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New York-based restaurateur leases One Ocean commercial property owned by Robert Rivani’s Black Lion investment group
Philippe by Philippe Chow is returning to South Beach after agreeing to lease a commercial unit at the One Ocean condominium.
The owner of celebrity restaurant brand Merchants Hospitality, led by Abraham Merchant and Richard Cohn, has signed a 15-year lease for the ground-floor space in the boutique condo building at 1 Collins Ave., according to a press release. The commercial condo is owned by Miami-based Black Lion Investment Group, led by chairman Robert Rivani, which paid $12 million for the One Ocean unit in November.
Philippe is expected to open the 13,500-square-foot restaurant by the second quarter of next year, the release said. Fabio and Sebastian Faerman with FA Commercial represented Black Lion and Jeremy Modest and Ryan Tucker with RIPCO Real Estate represented Merchants Hospitality.
Founded by namesake and chef Philippe Chow, the first Philippe restaurant opened in Manhattan in 2005. In 2019, Merchants opened a second New York outpost in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Two more Philippe restaurants are scheduled to open in Nashville and Washington, D.C. between this year and 2024, the release said.
In 2008, Philippe Chow entered Miami Beach for the restaurant’s first expansion outside of the Big Apple. He opened his Chinese restaurant in the Gansevoort Hotel, now 1 Hotel South Beach at 2341 Collins Ave. A year later, rival restaurateur Michael Chow, who owns Mr. Chow, another celebrity-driven restaurant chain, sued Philippe Chow. Michael Chow has an outpost at the W South Beach at 2201 Collins Ave.
The Miami federal lawsuit noted that Philippe Chow changed his name from Chak Yam Chau and that he worked as an assistant chef for Mr. Chow, but was never a chef, according to the Miami federal lawsuit.
Michael Chow claimed that Philippe Chow and his then partner, Stratis Morfogen, stole the menu from Mr. Chow and used misleading advertising to confuse customers into believing that both restaurant brands were the same. Michael Chow won a partial judgment against Phillipe Chow and Morfogen in 2012, press reports say.
In 2011, Phillipe Chow sold the Gansevoort Hotel space and moved into a restaurant space on South of Fifth in Miami Beach. It closed two years later.
The traders have owned about 90% of Philippe from Phillippe Chow since the mid-2010s, when the restaurant chain was facing a mountain of legal and financial problems, press reports said.
For the past two years, Rivani has been buying commercial space in luxury condominiums. Black LIon brought in a total of $77.1 million for commercial units at six properties in Miami and Miami Beach, including Continuum South Beach and One Thousand Museum, the 60-story condo tower designed by the late Zaha Hadid.
Another restaurant chain returning to South Beach in a Rivani-owned space is New York-based Catch. In November, Catch signed a lease for Continuum’s 22,000-square-foot restaurant building at 200 South Pointe Drive.
In 2014, Catch closed a restaurant at Miami Beach’s Royal Palm Hotel at 1545 Collins Ave.
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