A two-bedroom condo with thousands of Budweiser cans lining its walls and interior has prompted a serious bidding war in Florida.
The owner, a navy veteran named Michael Amelotte, spent 16 years lining the interior walls of his Lake Worth apartment with empty Budweiser cans. After Amelotte passed away earlier this year, his estate put the uniquely decorated apartment on the market. It didn’t spend long there as the interior that earned the apartment the nickname “House of Budweiser” among Amelotte’s friends and neighbors soon started getting attention online.
Listing broker Jesse Kearney of Kearney & Associates Realty told the New York Post that multiple offers were made and an offer of more than the $100,000 asking price is currently in contract.
The home itself is a simple 815-square-foot apartment in the quiet community north of Miami. But the carefully crafted interior earned the attention of buyers and even Anheuser-Busch itself. The company that produces Budweiser learned of Amelotte’s creation and promised whoever buys the property free beer for life on the condition that they do not alter the interior.
The buyer was not revealed due to the quick closing but Kearney marketed the property online and suggested it as a backdrop for a beer-themed YouTube show.
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“He would drink them, clean them out, let them dry and mount them,” Kearney who marketed the property with partner Kristen Adams-Kearney, told the Post. “You can actually see where Budweiser has switched over its branding through the years by walking from room to room. It’s impressive.”
Amelotte purchased the corner unit in the residential community in 1986 and spent between 1990 and 2006 emptying beer cans, molding them to fit the curvatures of the wall and then arranging them so as to leave no part of the wall uncovered.
“Mike drank Budweiser beer since the day he turned 21,” lifelong friend Kris Johnson told the Post. “He just got a bug one day, and said, ‘You know, Kris, I’ve got so many cans in my house, I’m going to start wallpapering my house with Budweiser.’ And by God, he did! He drank Budweiser for some 40-odd years.”
Amelotte, who served in the navy as a radio teletype decoder, had started drinking Budweiser to honor his father who was also a lifelong fan of the beer. It became a hobby and point of pride until his death, at 69 years old, from cancer this year.
“This is the most unique property we have ever sold,” Kearney said. “We sold properties here in Florida during the mortgage crisis. And we have been in places that were grow houses and wild scenarios like that. None of them compare to this.”