A local Israeli-Mediterranean chain will soon open a 10,000-square-foot restaurant in Brickell, followed by a sister concept in North Miami, and a future location in Miami Beach, a co-owner told the Business Journal.
Motek will open its fifth location in Miami-Dade County. The new location will be at Brickell City Centre in Miami’s Brickell Financial District in the winter of this year, said Motek co-founder Charlie Levy. The 255-seat restaurant will employ 150 people, including managers, hostesses, chefs, line cooks, pantry cooks, bakers, bartenders, servers, bussers, and hostesses, he added.
Motek’s leased space on the fourth floor of Brickell City Centre, located at West Block, 701 S Miami Ave 412A 4th Floor, Miami, FL 33131 will include a 24-seat bar, an open kitchen, semi-private dining rooms, communal tables for larger parties, a chefs table, and an open outdoor bakery for “various grab-and-go items,” Levy said.
A sixth Motek location is slated to open at 2701 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach in the first quarter of 2024, Levy added. The exact size of Motek’s Miami Beach location has yet to be determined, Levy said. However, Beacon Hill Property Group stated that it facilitated a 5,221-square-foot lease for a Motek Cafe at Triton Towers back in April.
Levy said he will also open a Motek sister concept early next year called Sesame Bakery in SoLé Mia, a 187-acre mixed-use development being built in North Miami near Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay campus.
Levy and his wife Tessa started Motek in June 2020 when they opened their first location in the Seybold Building at 36 N.E. 1st Ave. in Downtown Miami.
By 2021, they opened a second Motek location in Aventura Mall. Its third spot, Yalla Motek, opened in Aventura Mall’s Treats Food Hall last year.
This year, Motek opened a 7,600-square-foot location in Coral Gables at 45 Miracle Mile. It also relocated its main Aventura Mall restaurant from a 2,810-square-foot location to an 8,500-square-foot corner spot in the shopping center’s courtyard.
Motek is an Israeli Mediterranean bistro that draws inspiration from dishes traditional to Israel and the Middle East Levy said. its kosher-style menu includes the Arayes Burger, which won a People’s Choice Award at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival’s Burger Bash two years in a row.
“Motek is family owned and self-funded. We are driven by our shared passion and love for what we do and are extremely grateful for the warm reception we’ve received from the community thus far,” Levy stated.
South Florida’s retail sector has done well due to the region’s strong tourism economy as well as the continued migration of high-income households from other parts of the U.S.
As of the second quarter of 2023, the average asking rent for retail in Miami-Dade County was $43.89 per square foot, an increase of 7.9% from the prior year, according to a report from Colliers. The average retail rent in Brickell was $72.34 per square foot, as of Q2 2023, and $72.34 per square foot in Greater Miami Beach, $64.70 per square foot in Aventura, $48.06 per square foot in Coral Gables, $38.83 per square foot in Downtown Miami, and $27.14 per square foot in Northeast Miami-Dade, the report stated.
Opened since 2016, the 500,000-square-foot Brickell City Centre is owned by Hong Kong-based Swire Properties. Both Swire and The Related Companies have recently broken ground on One Brickell City Centre, a 68-story office tower, adjacent to Brickell City Centre.
SoLé Miami is being developed by New York-based LeFrak and Aventura-based Turnberry Associates. Led by Jackie Soffer, Turnberry Associates also owns a majority stake of Aventura Mall.
Built in 1966, Triton Tower is a 17-story condo complex located between 27th and 28th streets, east of Collins Avenue. It has retail space on the ground floor. Asking rents for available retail space in Triton Tower is $45 per square foot, according to Beacon Hill Property Group’s webpage.
