The Meeting Room, said owner Jourdan Nicaud, featuring champagne cocktails and beer from 9 Toes Brewery in Pass Christian. The door only opens when drinks are being poured and there’s room for more in the space.
“We made it real moody,” Harrell said. The small space is painted dark, so guest can hide out there or take their cold drink out into the adjacent courtyard, where lights overhead and furniture and games make it fun, private and secure downtown space.
The hotel website and reservation line go live Thursday, May 21, and the hotel opens this weekend.
Rooms with unexpected bonuses
The rooms were designed to be bright and comfortable, combining touches of old Vegas meets Scottsdale, with its modern style and earthy, cool designs for Biloxi’s warm environment.
The conventional layout of the hotel rooms is enhanced by decorative tile floors instead of carpeting and handcrafted beds built by a local woodworker. “He made all of the beds by hand,” Nicaud said.
Each room also has a mural painted by local artist Robert Waldrop.
Parker and his crew built spacious bathrooms with a lot of storage, a huge vanity area and a private shower and toilet room to make getting ready faster.
Live oak trees shelter the hotel from the streets and create the feel of a tree house for the rooms and balconies on the second floor.
The rooms average about $150 a night, and one ADA compliant room is available, Nicaud said.
Location is everything
Hotel Biloxi is right in the middle of the action in the downtown, a counterpoint to the large casinos, right off the interstate and a pace where guests can walk and wander to restaurants and fun.
Across U.S. 90 is the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino and Hard Rock Casino Biloxi with games, entertainment and restaurants Across Caillavet Street is Keesler Federal Park, home to the Biloxi Shuckers minor League baseball team and its Corona Premier Tiki Bar beyond the right field wall.
Downtown Biloxi is coming alive, Nicaud said, and within walking distance of the hotel is the Amtrak train platform, Ground Zero Blues Club, the harbors where guests can check see the boats and take a ride on the Biloxi Shrimping Trip. The balconies on the hotel will provide a colorful view to the antique cars driving past during Cruisin’ The Coast in October.
With its 11 rooms, the hotel is multifaceted so it’s an option for a couple for the right or the right size to be rented out by a bridal party or a group of friends who want to stay together for the weekend, take in a game, maybe ride the train into New Orleans for the day and visit the casinos.
More on the way
While Hotel Biloxi is complete, the Nicaud Group has several other projects on the way.
Also in downtown Biloxi, Le Magnolia Hotel is going through the final city approvals for a bed and breakfast hotel that will blend the historic Magnolia Hotel with an expansion. “As soon as it’s approved we’re going to break ground,” Nicaud said.
Shaun Parker Construction also was selected to convert a restaurant in downtown Bay St. Louis into a multi-story Bay Play Old Town Arcade. “We hope to open by the end of the year,” Nicaud said.
In Pascagoula, the Nicaud Group is turning the large, empty ice house lot into a new development. “We have the first building going up,’ Nicaud said, with the goal to have that building done by the end of the year. They are working on securing a hotel and other businesses for the site, he said, as they continue to provide more places for South Mississippi to stay, eat and play.
