A vacant, ‘unnoticed’ Coast building is now a modern Airbnb. Take a look inside.
A Bay St. Louis couple is chasing their dream of revitalizing a small piece of Bay St. Louis’ past as they list a spacious new Airbnb.
Katy Aime and her husband, Gus Aime, purchased the former Napa Auto Parts Store on Ulman Avenue in Bay St. Louis in September 2021 with the goal of transforming it into a living space.
“Hundreds of people drove past this building and no one ever noticed it, it was waiting to be brought back to life,” Katy Aime told the Sun Herald. “I’ve always had a dream of doing this. My husband was working in the casino industry and COVID took a toll on his life. This allowed us to take a new direction in life.”
In 2020, Gus Aime lost his job as the security director at Golden Nugget Casino in the pandemic. Katy Aime said they are hoping the new income from the Airbnb will allow them to stay out of working for corporate companies.
The building, previously owned by the Himel family who owned the auto parts store since at least the 1970s, sat abandoned for many years after Hurricane Katrina, during which the building likely flooded, Katy Aime said.
Katy, who works as a Realtor and associate broker for HL Raymond Properties, originally helped sell the property to Corr Contracting as an office space in 2019.
Two years later, the Aimeses bought the building.
With the help of Rodney Corr of Corr Contracting, who also happens to be a friend of the couple, the Aimeses renovated the space into a spacious duplex and listed it on Airbnb.
During the renovation, they discovered the original wooden roof underneath a sheet of bedrock. When they covered the ceiling with a clear coat, words they hadn’t noticed before started appearing, such as “concrete” and other words related to the construction, Katy Aime said.
Named Marina’s Cove after their daughter, the space is now two apartments — each with two bedrooms and two bathrooms — a fully-stocked kitchen, new appliances, a washer and dyer, walk-in master bathroom shower and blue-stained custom beds.
They Aimses hope to add a pool and hot tub to the property in the future.
The Airbnb saw its first guests in Dec. 2021 and the couple has several bookings already for future dates.
Katy Aime hopes the vacation rental will help bring more tourists to Bay St. Louis and help revitalize the community that the Aimeses have spent their lives in. Katy Aime said several other homes and apartments have also been built on Ulman Avenue in recent years, filling in previously empty lots.
This story was originally published January 14, 2022 at 5:50 AM.
