Episode 358: 03-03-16
On this week’s show, Fabio Faerman shares how CCIM helps him in business, Craig Opalich and Cindy Blumenfeld discuss how going green can save you money on real estate, and David Staples and Jon Paul Perez of the Related Group give some insight on how Auberge is changing the face of urban development and urban living in Miami.
CCIM Voice
Fabio Faerman, CCIM, MBA, is President and Chief Executive Officer of FA Commercial, a company that provides a complete range of commercial real estate brokerage services – including owner and tenant leasing, acquisition and sales, marketing and consulting – to owners, investors and lessees of all property types. He is also the Commercial Division Director and Broker Associate at Fortune International Realty.
We discuss how the CCIM designation helps him in business. We also get his thoughts on the Miami CBD and Brickell commercial real estate markets.
Green Solutions for Real Estate
Craig Opalich is VP Sales for 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 for Engineered Tax Services. ETS marries the science of engineering with the principles of tax and accounting to arrive at financial solutions that result in increased cash flow, minimized tax payments and increased ROI. These IRS-sanctioned services include Cost Segregation Studies, Energy Tax Credits and Deductions, Development credits.
We discuss how going green can save you money on real estate.
High-Rise Urban Development in Miami
David Staples is the Director of Sales for Auberge Miami. Staples overseas the marketing program for Auberge Miami. He has extensive experience in marketing high-rise luxury condominium projects in the Miami Market.
Jon Paul Perez – Vice President of the Related Group in Miami, FL – has overseen all aspects of the development process for more than 900 units, with direct responsibility for financial modeling, design programming, and construction management. He also participated in securing capital for the firm’s $900 million distressed opportunity fund.
We discuss how the Auberge Miami is changing the face of urban development and urban living in Miami.
Episode 358: 03-03-16 (To download, right-click and select “Save Link As”.)
Transcription:
Jim Fried: We are on, we’ve got a great show today. We’re going to do an absolutely great show. It’s going to be all real estate all day long. We’re going to get started, we’re going to have the CCIM voice, we’re going to have Magnum Energy Solutions and ETS and then round the bend we’re going to have the Related Group. We’re going to talk about urban redesign and what’s going on in the Miami residential real estate condo market. We’re going to have J.P. Perez, we’re going to have David Staples, we’re going to have Cindy Blumenfeld, a Cast of Thousands including me. AC, take it away.
[commercial break]
Jim Fried: We’re going to start off. It’s like fortune real estate day. We’ve got Fabio Faerman. He’s our CCIM voice. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of FA Commercial. It’s a company that provides a complete range of commercial real estate brokerage services, heck, I just know him as the guy to see on Brickell and Downtown and up and down all the great submarkets. We’ve also got David Staples who’s with Fortune later. But first, Fabio, are you out there?
Fabio Faerman: I’m here. How are you?
Jim Fried: I am doing great. Where are you?
Fabio Faerman: Very good. Right now doing a business trip. Really I barely can hear you.
Jim Fried: Try to get to a place where you’ve got a good signal because I can tell you, the only person on the entire face of the universe that can’t hear me right now. Can you hear me better now to try to make the gerbil run faster in the other room? Can you hear me better now?
Fabio Faerman: No, I’ll call you back. One second.
Jim Fried: Okay, call me back. He’s calling me back. Let me tell you a little bit about Fabio. When I need to know what’s going on in Downtown Miami, this is the guy I call. He knows everybody. He’s the top broker at think at Fortune last year is what David was telling me. You’re not on the air because AC is just, the gerbil is just driving him crazy back there. But yes, David did confirm that he was the top producer last year. It seems like they’re trying to get him back. AC, come on. This is the CCIM voice. Are you back, Fabio? He’s back. I got the finger. Are you back? Can you hear me?
Fabio Faerman: Yes, right now yes. How are you?
Jim Fried: I’m cool. I’m doing great. Welcome back to the show. I’ve been puffing you up. You better perform today because I’ve been telling them you’re the guy to see about Brickell real estate about Little Havana, we bought deals from you for goodness sakes. But before we do that, this is the CCIM voice. Why don’t you tell me a little bit about what CCIM does for you and your business?
Fabio Faerman: Really the CCIM courses were really great for me because I come from Argentina and they have an MBA there, when I tried to learn how to do business here in the United States I said ”Where are the best locations that I can take” and understand how they look at the commercial real estate, analyze the properties, the cash flow and all these stuff. And I found out that CCIM was the best place to do my courses and really I did it in two years because I worked at the same time and was really great, fantastic and after that I increased my potential. You see me grow here in Miami the last two years.
Jim Fried: You’re absolutely amazing. Total high five from me. And what you’re saying about the CCIM is true. What it really does is it helps you not only analyze real estate but it helps you learn the language. The most important thing about real estate is learning the language which is a complete foreign language even if you’re an American.
Fabio Faerman: Yes, it’s true. But I have an MBA in the other state from Spain, but when you try to translate all the terms and the way that you understand the business here is totally different in some cases. And really for me it was good first to know different people from different locations and this is a worldwide concept with different people coming from Korea, from Japan, from here from the United States and was a great investment to know people and to understand different cultures and how you can understand the commercial real estate.
Jim Fried: I’m going to set you up to hit the ball out of the park right now. Tell me a little bit about what’s going on as Brickell and Midtown and Downtown, the areas that you specialize in and the high growth areas in South Florida and actually I guess in Miami Dade County and other markets too? What do you see going on in the real estate market? Because we touted this is you’d give some thoughts on the CBD and Brickell commercial real estate markets. I’ve talked enough giving you little time to give me some thoughts, but you’re the man, I really would like to know what do you think is happening there in the commercial markets.
Fabio Faerman: The commercial market is still growing. We have the main investor coming from the entire world trying to grab the piece of, to have one piece of Miami market. I’m here in New York because we’re connecting with the New York’s people that want to invest also in Miami. Why? Because they need to have 1031 I didn’t know what to spend 1031 in New York because they can’t buy any comparable property when they come to Miami they say that the price is twice or three times less. That is purchase for them investing in 1031 and have an income cash flow and in the future to grow with the properties, is what they say what their ambition are the same for people from other countries, that they want to continue investing in the commercial sector. We have what they see in Brickell is growing with the investment of the Brickell City Center from Swire but is from Hong Kong. And we grew up the rent. I remember ten years ago when the rent there was $30/square foot. Right now we’re above $100 triple net. That is three times. The same is happening all the area going up to Midtown, we see the Biscayne Corridor, most important thing here in Miami is that the infrastructure is growing the same part the investors are growing. And when you see Biscayne Corridor doing a nice avenue, the people want to invest and the retails are rented and we have many different concepts going to these areas, areas that want to invest. Right now it’s connecting from Brickell to Aventura. And really, ambition is to have the part that we have here in New York that you can walk all these areas. That’s very interesting because we have also residential projects going to these areas. You know that Fortune, that is a high end residential developer. And we saw many of the condo everywhere in the Tri-County area but I’m in charge of a commercial division there and we saw the different parts going back if you have more condo, you have more retail going on and you have some office building also going on behind that.
Jim Fried: My question then is, you’re seeing sales that are going to support these rents? Sounds to me like all these people are moving to Miami and they’re finding a great place to live, a second home. I actually have run into a new family office that just moved down to South Point from New York and they’re loving the lifestyle and they’re loving the value so it seems to me like you’re absolutely right.
Fabio Faerman: Yes. They’re looking for second homes, they’re looking to have their first home. You know that New York, they have more taxes, they don’t want to be in their primary home in New York, they want to be in their primary home in Miami. They pay less taxes there and they are happy with the climate and the weather is perfect. Right now in New York we have 30 degrees. In Miami, I told my brokers they can go to the beach. There’s a huge difference. You can put in and understand that. But really we have all the baby boomers in the next 20 years. They need to recharge, they need to invest. What do they want to invest? They don’t want to go to weathers that are so cold. They want to go to the beach, they want to have a nice location that they can shop, they can stay and interact. That is the most important thing with international culture. They’re coming with an airplane, he’s coming to Miami, they invest a lot of money and they come with families. And this is very important, all well educated people. And these people, they want to invest, there’re more entrepreneurs and these people are growing the city.
Jim Fried: What I’ve seen is I grew up here, went to North Miami Beach, now I’m an old man, I’ve seen many cycles but what I’m seeing is the return to the natural cycle that has always been the boom part of South Florida and we’re going to talk about this a little bit later with J.P. Perez and with David Staples from Related and your buddy at Fortune and we’re going to talk about the fact that the locals are now buying, that the pipeline from the north-east is now working again and while the Latin American people have gone in the different direction, this town was so fed on all the easy Latin American deals. Now the north-eastern folks are coming back, the same people that built this city are now coming back and they’re going to be buying in these deals, investing in our city. I see – I call it a soft landing, which really is just the changing of the gears – I see as going full board. We’ve got 30 seconds left. Fabio, why don’t you tell them a little bit about how to get in touch with you and make sure you go slow because since you’re in New York, I’m sure there’re Jets fans listening and we know we have to go slow for the Jets fans. You’re up.
Fabio Faerman: Everybody can connect with me through LinkedIn. My name is Fabio Faerman, my email is commercial@fir.com, my telephone number is 786 262 9966. I’m in charge of the commercial division that handles most shopping centers, retail sales, we have very nice properties right now off the market, we specialize with off market properties. There are coming to sell because we have a lot of investors from different parts of the world and they want to invest in nice properties with cash flow. And what’s the CCIM, they bring me the tools to analyze and to offer to different types of investors what kind of return they can have and what they can add value to the properties.
Jim Fried: Fabio, we’ve got to go. You’re the man. I want to add the last word. Fabio Faerman, he’s the CCIM, he’s with Fortune, he leads Fortune’s Commercial Group, he was their top producer last year, he is my go-to guy for the sub-markets, East of I-95 and Dade County. Fabio, thank you so much for being on the show today.
Fabio Faerman: Thank you, Jim. Have a nice day.
Jim Fried: Travel safe and stay warm. We’ll be right back after this. We’re going to have ETS, Magnum Energy Solutions, talking go green, LED lighting, save money, do great things, but what you don’t see is the cutie Cindy Blumenfeld here with me in studio. Back after this.
[commercial break]
Jim Fried: We’ve got a couple of regulars now. We got Craig Opalich. I know I pronounce his name wrong but I know he’s the VP Sales from Magnum Energy. He’s got 25 years of experience. We’re going to talk about LED lighting and how it adds value to your building. We also have Cindy Blumenfeld, the famous hottie from ETS. ETS marries the science of engineering with the principles of tax and accounting to arrive at financial solutions that result in increased cash flow, minimize tax service, my goodness, what they do is they help you build value in your building. Craig, welcome back.
Craig Opalich: Great to be here, Jim, from snowy Cleveland, Ohio.
Jim Fried: Cleveland, it’s snowy now but it’s going to be raining crap in a few months when the Republicans get there. We don’t do politics but I think I gave a little bit of my view on the whole run. And Cindy, welcome back. She’s going to give me another fist bump. Cindy, how is it going?
Cindy Blumenfeld: Going great. Thanks for having me again.
Jim Fried: This is just awesome. I know, Craig, that our topic today is saving money with LED lighting. All I know from LED lighting is it makes me go blind when I drive by. So LED lighting, how is that helping folks save money as you guys help them move from incandescent to the modern world?
Craig Opalich: It’s incandescent, it’s fluorescent. But the quality and the price of LED lighting has significantly improved and the cost continues to come down as value increases. It’s just the reality that we live in. You’re probably looking anywhere between 60%-75% advantage in terms of the energy consumption off of LEDs and of course what we do then ultimately is put controls behind that and where we can dim and put them on timers and really reduce the amount of consumption. So the advantage of the LEDs on one end and then putting additional controls in order to really maximize the energy savings.
Jim Fried: I thought of you and Don when I checked in in my hotel room when I was at the UF Conference last week. Don’t think anything wrong, because when I walked in the AC was on 65 degrees, there was water outside on the window. So I was thinking of you guys. Now I know Cindy that ETS teams up with Magnum, you do a whole bunch of things. Tell me how ETS can help people bring profits to the bottom line.
Cindy Blumenfeld: What we do is we partner up to maximize the tax incentives, tax credits, tax deductions to be able to bring the ROI utility incentives.
Jim Fried: You’re afraid of the microphone. Don’t get afraid, Dave’s back there, he’s going to make sure it’s all going to turn out okay. Now, Craig, going back to it now, I’ve got a building, I know that it’s got all kinds of old lights because I just bought it for a really steep price from Fabio Faerman from Fortune. He sold me this great deal in Little Havana. Now I want to switch out the lights. What’s my next step?
Craig Opalich: In terms of our perspective, you would get a lighting retrofit company in there and they would do a sight survey and initially always if you can team up with Engineered Tax Services and look at the advantages that doing lighting controls can also retrofit and potential rebate to really improve the ROI. You get them in there, you do an audit and actually these companies that do that type of work will give you an ROI. So we like to get them in there and we come in on a back end with the controls. So the ability to do the light harvesting which is using the natural light, let’s say you’re in a big lobby with a lot of natural light or outside windows and office complex, where we can actually use the outdoor lighting and marry it up and actually dim the lighting inside to keep the value, the light value the same, but not using as much of the power of the light inside the offices. So there’s a lot we can do on the control side but that’s generally the process is get people in there that understand thinking out LEDs and light fixtures and then coming in and really looking to improve the overall performance of the building, not just on the lighting side, lighting is certainly a big deal, coming there with the controls on the lighting but also look at your HVAC loads and really try to compile a real solution to tackle all the energy consumption within a building.
Jim Fried: We own millions of square feet of office back in my day job. I know that Don was sitting and talking with our partner at the UF Real Estate Conference so I know that this is not only something that’s real, it’s something that people are really interested in. Now Cindy, you tell me a little bit about now we’ve got a building, we bought it, we were retrofitting it with a bunch of energy saving stuff and we’re replacing equipment that’s important, right?
Cindy Blumenfeld: Absolutely.
Jim Fried: So tell me a little bit about what you can do for me when I’m replacing my equipment and how you help build the bottom line.
Cindy Blumenfeld: We take a deep X-ray look of that building and all the tax incentives forehead. So first of all, you have opportunity for on a retrofit anything you’re throwing out in the dumpster, we get to write that off of your netbooks. Anything that’s being installed we need to see what incentives are there and between our 179-D and new repair and maintenance tangible property regulations. There’s a lot of opportunity be able to write off major parts of these expenditures.
Jim Fried: So for instance, if somebody is building hotels or building condo hotels, things like that, you can help them save money and bring more money to the bottom line for, Related is building hotels right now. So you can add value to that, no?
Cindy Blumenfeld: We have. Yes, we work closely together, we work on a lot of hotels and auto dealerships and multi-family housing and NFL stadiums.
Jim Fried: I know. You got all these great things. I love the NFL stadium part because it gets me into all the good ball games. I guess you go to the Dolphin games occasionally, don’t you J.P.? David goes. We all love the Dolphin games. AC, do you love the Dolphin games? A lover man who knows where his button is. AC, the thing hasn’t moved in the five years you worked here but you still can’t find it. We’ve only got three minutes left. Craig, I’m going back to you. It’s snowy, it’s nasty, you’re in Cleveland. By the way, next month you’re on again the first week in the month. Why don’t you come down and do a live? We’ll bring in Cindy. You’re going to love Cindy.
Craig Opalich: I’m actually going to be down the last week of March and maybe the first week in April or so to come in studio.
Jim Fried: We’re going to have the best time. We’ll bring in Big D, we’ll have a whole blow out. Julio will come down, Cindy will come down. Now tell us the one thing that I know about Magnum. Tell me where your products are made.
Craig Opalich: Our products are made in the USA and it’s a broad and very deep product mix of energy manage with devices that are wireless and even our sensors are battery-less and wireless. So when we talk about two true green technologies, any other competing wireless automation systems that have sensors, temperature sensors, occupancy sensors, door sensors etc. they have to have batteries installed. We use just the ambient light in the room and solar cells so we take a complete look of being completely green and we really take the maintenance aspect of having to change those batteries in end devices. So we’re very innovative in that regard and extremely sustainable and green.
Jim Fried: The heck with that. You’re what’s making America great. We don’t do politics on the show but my goodness, Ohio, you’re just building jobs there. It’s awesome. We’ve only got a minute left so give me a couple seconds on how people can learn more about Magnum because I’ll give the last word to Cindy because you got the first.
Craig Opalich: You can reach me or a company at Magnum Energy Solutions, my name is Craig Opalich and my email is c.opalich@magnumenergysolutions.com or just get on the website which is www.magnumenergysolutions.com.
Jim Fried: Great. Cindy, last word. Go slow, we got Jets fans listening.
Cindy Blumenfeld: All right. You can contact me at either my email which is cblumenfeld@engineeredtaxservices.com. Of course, our website is engineeredtaxservices.com. Be sure to ask for me or call me direct 954 439 1671.
Jim Fried: Give the number again.
Cindy Blumenfeld: 954 439 1671.
Jim Fried: You know the smile you can hear it in the voice. But I need my sunglasses here. Cindy, give me a fist bump. What a great segment. We’ll be back after this. We’re going to talk urban Miami condo living and the evolution thereof. We got David Staples from Fortune and we got J.P. Perez from the Related Group. Stick with us. We’re burning it up. Back after this.
[commercial break]
Jim Fried: When he says ”I feel nice like sugar and spice” we’re turning the corner and starting the second half of the show I do we have great guests today. We’ve got J.P. Perez, we’ve got David Staples. David’s with Fortune, he’s a big sales broker her in town for residential and J.P. is an expert in the design development and financing of commercial real estate. Welcome to the show, guys.
David Staples: Thank you very much.
Jim Fried: First thing I want to do, David, you’ve been selling down here for a number of cycles. What are you seeing as far as the change in the buyer profile?
David Staples: In the last couple of years we’ve seen that the Americans start to step in with the pre-construction and I think even more and more this year and the last year and they’re starting to look at, it’s not just the very wealthy that are coming down and buying the $20 million penthouses that were in the newspaper, but we’re really getting a lot of people coming down buying second homes as Fabio was saying buying primary homes and keeping the home in New York a second home. But that’s the biggest thing. They’re replacing the South-Americans.
Jim Fried: JP let’s talk a little bit about Auberge, I want to talk about the brand and what you’re doing here over by the R center. Tell me a little bit about Auberge and how you’re building that brand.
J.P. Perez: The brand is already pretty established. It’s more of just bringing the awareness to people here in Miami. As you know, Auberge is known for the luxury, very boutique, best bars, best restaurants, very organic foods, organic treatments. And that’s what we’re trying to bring to a more downtown urban setting that’s never been done before in Miami.
Jim Fried: You’re already selling my wife so David, I’m going to give you my card so she’s all about the organic food, the living, the herbal thing. I’ll tell you, from a real estate guy stand point, you know what I like about it? I like the location right next to 95 and the Arsht Center and Publix. You get there, you don’t got to go anywhere. But if you do, it’s a short pop, you’re on the express way. I love the location. David, how’s that playing in the public there with your buyers?
David Staples: I think people really like that we’re close to the airport, we’re close to downtown, we’re close to Miami Beach, you’ve got public transportation nearby, you’ve got all at the Arsht Center, everything, the museums, the Adrienne Arsht and they love it. And we’ve got the best views in town.
Jim Fried: And they’re on abstracted, aren’t they?
David Staples: They are.
Jim Fried: That’s unusual for the west side of Biscayne. And I like the west side of Biscayne because the west side of Biscayne is where all the action is, where you can walk the things. In fact, that location you can walk to the American Airlines Arena, the museums, all that stuff, can’t you?
David Staples: Yes, absolutely.
Jim Fried: JP, let’s talk about a little bit, we talked a little bit about the amenities but a Zen pool terrace? What’s all that?
J.P. Perez: It’s a beautiful terrace on the 12th floor full of activities will be up there, private cabanas, grilling areas, spa as well up there, cafe, service up there for food, towel service, pretty much everything you can want on a terrace, you’re getting up there.
Jim Fried: Honey, are you listening to this? David, tell me a little bit about how I can pick up my interiors. My wife and I are really busy. I do 65 different things, my wife doesn’t have time to do anything. You got somebody that can help me design my interior if I’m coming from New York of moving in from Westin or something, want to be close to the work?
David Staples: We have two options. We’re going to be selling designer suites that are going to be completely turn key units – bring your toothbrush – designed by Meyer Davis who’s brilliant, fantastic. And the units on the tower are decorated already but we’re going to have a whole list of options for people to basically just, again, just step in with just a few items of their personal needs. We’re still working on that. We only launched three weeks ago and there’s a lot what’s left to figure out.
Jim Fried: That’s okay. I’m going to keep pounding you until you get me what I want there. That’s just what we do here at Fried on Business. Now, back to you JP. I know that this is not the only project that you’ve been working on. Tell me a little bit about how Related’s vision is evolving as the market as David is saying is beginning to change. I live here, a lot of my friends live here, a lot of the young people are working in our office, they commute forever. It sounds to me like this is an answer for a lot of people that they’re looking for.
J.P. Perez: I think everybody is tired of driving in traffic. That’s what I experienced coming over here to be on the show. So I think everybody is trying to move close to the urban core and leave the suburbs which is a big plus for us because we’re right in the middle without being in say Brickell traffic. We’re just outside of that at this location.
Jim Fried: You’re one block away from the main street of South Florida. In fact, you can be at Joe’s in less than five minutes from there. Just get on the express way and go east. Or you can go into the American Airlines Arena which you can walk to from this thing. That’s just amazing stuff. But yet you’re still outside of the downtown things. You’re getting better density and better development. I think it’s great. David, what if I walked in to the sales center today? ”Hi, how are you doing, Mr. Fried, let me tell you a little bit about Auberge and what we’re doing”. Give me a little bit there.
David Staples: Auberge is conceived to be three towers, 60 stories high, there’s going to be a hotel component in it because it’s all going to be managed by Auberge and there will be 72 designer’s suites that are turn key units. I think when the entire project is completed we’ll have over 1000 units there. And amenities that really know what the project in South Florida has. And I think probably the hotel chain is the finest we’ve seen down here as well.
Jim Fried: I know you’re building all kinds of great mixed use hotels. You’ve got one in Midtown with Gil Dezer that you’re doing and I know that JP has got some other stuff he’s working on across the city. And it seems to me and I want to talk about this when we come back from the break, we’ve got a couple of minutes but I want you to think about this because this is a heavy duty thing, you guys are building neighborhoods. Between this, Paradiso, you’re building neighborhoods. You’ve only seen a little bit on Brickell when they got the street inside the street on Brickell. This is self-contained communities. And that to me is what it’s really all about. Very positive stuff. JP, what do you think about that?
J.P. Perez: It’s great. You try to create an environment where people don’t have to leave. The best thing about living in an area like that is you have everything at your footsteps. You walk two minutes, you want to go see the Heat game you’re there, you want to go to the museum, you’re there. Publix, like you said, is across the street. So it’s delivering every single service you can possibly imagine without ever having to leave.
Jim Fried: I live, I’ll just say on 34th in Biscayne and when it’s crazy going on to that exit and I try to come down Biscayne I’m starting to see that there’s starting to be a backup and now with the Venecian open again it’s going to back up even more. That’s another reason why I like this location, right there, right on the express way, it’s like six or seven lights closer than just about any other project that I’ve seen. That’s really important to me. That’s really important I think to the buyer. David, what do you think?
David Staples: Actually, we took some brokers the other night to the Adrienne Arsht Center and it’s just a walk across the street and it helps emphasize just how close all the great things about Miami, all the cultural things are to where we’re living.
Jim Fried: We’re going to go for a break. We may lose a couple of folks so what I’d like, David, could you please tell people how they can find Auberge either on the internet, give you a call on the phone? Remember to go slow if you’re giving out a phone number and I talk a little bit because that lets people get their pencil ready. Okay, go.
David Staples: You can email me and I’ll make sure that you get all the information very quickly. I’m at dstaples@fortuneintlgroup.com. And you can call me on my cell 561 727 0084 and I’ll take care of you.
Jim Fried: I wanted to make sure, JP, we’re not giving that to development guys phone number as too many guys try to sell too many deals right now. Your phone would explode. But David, we’ll get him again after the turn of the break. We’ll be back after this more with the Related Group here on Fried on Business and by the way, guys, welcome to the show. Thank you for helping support the show. AC, we’re back after this. Rock on.
[commercial break]
Jim Fried: Let’s go through this. We’ve got J.P. Perez. He’s the development and finance guy over at the Related Group and we got David Staples. He’s the sales guy from Fortune that heads up the team over at Auberge. And I got to tell you what my wife just sent me and guys, write this down because this is a perfect tag line. My wife says ”We’re moving to the Related project organic. Yes. Give them a deposit tonight”. Honey, you’ve got my debit card so you give them the deposit. But that’s it. You branded it. My wife branded it. What a freaking focus group she is. It’s the organic building. And people pay up for organic. They can’t get enough from organic. How am I doing, David?
David Staples: Now you’re absolutely right. And you’re selling this beautifully for us.
Jim Fried: I’m not trying to do anything. I’m just kibitzing here with two friends. We had Cindy giving me the beautiful ”Hi, Cindy”. David, don’t get PO’d at the guy that just cut you off in traffic. Now, JP let’s go to you. You’re building a community here at the Arsht Center Auberge, you’re building a community up on 32nd or 31st on Biscayne, help me out, I’m braincramping, Edgewater but is called Pariso Community. Stretching to the sky, changing the face. You and your team there, what is the next thing that’s on the Related calendar as they continue to execute here in the local market for locals.
J.P. Perez: I think the next thing would be to move to Wynwood. If you go there now on Saturday, Sunday, any day, any time during the weeks, weekend, you see just tons of people walking there and there’s no residential yet. So I would say that’s a next movement in Miami.
Jim Fried: We try to do residential but the land use just wouldn’t let you do it. I know that I walked into your office and seen top secret designs perhaps for programs on the Edgewater and Wynwood area. Carlos, I’m outing you. David, how would you go about talking about, I would call the west side of Edgewater which even though it doesn’t have water it’s got walkability and it’s got the action?
David Staples: We definitely have the walkability. The whole cultural art center is being developed really within about a three block radius of where we are. And what we’re going to add to it is going to be a first class restaurant based on the Auberge Napa brand which is going to have amazing organic food and best wines from California. And I don’t think there’s going to be a walkability factor like this anywhere else except possibly the Brickell area which is getting pretty intense right now.
Jim Fried: I’ve had Carlos on and we compared Brickell and we compared that to Biscayne Boulevard. I know why you guys have been picking up the sites up and down Biscayne Boulevard because he sees Biscayne Boulevard is actually having better bones in the long run than Brickell and I tend to agree with him. JP, what’s your thoughts?
J.P. Perez: I would agree to it. I don’t think you’re going to have, in Brickell you’re already seeing that there’s definitely already congestion. And on Biscayne Boulevard you definitely have less congestion for a lot longer and also like you were saying you don’t have the amenities as far as the Arsht Center and the museum, the American Airlines Arena, nowhere near as close as you have in Brickell. In Brickell, you’ve still got to walk over to bridge, walk right at a mile and a half when this one’s a five minute walk.
Jim Fried: You guys were great. I was better – I’m just kidding. I hope you guys had a lot of fun. AC is cracking up back there. Am I in rare form today, AC?
AC: You’re in top form.
Jim Fried: I’m performing for my new sponsors, the Related Group. This is the part of the show where I thank the sponsors. I’m going to thank the Related Group. I hope that you guys will come back, I hope that you’ll listen and tell your friends, you’ll email blast me, that’s to you, Ms. Twitter handler person up at the Related Group. So we’re going to get started, I got them all together here. I want to thank the Related Group, Spectrum Mortgage, UHealth, Warren Henry, Magnum Energy Solutions, Engineered Tax Services, EarlyShares, KIND Snacks, the NFL Alumni, the Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Florida, the Miami Marlins, the CCIMs, South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine, Xpresso Marketing, Social Media 305 and of course Lauren’s Kids protect your kids. Go to laurenskids.org. Please go to your Facebook page, our show Facebook page, like our page, like our show, please tell your friends. The people I forgot to thank, that’s you our listeners. So thank you listeners, without you I wouldn’t have the show. Cindy just tweeted so she’s a listener. And join our community, give us feedback and comments, tell us who you want to hear from. Tweet me @Jim Fried, the show’s @Fried on Business, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube. Website is getting whole bunch of hits and more now that we’re going to tie in with the guys at Related. If you missed today’s show it’s going to be up on our webpage www.friedonbusiness.com. This is Jim Fried for Fried on Business, look for us next week on 880 AM next Thursday at 6:00. Why? Because I just love doing this. Can’t you tell? Remember this is not a rehearsal, this is your life. The person who wants to do something finds a way, the other finds an excuse. Now go out there and make it happen. AC, it’s yours.
