Episode 354: 02-04-16
On this week’s show, our CCIM Voice Rafael Romero discusses the South Florida retail market and how CCIM helps him with his own business, Craig Opalich from Magnum Energy Solutions and Cindy Blumenfeld from Engineered Tax Services share how big data helps colleges, universities and hotel owners save big, and Jim Fried gives his thoughts on what’s happened at this year’s Mortgage Banker’s Conference.
CCIM Voice
Rafael Romero, CCIM, Associate VP at CREC, is currently leasing many high-profile retail properties in South Florida. He gained extensive experiencing the retail leasing world as a leasing representative for numerous institutionally owned retail centers including the Dadeland Mall and Shops at Sunset Place.
We will discuss the South Florida retail market and how the CCIM helps him build his business.
Big Data and Green Energy
Craig Opalich is VP Sales with Magnum Energy Solutions. With 25 years of experience, Opalich is responsible for the development and implementation of a national sales organization for MES. Additional responsibilities include the development and training of the direct and indirect sales team that will facilitate exponential growth throughout national hospitality, university, governmental and commercial energy management and building automation sectors.
Cindy Blumenfeld is Director of Business Development at Engineered Tax Services, one of the only qualified professional engineering firms that have a staff comprised of its own licensed engineers, to include LEED Accredited Professionals, and tax experts ranging from CPAs to a former senior IRS executive.
We discuss how big data is helping colleges, universities and hotel owners to save big money.
Commercial Real Estate Finance Update
Jim Fried gives his thoughts and insights into what happened at this year’s Mortgage Banker’s (MBA) Conference.
Episode 354: 02-04-16 (To download, right-click and select “Save Link As”.)
Transcription:
Jim Fried: We are on the air. And we are here live at the 880 AM studios in Miami broadcasting to you and the world. Today we’re going to have the CCIM voice with Rafael Romero. He’s a CCIM associate VP at Continental Real Estate Companies here in South Florida. We’re going to go over the retail market and why he thinks that the CCIM helps him in business. We’re going to have the second segment, Craig Opalich, he’s the vice president at Magnum Energy Solutions and we’re going to have Cindy Blumenfeld on from Engineered Tax Services. And we’re going to talk about big data and saving money on green energy. And in the last part of the show, I’m going to give you my update on what’s going on with my wife and her donor. Today we got the green light. So it looks like we’re heading to the finish line. And we’re going to talk about what’s up at the MBA, the Mortgage Bankers Conference and what’s going on in the capital markets industry for real estate. We’re going to go out real fast, we’re going to come back with Raffie. Right after this. Take it away.
[commercial break]
Jim Fried: We are back and we have got the CCIM voice. It’s Rafael Romero, he’s the CCIM associate VP at Continental Real Estate Companies. He is leasing all kinds of great space all around South Florida in retail and he’s done institutional leasing as well down here. Rafael, welcome to the show.
Rafael Romero: Thanks a lot, Jim.
Jim Fried: We got the gerbil back up and running in the other room. Let’s talk a little bit about why you joined CCIM.
Rafael Romero: In real estate it’s about people and it’s about who you got around you. The CCIM is a group of folks that have been through similar training, they know what they’re doing and it’s an opportunity to network with some of the best in the business. So that’s what it’s about.
Jim Fried: What did you find? You went through some extra training with the CCIM. How does that help?
Rafael Romero: It helps a lot. As a leasing guy, we don’t get a whole lot of exposure to the capital markets and as far as what the analysis is in terms of buying and selling, we’re kind of ground level guys. So CCIM takes you to that top level so that you realize what it is that you’re putting together. So it really steps it up the notch.
Jim Fried: If you stepped it up the notch and you work in the retail market here in South Florida, I think that’s the hottest sector for 2016. What do you see in the market place right now?
Rafael Romero: The real estate market in the retail side is on fire right now. There’s no stopping it. What I’d like to see in this market is exactly what’s going on. We’re not just filling space with whoever is there, things are changing, things are getting better, the malls that are doing good or are doing better are expanding. We’re not building more boring malls. Even world centers out they’re changing that up and they’re doing more high street retail.
Jim Fried: That sounds really cool. What are some of the tenants that you see in entering the market place?
Rafael Romero: We got a ton of guys. We got Trader Joe’s that’s basically been on fire lighting up, they’re just going nuts, a lot of the guys that are really doing well at restaurants, given the way that lifestyle is progressing, people really enjoy going out to dinner and kind of detaching from the stress and everything. And the idea that you can just go downstairs and be in your neighborhood and go to a really cool restaurant without having to get in your car is a whole new thing and it’s really making these restaurants explode right now.
Jim Fried: What do you think some of the good places where you’re seeing some of that concentration are? Where’s a good place to move and live, to benefit from all this retail growth you’re talking about?
Rafael Romero: You’re seeing a lot of change in Downtown, obviously Brickell is just unbelievable right now but I think that there’s areas that are not yet where they’re going to be such as Flagler is getting completely redeveloped if you go by the court house right now, the ground is pounding with construction. And it’s going to be all the way from the court house, all the way to Biscayne and that’s going to be completely redone, they’re expanding the sidewalks. Coral Gables is getting on the action, they’re redoing all the Miracle Mile, they’re just really improving the spaces that already work and they’re making them even better. In terms of where to go and where to be, it’s the same places you’ve been, it’s just going to be better. I think if that’s a better strategy, then let’s build some new boxes and fill them with random people.
Jim Fried: I think you’re 100% right. Last year we did a study, a bunch of segments where we talked about where was the next Brickell and it ends up that I think the next Brickell’s Brickell. It sounds like you agree, it’s just going to evolve.
Rafael Romero: I agree. There’s some areas that are in growth clearly such as Winwood and Design District, places like that, Little River I think is on everybody’s radar. But in terms of who’s going to be great, who’s going to be amazing, it’s the same guys that are great and amazing right now. It’s going to be the Brickell, the Coral Gables, it’s going to be the Kendall area is actually in tremendous expansion right now, you’ve got a lot of new restaurants and things opening up because the difference is you look at Kendall and you don’t think density, but it is huge with density. The problem is that you got Brickell and it’s a small piece of dirt and it just goes vertical. Kendall is a huge amount of dirt that’s flat to the ground, there’s more people in Kendall than there are in Brickell and I think that that’s going to be an area that you’re not going to expect that’s going to get a lot of great retail moving forward.
Jim Fried: What are some of the more exciting lifestyle tenants that are coming to the market? Because it sounds to me like you’re talking about lifestyle tenants, the restaurants and then other stuff. I guess stuff you can’t get on the internet.
Rafael Romero: Yes. Absolutely. When you look at who’s closing stores, you got Macy’s closing stores, you even got Walmart and Walgreens closing stores. But who’s not closing stores is these restaurants, the guys that are out there making something that’s different. You can’t replicate a spinning jam, you can’t replicate a yoga place, you can’t replicate anything like that online and I think that those guys are the guys that are going to weather the storm.
Jim Fried: It sounds to me like you’re talking about places that are focused around people, experiences, things that people can’t get online. So it sounds like as the retail is expanding there’s going to be some expansion in the job market too.
Rafael Romero: Absolutely. There’s this great thing, there’s this great article I just came on in the CCIM magazine and it’s called the ”Urban Legends” and it basically talks about what a 24 hour city is. And in 24 hour city we’re not in that article, we’re not among them in that list, but places like Chicago are, places like New York are, San Francisco. And the idea is this place where you live, you work and you play and we’ve traditionally looked that in Florida as individual projects like that. These guys are looking at the whole city that way. And when we start doing that I think that we’re really get it right. A lot of the new customer trends, they want to go downstairs and they want to be able to get a great meal and they want to be able to work out and they want to be able to get on an Uber for five minutes and go to work and come back home and do it all over again the next day.
Jim Fried: I think that you and I agree that the neighborhoods are going to become more vertically integrated, everything is going to be in the neighborhood and the missing piece right now is retail. So when you’re out there and you’re looking to help your tenant, your tenants identify vertical in the market, what do you look at?
Rafael Romero: You look at everything. You look at where the people are. At the end of the day, retail follows rooftops, and that’s the bottom line, you’re not going to go into the Sahara desert and find yourself the newest, latest, greatest concept, that’s just not going to happen. So what we find is that the retailers that we do have in South Florida do great. There’s concepts that are not doing so great anywhere else, they’re doing excellent here. Macy’s is not closing a single one of our stores. And the bottom line is the best Macy’s I think that in Florida is the Dade line Macy’s. And again, it’s another example of Kendall. Even that mall, that entire main corridor between the Macy’s and the Macy’s, the two Macy’s at Dade line Mall, those are all top ten stores. And it follows density. Because at the end of the day it’s not South Beach, it’s not tourist driven, it’s people driven.
Jim Fried: We’ve only got a couple of minutes left in this segment. I want to talk about the crazy numbers that people are paying on Lincoln Road and in Winwood. What do you think about those stores?
Rafael Romero: I think that the theme there is sustainability, is our guys going to be able to pay those rents indefinitely. And I don’t know what that answer is. I wish that I could sit here and tell you: ”Yes, sure, everybody that goes in there is going to be able to sustain $300/foot”. But at the end of the day the folks that are going on Lincoln Road are not only going there because they want to have a retail store, they’re going in there because they want to have a billboard. And that billboard is going to cost you some money.
Jim Fried: I think it’s some great locations, I’m seeing all kinds of redevelopment, for instance, Lincoln Road used to have these historic, apparently historic buildings that are being torn down completely rebuilt. I think that if somebody went to Lincoln Road two years ago, comes back in a year, they’re just not going to recognize it.
Rafael Romero: Absolutely. You’re talking about there’s got to be some sort of justification for you in five years ago from $150/foot to $300/foot. So if they’re not adding value, there’s no way that they can justify this kind of thing. I think that there’s a certain charm that’s going away a little bit on Lincoln Road but it’s being replaced with something else. Whether or not that’s going to work out for Lincoln Road, we don’t know but I do see that the love in terms of the quality retail is spreading out, it’s spreading to Downtown, it’s spreading down south to Kendall, it’s spreading up to Aventura, and I think that that’s the way to be. We can’t just say Lincoln Road is going to be our mecca of shopping and that’s it. There’s other players in the game today.
Jim Fried: So if you’re going to pick the hot place for two years from now, what do you think it’s going to be?
Rafael Romero: It’s going to be the urban core. You’re really going to be looking at Downtown, Brickell area, and even expand it up into Winwood because the definition of downtown includes Winwood and Design District. And I think that the main area that we’re going to be see in growth and that’s really going to be insane in terms of growth is going to be that downtown district because Brickell is very high rented today whereas you can get space in Downtown between $40 and $50/foot, which is the third of what those guys are looking for in Brickell. Now when those prices catch up, you’re talking about potentially 100% growth in the next couple of years depending on obviously what we’re able to do as real estate guys putting things together.
Jim Fried: If somebody wants to put together a deal with you Rafael, how do they find you and what’s your website, your email address, your phone number?
Rafael Romero: We have it all. We’re got www.crec.com, all of our contact direct links to all of our properties that are there. I can be reached at 305 779 3173. That’s my office line. You can reach me directly there. My email is romero@crec.com.
Jim Fried: Thanks so much for coming in and being our CCIM voice. I hope you had a good time, I hope you’re going to come back again soon and if anybody needs retail, I think they know who to call.
Rafael Romero: I hope so. I’ll be here anytime you need me.
Jim Fried: All right. Rafael Romero, CCIM voice for this week from Continental Real Estate Companies. We’ll be back after this. We’re going to talk big data and green energy. So stick around. It should be pretty cool.
[commercial break]
Jim Fried: We are going to talk big data and green energy. We’ve got – and I’m going to butcher it I’m sure – Craig Opalich, Craig please forgive me, and we’ve got Cindy Blumenfeld. Craig is from Magnum Energy Solutions, he’s their national director of sales, he sells to universities, governments and commercial energy management hospitality, all of them. Then we got Cindy, she goes and does the study so people can get tax credits. Hey everybody, welcome to the show.
Craig Opalich: Thanks Jim.
Cindy Blumenfeld: Hi Jim, happy to be here, thank you.
Jim Fried: Thanks for joining us. Craig, how bad did I do?
Craig Opalich: Not bad, Opalich. That’s close enough, it’s not an easy one.
Jim Fried: Thank you for the high five in the easy road. Now, tell me a little bit about Magnum and what Magnum is bringing to the table and how big data is impacted?
Craig Opalich: We really are the core as a developer in manufacture wireless automation products. So, initially, when we got into this business many years ago and we started developing products, we didn’t know a lot about big data, but we knew a lot about saving energy. And the biggest value at Magnum is we’ll bring you wireless automation products to commercial spaces that are basically hard wired and have absolutely no energy management. And afford the land loaner or the developer the ability to bring in wireless automation control and a real value. Getting in the traditional spaces that would just be prohibitive without going wireless. So that’s at the core of what we do and then there’s a software to it and infrastructure products and when you mention big data that bring all these data points from all these nodes and end devices into a very coherent package that helps the operation at the building, the energy management at the building and really, the overall performance of the building when it comes to energy.
Jim Fried: So I can be the person in charge of the facility and I can walk in on a Monday and see what happened over night or the last week, compare it to a month ago, put it all together and perhaps you can even show me what I look like compared to my cohorts, my set that I’m like in other places.
Craig Opalich: Absolutely right. So you know the performance of your building and you can compare it to buildings of similar type in your region or even nationally or even globally. So you can compare it. But the core and the essence of the big data and all these end devices that we manufacture bringing data and performance criteria of a building is really helping the owners understand not only the energy management of the building and the efficiency of the building and the performance of the building but in fact, when we get so granular with these nodes we know where people are in the building, who’s in their offices, do we really need that much office space, is this segment of our business in sales, the employees are out 200 days a year, so it even allows you, because really at the end of the day, it’s the bottom line business for all of us. Business owners are going to make those decisions and property owners based on some type of outer line. But we’re going beyond the energy management and we’re really letting them know what’s happening in their business in a very granular way where they can monitor and control multiple buildings and multiple sites over multiple states in a single platform. But that data that they’re getting, I get confused early on with this big data stuff and we’re in that business. Now I understand it very clearly and how it helps the business owner or the property owners really understand the performance of their property. And ultimately, they can get more efficient in driving additional value to the space.
Jim Fried: That sounds like it’s an awesome value proposition and I know that Cindy and her team over at ETS work real closely with you on a lot of this stuff. Cindy, now Craig and his team have come in, they’ve installed a bunch of energy efficiency situations, they’ve worked and modernized the equipment with you guys. What can you guys do to help after this to maybe bring some more to the bottom line?
Cindy Blumenfeld: Absolutely. Now we come in and we help with certifying the projects and installations for various tax incentives. There’s an energy tax incentive from 60 cents to $1.80/square foot for lighting a second envelope, there are reductions, the old systems that are being discarded, there’s adherent maintenance regulation that a lot of these costs and sometimes do the labor involved and materials and supplies can be written off. So really bring in the client, not only savings, the fantastic systems that companies like Magnum are installing but then even more helping to pay for it with these various tax incentives and tax reductions and sometimes utility incentives and state incentives so when you put all the puzzle pieces together, very powerful.
Jim Fried: Craig, I’m thinking about Mike because Mike works with Cindy, Craig, I’m getting old, we need a wireless monitor for my brain I think. Now, Mike, listen to me, I’m saying Mike again. Craig, now that you’ve got laid out, you do this for hotel, government agencies, and if you’re doing it for the government that means you’re pretty secure too, right?
Craig Opalich: That’s correct. There is a big security element because I think we all know about some of the breaches and some of the hacking that’s going on through retail, I don’t even have to mention the large retail that happen to. So because the systems are so robust and so important to retailers and government buildings, certainly there’s an element of society that wants to hack into these for nefarious reasons. And we’ve done government buildings and we’ve had to get cleared with our infrastructure products to make sure that the GSA, the agencies are okay with what we’re doing. But you’re right, security is a big deal and we take it really seriously whether it’s in our core software or our infrastructure products, even our mobile applications, we issue encrypted keys. So we’re not a browser basis. We’re robust. We’re a commercial system and being secure is really important to our customer base for sure. And even if you look at retail and you look at hospitality, they don’t want to take chances with people, their customers’ information being exposed. So it is important, we take it seriously and it’ll continue to be more important because as you’re bringing in like our end devices into these ecosystems, it’s going to be probably around $12 to $14 billion worth these nodes in the next two to three years and in the next 10 to 15 years you’re going to have trillions of these nodes all creating very useful information and the chances of attacks and breaches and coming in back doors through these systems is going to greatly increase so certainly, being aware of security and staying up with absolutely the best security measures is important to Magnum.
Jim Fried: We’ve got to go to a break, Craig and Cindy, but we’re going to come back. Can you guys stick with us for a couple of minutes and be with us back on the other side of the half hour?
Craig Opalich: Absolutely.
Jim Fried: Awesome. Great. We’re going to stick with it, we’re going to talk more about big data and big energy. Right after this. We’re going to be right back, I see AC just liked you Raffie. All right, we’ll be right back with more Fried on Business. Take it away.
[commercial break]
Jim Fried: When they say ”I feel nice like sugar and spice” it’s time for the second half of the show. And we are back with Craig Opalich, I’m sorry, that’s just me banging my head again. And we’ve got Cindy Blumenfeld. She’s with Engineered Tax Services. Cindy and Craig, welcome back to the show.
Cindy Blumenfeld: Thank you.
Jim Fried: Now we were talking about big data, we were talking about ETS, Engineered Tax Services. Cindy, now that somebody is going in and they’ve reconfigured their switches and all their fundamental stuff inside their building, what is it that you do?
Cindy Blumenfeld: We come in and we actually certify the building for several tax incentives, tax reductions, tax credits for these energy efficient systems that are being installed.
Jim Fried: When you do that, then that brings real money to the bottom line which I guess increases cash flow and then they need to bring the deal over to me to finance of to sell. Sounds like you’re making money for everybody, Cindy.
Cindy Blumenfeld: It’s a win-win for sure.
Jim Fried: It’s very rare to have a real win-win, something you hear about in the sales books and everything but a real win-win rarely happens. Craig, you guys do that all the time.
Craig Opalich: Absolutely. And I mentioned earlier that so much of what we do and it really correlates and interfaces with Engineered Tax Services. It’s really making the building efficiency so lighting upgrades and retrofitting controls, different HVAC products that we can bring in and control the loads on HVAC and the energy consumed by air conditioning. And then all of the sensors that we bring in to really bring in a whole ecosystem into a building to make it as efficient as possible. It’s a good pairing with Engineered Tax Services between what our two companies do. And a lot of what we do is, we’re thinking about commercial buildings and office buildings which is great and we do a lot of that but there’s a lot of unique sensors that we manufacture that help for example retail or for example, improve safety. If we can measure the temperatures in a food service line and a fast food restaurant in the same ecosystem that we’re controlling their lights and helping with their HVAC and getting alerts and alarms when temperatures get out of range, we hear probably monthly about food safety and problems in certain restaurants recently we’ve had. We had that line set up with temperature sensors and alerts and alarms even in the refrigeration equipment from a maintenance perspective, we need those alerts and alarms, that’s a really good use of data that are coming, and that data is being produced by our sensors and our actuators and our thermostats and our temperature sensors. So it’s great energy management and Cindy is at Engineered Tax Services, they can really go get and help finance these projects. But there is a lot of unfamiliar facts by understanding what our end devices are doing and producing to make your company operationally more effective and in a lot of cases can save you a lot of long term liability as well.
Jim Fried: You’re talking about a whole lot of devices, a whole lot of machines. Do they come with a whole lot of wires?
Craig Opalich: No, they don’t come with a whole lot of wires, there’re certainly some of our devices that are wired but all of them communicate wirelessly back into a building automation system so certainly Magnum has its own software and I think in our target market for our software and for our infrastructure it’s probably about 50,000 square foot or the less. For a lot of buildings, a lot of large commercial buildings, when you look at colleges and universities and large office complexes already have big automation systems controlling their chillers and their boilers and a lot of the heavy mechanical where a lot of the big automation companies fall down as their ability to get very granular with the control like lighting control and getting thermostats and looking at temperature sensors throughout the space and all the other nodes that we can bring in and really give them big data to help for the performance of the building and optimize the performance of the building. So we really have the advantage of brining in wireless devices to control energy and get data out and understanding the performance very cost effectively because we don’t have to run wires.
Jim Fried: It sounds to me then it’s a great retrofit because there’s a lot of these universities especially are kind of older so they’ve got perhaps infrastructure that needs a little help but may not be able to really handle a lot of these wires. So it sounds to me like you’re really good shaped for that.
Craig Opalich: You’re right. It’s just too expensive to run wires and you don’t need to anymore. And the fact is that a lot of the big automation companies and I think we all know them, the Honeywells and the Johnsons and the Siemens have already had very robust wire systems and now even those big companies are looking at wireless automation very carefully. In fact, I would say that many of them are behind the 8-Ball because they haven’t looked fast enough to bring in more value for their customer base using wireless automation solutions.
Jim Fried: We’ve only got a couple of minutes left and I want to give Cindy one more shot here and then Craig maybe can finish up. Cindy, if people want to get more information about ETS and help bring money to the bottom line, I guess I got to say this way, out of their tax bill, how do they find you? And by the way, I don’t think we mentioned how you guys are a combination of both engineers and CPAs which is unusual out there. Cindy, how do they find you?
Cindy Blumenfeld: It’s a very unique mix of combined talents in our office. We have CPAs and tax attorneys on staff but we don’t qualify in tax returns we actually work very closely with commercial property owners as they are our tax advisers are doing the retrofit studies and I would take the team, take the village like we say. So our website, very easy, engineeredtaxservices.com and please tell them you heard Cindy on the radio with Jim and ask for me and you can actually call me direct at 954 439 1671.
Jim Fried: Let me tell you, they should call you direct because you’re terrific. You follow up, you’re awesome partner with Magnum, they’re getting it done. Craig, back to you for we’ve got couple of seconds left, got to wrap up. How do they get you at Magnum Energy Solutions?
Craig Opalich: My name’s Craig Opalich and I manage our sales and marketing department. Our phone is 330 656 9365 and our website is www.magnumenergysolutions.com. And please, feel free to give me a call and we can discuss our technology and how we’d fit in to your given property type.
Jim Fried: What a great segment. Thanks everybody for coming on and talking about big data, going green, saving money and I guess saving money, I can say it twice, they save a lot of money. We’ll be back after this. I’m going to talk about what happened at the Mortgage Bankers meeting up in Orlando, what’s going on in the capital markets and going to give a special update on what’s going on with Vivian’s transplant and her beautiful person in her life that’s her donor. Back after this.
[commercial break]
Jim Fried: We are back and I want to give and update first on Vivian, my beautiful wife and our search for a kidney transplant and a living donor and we found one. Today we got the news that we’ve get green lighted to get the transplant from the donor. The donor is a match, she is compatible with my wife and I got to tell you, her and her beautiful family, my wife and I are so pleased to have these beautiful people in our life and I must tell you it’s a wonderful thing to be involved with. You don’t meet people like this every day, somebody that’s willing to go an extra mile to help somebody that they don’t know. It’s absolutely amazing, it’s a miracle, it’s a blessing and the people that are involve on the donor side are just some of the most wonderful people you ever want to meet. They’re teaching me new things about myself every day and I’m really looking forward to having them in my life forever. Now a couple of things about the Mortgage Bankers Associations meeting that just transpired earlier this week.
The MBA, what’s the big news from the MBA? The MBA says there are continuing contractions going on in the CMBS world? Why? Because with the final regulations coming from the government response to the financial meltdown back a few years ago, BPs buyers are getting technical here are going to have to retain a 5% interest in the loans they originate. That means they’re going have there more capital, more skin in the game, it’s going to increase their risk, it’s going to increase the cost of what you’re going to pay for your mortgage probably by 0,5%. So if you need a mortgage, you better go get it now because the guy that you call on may not be there at the end of the year. The right that you want certainly won’t be there at the end of the year. So get on the stick now if you want to get your loan done. So, now I want to thank our new sponsors. How much time do I have left? Oh my gosh, I’ve got forever. But I want to talk about our new sponsors here. I want to talk about Spectrum Mortgage.
Spectrum Mortgage is a very long term household name here in Miami and is more and more people buy for all cash when they close, they may need a jumbo mortgage. Bob and Melvia, they know how to get it done, they’re terrific, they’ve been friends of mine for a long time, done great work for a lot of my friends and a lot of people I know. Stick with us, we’ll have more about Spectrum Mortgage, they’re hard money lending on homes and commercial throughout the state of Florida and how they do it. Maybe I can even get Bob out of his office and over here on the show once. I keep trying but he won’t probably do it. Maybe I can get Melvia. She’s the best. Now I want to talk about our other new sponsor, the Related Group. High five for the Related Group for the way they’re changing the face of south Florida in today’s market and down the road.
The Related Group is building brand new neighborhoods, Paraiso, just south of where I live in Edgewater. They’re doing some great things in Fort Lauderdale, downtown Miami, mid-town. What they’re doing in Coconut Grove is just beyond belief, they’re changing the face of some of the most important neighborhoods and making big statements. We’re going to talk to their experts throughout the next few weeks and we’re going to get their insights into the projects that the Related Group is doing. The Paraiso village is the first place that we’re going to talk about. We’re going to do that in a couple of weeks. So stay tuned, stick with us. We’ve got some really super stuff coming up from the Related Group and now I am going to go through the thank you’s.
And who am I going to start the thank you’s with on the show? I’m going to start the thank you’s with that beautiful donor, the person that’s coming through that absolute diamond of a person that is going to donate her kidney to my wife. My wife will rise like the Phoenix. I can’t wait. She’s the most beautiful thing in the entire world. I want to thank the CCIMs, South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine, the Related Group and Spectrum Mortgage, UHealth, Warren Henry, Magnum Energy Solutions and Engineered Tax Services, I want to thank EarlyShares, I want to thank KIND Snacks, the NFL Alumni, I’ve got a whole bunch of sponsors. This is just awesome. The NFL Alumni caring for kids, the Bergstorm Center for Real Estate Studies, don’t forget to join me at the Bergstorm Conference. It’s going to be at the end of the month, I’m getting the notes together right here. It’s going to be Thursday, 25th February and Friday, 26th February at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando.
For more information go to the Bergstorm Center for Real Estate Studies webpage or call Nicky Wagner at 352 273 0312, I’ll go real slow for the Jets fans, 352 273 0312. Gets you the probably the best networking and information even, it’s going to happen in the state. It’s over by the University of Florida, it’s going to be in Orlando, it’s going to be awesome, I’ll be there, we’re going to do a live show from there. So also our other sponsors, thanking the Miami Marlins, Xpresso Marketing, Social Media 305 and Lauren’s Kids and of course, how do we end the show every week? We end it by thanking most important people involved in the show, that’s you, our audience. So go to our Facebook page, like our page, like the show, tell your friends, join our community, give us feedback, comments, tell us who you want to hear from. You can follow me on Twitter @JimFried, @FriedonBusiness, don’t forget Twitter is how I found the living donor. So I got some good power on Twitter. Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, website is getting more and more hits every day, my gosh I’m so proud. If you missed the show, it’s going to be up on our webpage www.friedonbusiness.com as soon as I get up there. This is Jim Fried for Fried on Business. Look for us next Thursday at 6:00 on 880 AM. Why? Because I just love doing this. Remember, this is not a rehearsal, this is your life. The person that wants to do something finds a way, the other finds an excuse. Now go out there and make it happen. We’re out of here.
