Ryan & Ana On MIA
Ryan and Ana cover all things Miami development and real estate, the good, the bad the drama.
Ryan & Ana On MIA
Bezos's Miami Choice: Exposing the City's Wealth, Real Estate, and Living Cost Dynamics
Imagine having the wealth and influence to choose any city in the world to call home... and you choose Miami. That's exactly what Jeff Bezos did, and on this episode, we delve into the reasons behind this high-profile decision. Could it be Miami's warm climate, diverse culture, or the fact that it's a city that celebrates success? With Bezos' intriguing move as a launchpad, we traverse the glamorous yet gritty streets of Miami to explore its lure for those seeking a rich, rewarding lifestyle.
Yet, this is much more than an ode to Miami. Our discussions are a deep dive into the nuances of wealth and opportunity. We challenge conventional wisdom by engaging in heated discussions about wealth caps, corruption, and political influence on wealth distribution. Is safety a feeling or a statistic? We juxtapose this question with the vibrant, sometimes volatile, Miami real estate market - a playground for the rich where the future of the city is being molded with each new construction project.
As we sign off, we leave no stone unturned in our reflection on Miami's real estate challenges. Corporate politics, conflicting interests, and the cost of living in a city that thrives on opulence are all scrutinized. Mechanisms of the real estate market such as pre-sale of condos and the impact of high-profile moves like Bezos' on the city's future are discussed. So, join us as we take you on a roller-coaster ride through the city that never sleeps, in a conversation that's as diverse and dynamic as Miami itself.
Hello everyone, welcome to episode eight. We're on lucky number eight of Ryan and Anna on Miami.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, you know it's funny. I was looking back at videos we made a couple months ago and it was just wow.
Speaker 1:We've been doing this since July now yes, and then the story keeps unfolding and writing itself.
Speaker 2:And the best part of Miami is that it always gives us a lot of stories to work with.
Speaker 1:Correct. There's always something, and what do we have in the news this past week, which I think is a continuation of the ongoing data points corroborating or on Miami emerging as a capital of the world thesis, and that is Mr Jeff Bezos, of course, deciding to make Miami his home. I think that is super significant. He is yet another person who has the ability to choose to live absolutely anywhere, to choose Miami, and it's important to recognize that. When you have the level of wealth and access that he and somebody like him has, it's not about the extra tax dollars anymore. Of course, there's a tax advantage to Miami, but when you already have essentially limitless money, it's not about that. It's about the value limitless limitless, limitless Right.
Speaker 1:It's about the it's, it's. I think people, especially those people, get a real sort of visceral feeling of the finiteness of the value of their time, which, by the way, we all should have, because time is is all the way over in this life and it's our most finite and scarce resource.
Speaker 1:But, of course, when the pressures of money are gone and you have infinite resources, that becomes even more, I think, paramount. And these people would not for the savings of how many dollars, it's irrelevant choose to live in a place that they don't want to be in. And so the fact that people this messy Bezos are choosing Miami and South Florida as their homes, I think, speaks volumes and is one of the best corroborations on our thesis that that we could have actions Remember actions, not word. And those are not words and those are such powerful actions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's a couple other points about Bezos. They're interesting. First of all, he grew up here.
Speaker 1:Yes, he did. He's actually coming back home.
Speaker 2:And I feel very few people know that Correct. And then secondly, but even fewer people know, is that his stepdad was Cuban.
Speaker 1:That's correct.
Speaker 2:That's correct I think his father, his real father, died or his?
Speaker 1:mother had him very young.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:She was a teenager, I think quite young, and then he was raised by the stepdad.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And then his wife, a girlfriend I'm sorry, a girlfriend now, of course is of Cuban descent also. Oh, she's Cuban, I believe so. Is she of Cuban descent, Is his girlfriend.
Speaker 2:Lauren Sanchez? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Maybe not Cuban. I'll take the back but she's a Latina.
Speaker 2:So there you go, she's a Latina for sure.
Speaker 1:So now he's coming back to Miami with the Latina girlfriend.
Speaker 2:I saw this meme. I said last night that was some tech bro on Twitter or X. Now I guess he was. He had the screenshot of Jeff Bezos moving to Miami and he said what, what marrying Latina will do to a mother effort.
Speaker 1:It's fantastic. I mean good for him. You know I love the Jeff Bezos story. As I was reading about this yesterday and looking at the headlines, I stumbled across one of those old videos of him back in the old school Amazon headquarters in Seattle. It's that murky kind of gray video. You see this room where he has the desktop computer and the very bare desks, all those things, and he kind of looks super skinny and nerdy. It's not buff, jeff, we have now right. And he's walking around this office.
Speaker 1:In the mid late nineties and you realize that wasn't that long ago and in the late nineties he was this skinny, nerdy guy walking around this kind of bleak looking office. And if you think about what he has achieved and what he has done in a relatively short period of time we're talking really 20 years it's remarkable. And I love those old videos and I saw you, I revisited them yesterday bring this Bezos news. But I love those old videos because they really bring back to our mind the idea that the past, the future, does not need to equal the past or even or even resemble it in the slightest. And then in 20, look what he did in 20 years. So anyone can create their lives and recreate them and reimagine them in relatively short periods of time. He went from being nobody to being who he is in a very short period of time, and I think that's remarkable. And he's choosing to live here.
Speaker 2:Same with messy and can griffin. Exactly right, exactly right. And you know, I know that because I know billionaires and millionaires can be a object. But I think one of the things that's interesting about Miami is that and I said this before is that we celebrate success here. Yes, we are not afraid of it.
Speaker 1:And that's a beautiful thing and that that's one of those I think that I'm criticizing success is a luxury. People who criticize, people who criticize your offering, almost always doing less than you, are people who sit there and criticize yeah, yeah, it's true. I mean, who was time to criticize, right? So people who are criticized, criticizing success, wealth, all those things they almost always fail to appreciate the fact that they're sitting on the shoulders of people who took tremendous risk and created. That's why we have our nice buildings, electricity, people gotten wooden ships across the oceans with nothing. So we're all sitting on the shoulders of people who took tremendous risk to create and also they enrich themselves in the process. So sitting in this first world, very nice place and criticizing success is, in fact, a luxury, and they don't and they don't realize it.
Speaker 2:But I think, I think we're one of the only places left in the States that. I think I agree.
Speaker 1:I agree.
Speaker 2:I agree that if someone is successful and does well, we celebrate it and we want them to celebrate it If they want to drive that Lambo or that house on Indian Creek and bedazzle the Lambo, God bless. Okay, great. Sure, it's a little gaudy or a little ostentatious, but it's okay, you're allowed to do that Correct. And for me personally, when I see that I'm oh, wow, that's cool, I would also be that successful. This is me personally, 100% the same, I don't look at him.
Speaker 2:Damn, he's got a Lambo. It's annoying. I look at it as I. Maybe a Lambo someday too.
Speaker 1:It shows you what's possible. He didn't take the Lambo for you, he got it. He got it himself Exactly. It's the first time you know it's when the five, the four minute mile. What is his name? It was 1951 or 52. Who broke that?
Speaker 1:I'm blanking on his name right now, but in any case, until this man it was 1951, 52, broke the four minute mile. It was considered a barrier that could not be broken and this man ran it and just he barely broke it. It was just under the threshold. But once one person did it, that same year multiple other people did it too, because all of a sudden it became a possibility in their minds that they could. It was no longer impossible, and you can only achieve things if you believe them to be possible. Then you have a chance right.
Speaker 2:So I think that's the best way to look at and perceive the success of others is they're showing you what's possible, yeah, and I feel personally that I have been a recipient of this because since I moved to Miami and I have been around this ostentatiousness of it all, I have done better financially than any other place I've ever lived, and there's a lot of work involved in that. But because everyone around me is well off or they're showing off, I want to do that too. It's mindset.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I don't see it keeping up with the Joneses as a bad thing. No it drives you forward.
Speaker 1:Correct. It's you have to. It's a champion mindset, winning mindset or not, we approach this. You know, I train Jiu-Jitsu every day with professional fighters, MMA masters, and it's the same approach. You have to believe that you're a winner.
Speaker 1:And that's the way that you're going to win and you're not taking it from anybody else, and that's that's what's. It's a beautiful thing when we're getting look, humanity, humanity continues to evolve in advance. Right, if you look at how standards living advance around the world through history, no two places are ever equivalent. They're better places to be than others. Right, you want to avoid being in the middle of the war. You want to avoid those things, but the general trajectory is upwards, and that's because human innovation, the human spirit, the desire to create it, always flows somewhere. And you want to just kind of towards the places of least resistance. And we are that place now. I agree, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I mean it's. We've always sort of been that place. Florida, as its inception, has always been a business friendly, low regulatory for better or for worse low tax environment. It's always been that way. It's nothing new, right? Right, that's. I mean I think we have to go back.
Speaker 2:This is very true we have to go back to really what Florida was, the modern day version of Florida what it was. I don't think most people realize that California had been established and done for 100 years and Miami was. Florida was still literally swamped, literally. People say the last frontier was the West. It was not, it was South Florida. That's a great quote, ryan. It's not my quote, I stole it from someone else. But Florida really is last frontier and so it's new. It's new and because of that we had to prove ourselves. We had to make it a desirable place to be Right. And how to do that? You lower taxes. The government gets out of people's ways, for better or for worse, 100%. So that, I think, is important to realize that it's built into the state's ethos.
Speaker 2:Yep Exactly In a way that is not in modern day California or New York.
Speaker 1:That's an excellent point. It is part of the ethos, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you come here and you make it work, or you bring the resources that you have gotten and you make it work, and I mean, and then we celebrate when you do correct, correct. It's a great thing and another thing on the other side of this Washington recently introduced their 7% capital gains tax. Washington state yeah state because Washington does not have income tax that way.
Speaker 1:But they increased capital gains tax we do not correct and well, people will leave.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it goes, remember what you were talking about Chicago with the well taxing through training with Los Angeles and the mansion tax, and that is the exact opposite of celebrating success.
Speaker 1:Correct, and they will. These feeder jurisdictions will keep doubling down these positions, as we've been saying, and, I think, keep introducing these well taxes with, which seems counterintuitive, because people with money, usually it's easier for them to leave, and many of them will. So why is this happening? This goes back to the one thing we talked previously about is that politicians mostly just care about getting reelected and their their own self advancement, and which is not necessarily lying with a long term prosperity of the jurisdiction. So I believe they will keep doubling down on these losing positions and keep pandering to the growing percentage that does not pay in, and it's gonna spiral. Momentum cycles are very real things. They're gonna keep having negative ones. Well, we're gonna keep getting positive ones, yeah it's the Venezuela effect.
Speaker 1:It's the same play, all of it, all of it. All of it seems obvious from the outside, and it kind of is, but the inner dynamics are such that those types of actions are rewarded in the sense that these people get reelected.
Speaker 2:You know, I think also, listen, do, do I think that billionaires should exist? I think that's a question for a separate conversation. Maybe I'm gonna ask me, I don't know, but I don't know if it's a, if it's a failure or whatever, I don't know. That's a whole other conversation. But we have them today. We have them, they're here, so what we do with them can? Griffin, he sponsored a huge portion of the underline Yep and also art things and things that you know, the colleges around here.
Speaker 1:So they're all in in Miami. Yeah, citadel is all in, correct?
Speaker 2:And they're building a giant headquarters on Ripple Bay, so it's.
Speaker 1:I don't know if there's a long conversation to be had there about that, but Well, when it comes to questions of wealth caps or what to do with wealth, there's the theoretical conversation, but then, when it comes to practical terms, the question is who decides? And that's the scary part. These corruption, narcissism, all of that is highly rewarded in politics and we want those people deciding what happens with anyone's money? I don't think we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it's a slippery slope. Once you have there can be billionaires. Okay, who decides it? Should there be millionaires? Right? Should there be people with hundred thousand dollars?
Speaker 1:And who decides how to enforce that cap? Where does the money go? Yeah, I mean, the history of the world is nothing really more than governments lying to their own people, and that's very much the truth today. So the less money that the government has to waste, better.
Speaker 2:And it just I think one of the things that sort of boggles my brain is when you have your favorite word, your feeder jurisdiction. They make decisions let's say, the mansion tax in LA or the or the capital gains in Washington and they make these decisions. These people are somehow handcuffed to their space or their physical home that they own and I just that is something I don't understand. It's OK, I'm going to make this thing. That's bad, bad for this person.
Speaker 1:And you're going to stay and take you're going to stay and take it.
Speaker 1:What it makes. I don't Again. I think it's just those politicians. It's a talking point that gets them reelected and keeps them in power. Yeah, it's pretty obvious to think that, ok, you're going to disproportionately affect a certain percentage of the population with this wealth tax. Some of them not all, but some of them will leave and a small percentage of people account for the majority of tax base in all these places and you lose just some of them. You disproportionately affected your revenue.
Speaker 2:I read somewhere I don't quote me on this, but when because Jeff Bezos sells a lot of Amazon stock and by moving to Florida he said he's going to save 70 million dollars every time he sells. I read that too.
Speaker 1:It could be the stock and absolutely could be and again, I don't think that for him it's a question of personal savings, it doesn't matter to him that money is not going to change his lifestyle. But for someone that maybe it was just no longer the place he wanted to live, because of the ethos, because of the air that you breathe, the culture probably just didn't work anymore. Yeah, I mean also.
Speaker 2:Seattle Seattle's all good has a lot of problems. It's downtown has greatly suffered. They've lost a ton of money. They've lost a ton of retail. They've lost a ton of office tenants in commercial real estate. It's not quite as bad as San Francisco, but it's on the same track.
Speaker 1:Correct. I was at a talk with an interview that Mayor Suarez and Jude Can Griffin at a college here in Miami. It was maybe six or eight months ago or earlier this year and they asked him why he moved and again, he's been paying those taxes in Chicago forever. He's extremely wealthy, he's you know, saving money isn't really going to change his life at all. And he said it wasn't the taxes. The taxes, listen. The tax disparity hasn't changed. It's not new that you have less of a tax burden in Florida. That's not what changed. So when you see an event happen, you have to ask what triggered it? What changed? So it wasn't the taxes. And he spoke a lot about crime. Where he could see it, crime happening and he thought the city was just headed in the wrong direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's I've had. We've had some conversation before, but it's the feeling versus the paper, yep, and we have crime in Miami, we have problems, of course, but it's the feeling of it.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, it's like it's.
Speaker 2:you know, if I go to a certain neighborhood, there's a chance that I get shot or stabbed or whatever, right. But when I walk around downtown, brickle, edgewater, the places where I live and breathe, I do not feel unsafe.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly.
Speaker 2:And that's the difference 100 percent.
Speaker 1:And, and you know, back to the notion of feeling, having somebody at Bezos say that he wants to live in Miami, that just increases that feeling. Yeah, because again he could choose any place. Any place and that's such, a such an amazing thing.
Speaker 2:And he also. He recently I heard Balala and Coral Gables too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he also has. He bought the lot next to the lot he bought for his parents in Indian Creek for another 60 some million dollars over the summer, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:I mean, I didn't even imagine this would be us going to Best Buy and buying a computer.
Speaker 1:I'd be like Ryan. That towel is really cute. Can you buy it for me?
Speaker 2:The one with the flamingo, yeah and then you're just oh, I'm sure I'm going to be able to too. Yeah, exactly, and I don't even think about that. That is the amount of money.
Speaker 1:That's how he buys. Mentions One day.
Speaker 2:Someday.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:We're actually going to have a conversation with that after about Correct.
Speaker 1:Correct.
Speaker 2:Correct, we're scheming over here Always. But yeah it, I don't know it just, it's just fascinating to me and I'm I'm just very happy that I made the choice to be here when I did Same. I don't think I could have made a better choice.
Speaker 1:It was, it's eight years or so for you.
Speaker 2:Seven and six months. Okay, yeah, I got here in June or 2017. Okay, okay, but yeah, I don't know it. Just I'm very happy and you know, I know I'm a mommy booster and that's my, that's my whole thing, but I'm just happy to be here, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Same.
Speaker 2:And I, you know what I do this every year. I sort of every couple of years I go through and I think I do a little study Should I be somewhere else, should I live somewhere else? And I go through, I look at apartments, other in other states, other places, I look at cost of livings and all of that I do. I try and be as objective as I can and I just don't know nowhere else.
Speaker 1:Really, and it's just, it's so healthy. Here too, there's that cumulative effect of having nice weather and sunshine all year.
Speaker 2:And also hot people.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly right.
Speaker 2:I feel if I don't keep up some physical appearance, I get voted off the peninsula.
Speaker 1:I have to get weighed publicly for competition, so I actually have to make way. I don't know if I could do all of that. I had a pizza today. I was so cold at that hotel for the conference. I had a pizza. No more food for me today. No kidding.
Speaker 2:Oh boy. So yeah, this is, this is all fascinating. I think. I think we're gonna see Jeff Bezos, fountains and stuff in Miami now I think that and I think this is just paving the way for more.
Speaker 1:It's when Sid et al moved here. It paves the way because these people are the Vanguard, they're the symbolic head. When they do something, it clicks in other people's brains that everyone notices and it's just gonna usher in more.
Speaker 2:And there's a whole bunch of other ones. What are they? They are a law firm, I think. Oh, yes, they are opening up a thing. That was another big one. I read that. Yup, there's another one too. I read recently there was three or four this week that Yup, oh, when was it PricewaterhouseCoopers? One of the consulting people was opening up in 545 when they go to the office by 95. Mm-hmm, there was a couple that moved in there.
Speaker 1:All we need is Elon Musk now.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I feel Elon Musk is a trend follower. He might be this trend line.
Speaker 1:He might.
Speaker 2:I mean, does he have Facebook? But they have competed the competition.
Speaker 1:I don't know. It's unclear. I mean he had those fake callouts with Zuckerberg.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know. But I don't know. I mean, I feel Elon Musk likes Miami anyway.
Speaker 1:so I know, but for him to be I'm moving to Miami too have to be at the next headline. That would be great, I'll take it, I'm putting it out there.
Speaker 2:It's funny. I sent the news to my friend, julia, who's been a lifelong person here and she's bought a house. I sent her the news budget face of the fair and she was like, oh, it's so over.
Speaker 1:No, it's just the beginning. No, she was-.
Speaker 2:It's over as far as Miami was it's too much now. Oh, I see, I see, and a girl, please. She's bought a house, her house, her house. I think she bought a house for I don't know $700,000 or something. It has to worth the next year please, yeah, exactly right, we're kidding.
Speaker 1:Exactly right.
Speaker 2:Ride that wave Really. Stop complaining, exactly. I don't want to just be complaining.
Speaker 1:I rent, so I can complain, Exactly exactly.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you saw, but I got the key to my new place.
Speaker 1:Congratulations, that's exciting.
Speaker 2:I walked around. It's very nice. I'm moving to Canvas and I think I told some of you guys that it's so nice. It's so nice to be back in a condo building.
Speaker 1:And the amenities in that building are super fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the rooftop pool and, like the racquetball court, inside there's a climbing wall right and a sauna, which I'm very excited about. I wish it a steam room, but that's also right with a sauna.
Speaker 1:That's super cool.
Speaker 2:I am my thing. What I think is for staying healthy is thermal therapy. Yes, I don't cold, just hot. I hate the cold. Yeah, well, you're from. You're from Serbia, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You think it's colder?
Speaker 1:No, it's well. No, no, it's the same. It's the same temperature, pretty much as New York City.
Speaker 2:Okay, the same type of city. Why is that? Anyways, I don't even know.
Speaker 1:It's just north of Greece. Ah, so the Balkans, it just goes Greece, macedonia, serbia, it's all. That's very cool.
Speaker 2:But yeah, anyways, I don't like cold, so I do steam and sauna twice over times a week to stay healthy. That's my. I swear it on until I'm dying almost, and then, and then I yeah, I have training partners that make me get into cold water.
Speaker 1:Nope, oh, I hate it so much but I'm so competitive that I don't want to seem to wimp in front of them. So, but alone, oh, if I had to go into ice bath alone, or the cold, I could not. I absolutely could not. But peer pressure and competitiveness, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't do cold. Anyways, moving on, let's chat about some news. Was there any news you want to?
Speaker 1:chat about News, news news, just a market update. So October closed out and it's still a bit early. I wait for a few days more for them. Let's just close out. But the median condo price in the county dropped again month over month. We have two months of overall drop, which is not a bad thing at all. Remember we went up almost 70% in three years, so it's not bad. Interestingly, we've kind of diverged a little bit here in pattern. The single family homework. It continued to climb up, and that's something that I've talked about before too is that when it comes to single family homes, you can't build more of them. Really, you could replace existing and create new stuff that maxes out the lots is more expensive, blah, blah, blah. But you can't actually make more parcels. And for condos and multi-family you can. That's the difference. So the single family home market continues to rise.
Speaker 2:Oh, is this what I was saying? Vanguard is opening up an office in Miami. Black rocker Well, everyone hates, but they're exactly there I'm coming here is actually a good thing. Okay, so as far as news, what is interesting happening recently. There's still so much going on as far as construction. Yep, I just look around and just wow, On my block they 501 first finally restarted, which is so Miami. Apparently they went vertical without getting all of the code and fire requirements. Oh, and so they was. What? How?
Speaker 1:did, they do that.
Speaker 2:And so then, yeah, so they put a hold on. It was on hold for a month, so that is back in construction. Ocon tower is finishing up their pilings, so they're taking a long time because it's a super tall. They have to go really deep. Also, waldorf Astoria is just about done with their deep mixing and pilings as well, so we actually have two super talls sort of on the same construction time. We have Waldorf and Ocon both going at the same time. I'm excited for those two.
Speaker 1:I am too. Those are great projects.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then they're also finishing up over at block 55, which has Target and Aldi in Burlington and Overtown. That's really coming along well. They're finally going to be demolishing the remnants of that old building across from Brightline station You're more than one that has had so many names but it's right across from where the publics is in Overtown. They're demolishing that finally, and guess what's going to be called Hub?
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yes, so just you know, the office space we're in is called the hub and office logic, but this new place is called hub Miami, which I think is hilarious. I see, well, we're with that idea, but I'm very excited because that lot has been cursed. There's been four or five developers have tried to do something there and it always fails. Fingers crossed for these guys. Yeah, speaking of that, I have a little rant talk about. Okay, I was talking to you this last week.
Speaker 1:There are some lots and projects in Miami that just make me he sends me screenshots of these and he's ah, this is what keeps right up at night this lot. I can't anymore.
Speaker 2:Sometimes there are lots. Sometimes the old condo towers that just make me or old buildings that need to go away. I would say the one of the most annoying ones is the holiday Inn on Biscayne. So it's I think it's 400 Biscayne or something. It's right next to all of Astoria. So you're going to have this gorgeous 100 story masterpiece and then a 10 story decrepit 1970s not even aesthetically pleasing. Just straight up it looks like you'd be buying an airport out in Hialeah or something directly next to the wall or Astoria. I'm just going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, new York has stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, new.
Speaker 1:York has that mix because the city was just, you know, built and you'll have crappy little buildings.
Speaker 2:But this one just right there and just yeah, I just I don't know, I wish they would fail on the spectrum. I'm just going to go on the outside. Look at the cracks in the sod.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say hey, look at that unsafe.
Speaker 2:Because we left them all on unsafe.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Unsafe buildings here, exactly. Another one is the lot next to my building, my new building. So on 17th, you know where the Miami cemetery is? Yes, the lot next to it, so giant, huge lot. It's on Northeast second and 17th it's apparently been vacant for 15 to 20 years, long time Ever since I've been here, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's huge. It's huge. You could build a city center there, and I talked to a few people really I think it's all by some, just a random shell company, but apparently they just want some absurd amount of money for it. And I'm just, it's just so.
Speaker 1:You see stuff like that. It sits forever and ever.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who knows?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then so those. That's one. It's on, that's on, northeast 17th and 2nd. The other one is an edge water next between the Paricio district and Biscayne Beach. There's one tower in that is keeping it from having a continuous Baywalk. It's called I think it's called Bayview Tower or something.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's like this gray 1970s and it goes right up to the water.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you can't, I know yeah and I'm just it's an eyesore and obstruction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and literally and there's no on that entire. Whatever that road is I forget what it is 29th, 30th there's no block pass through on that entire block. So you have to go all the way to Biscayne and then all the way back down. That's just. I just want to.
Speaker 1:We need if we had the SimCity control.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Be gone, be gone.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I used to play the city of Skye. I was a terrible mayor. I would just do eminent domain all over the place, Me too.
Speaker 1:I was. I'm God.
Speaker 2:This is what I'm doing, oh this lovely single-filling home. Bye.
Speaker 1:Oh the preservation. People love you, don't they, ryan?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would just wreck everything. I'm excited I haven't played it yet because I've been busy, but city of Skye lines 2 came out.
Speaker 1:What is it oh?
Speaker 2:So city of Skye lines. It was the spiritual press successor to SimCity. Because EA basically gave up, they stopped making SimCity See Skye lines. The original was a smash hit and they just released the last month the second version. Oh, that's exciting, I know. I haven't touched it because it's addictive, I can't. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And if I play it I'll be lost, for I have a zero tolerance policy for video games because I know that if I start, days could go by and I can't do that anymore.
Speaker 2:Statutaries. So, but yeah, I do want to play, because I do, but my city just always devolve into chaos and traffic. That's what happens. Like I say, I'm an urbanist, I'm a, I'm not practicing, but I just build cities with just hellish highways and they're always just backdone. I can't figure it out. I just add more lanes and it doesn't work. I know, I know it's how it works. What else annoys me? Do you have any buildings that annoy you?
Speaker 1:Off the top of my head what annoys me? No, off the top of my head. I can't think of anything, okay.
Speaker 2:A couple more. That I wish would go away also is all the ones. He has more everyone I have many, all the ones in front of the Four Seasons and Brickle Bay Drive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, See, I'm just good at not seeing things I don't. I just pretend they don't exist. Now when you say them, oh yeah, I know, but I don't acknowledge they exist.
Speaker 2:This is not financial advice. I'm not a realtor, but if I had money to burn, I would be buying units in all of those stupid old buildings. They're going to get bought out at some point In front of the Four Seasons, because they have unobstructed views and they have the right to build, because they're also in. They're also in what do you call that? They're in the Grappler Transit Zone. So you can cut out the city and just go straight to the county which Yep.
Speaker 2:So you could build 60 stories in front of the Four Seasons After. They would appreciate it very much.
Speaker 1:Right, but you could, if you wanted, to Different parking requirements, all that stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2:But anyways, I would be buying units in all of those buildings Because also with the surf side stuff coming up, they're going to have to have reserves and all that.
Speaker 1:So it's going to be, so many of these buildings won't be able to continue.
Speaker 2:Oh, speaking of news, I saw this sort of randomly in South Florida Business Journal and I was kind of surprised that they didn't get more traction. So do you know the Santander Building on Brickle?
Speaker 1:Vaguely Not well, brickle Ave yeah.
Speaker 2:It's sort of next to the Four Seasons. Yep, they are vacating that.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:And moving to Coral Gables. Wow, but that is good news, because that building is kind of it's just whatever, right, nothing special, but it's in a fabulous location, right, it's across the street from 1428 where they're going to do that whole thing. So to me, that tells me that wheels are turning in the back end. They're probably going to rebuild that lot soon.
Speaker 1:Interesting. It's a huge lot. It's a great spot.
Speaker 2:Huge lot. It has a huge building in the front of a giant parking garage, so you could build something major right there. So I was probably thinking to get more coverage. Are there any other? Oh, the grand Mac Daddy of annoyances, the. So, where I currently live, on Fifth Street, at the end of it, right before you get to Biscayne, there is a former affordable housing building there. It's called the Harry Kane Tower. Okay, it's right next to the fire station on Fifth Okay, and it closed down, I think 18. And it's just been left ever since to deteriorate. The problem, from what I understand, is that it's zoned permanently for affordable housing Actual affordable housing, a government or something and Miami-Dade College wants it. Miami-dade College wants that, and they want the firehouse too. That's the only section of that whole block, they don't the whole continuous Miami-Dade College. They don't control. Okay, they want that section. It's owned by the. I think it's owned by the county, but it has to be used for affordable housing.
Speaker 1:Okay, got it.
Speaker 2:And the building is literally disintegrating. They let it deteriorate. Well, no one lives there, but it's just an abandoned building with the water coming out of it and mold no-transcript, but by the county. Yeah, it's just, it's so and I've I posted on Twitter to both mayors and I'm just like we just demolish it at this point, just get rid of it. Yeah, if you're fighting over the land, just demolish it and leave the land blank.
Speaker 1:It's better than having that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just fight. You can find about it for next 10 years, but just just delete it first.
Speaker 1:We're seeing a pattern here. Be gone, yeah.
Speaker 2:I, you know people tell me I should go into politics all the time. Oh god, but I know you wouldn't want to be in politics. No, I would probably get the first time someone said this thing stupid. I just slapped them in and I'd be on the front page of the mind of your hair, older something slapping somebody. Yeah, maybe it'd be very Miami, but I don't have tolerance for stupid people. That'd be kind of great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't either. I have a very hard time doing political corporate talk. No, I just don't even know how to do it anymore.
Speaker 2:I can't, I can't either, no it's, I think it's once again sedentary, says but but yeah, I don't think I'd be good in politics. I mean I'd be good, but it's a struggle. Yes it would take a lot of energy to because I'm, because I'm very good at putting the message out there and marketing, but I wouldn't enjoy the the palm pressing and the kissing babies and stuff. I can't do it. I can't if I don't, if I don't want someone about you.
Speaker 1:This is also I tap out, it's when I when I speak at conferences and things like that. It gets. It gets a bit much having to talk to so many people after. Yeah, and I have a very hard time speaking with people who are a little corporate.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I just don't know how it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I have my day job is very corporatey and I'm not even very good at that. As far as, as far as doing the whole corporatey thing I don't do well with that.
Speaker 1:And now to try to create conversation with me. I get all these men who come up to me now and tell me oh, you know, in high school I used to wrestle what. They'll try to talk about sports with me and they know that I do jiu-jitsu, I train with all these fighters and, as they're a way of, I guess, speaking with me, they'll mention the sports they did in high school, or one time I boxed, or I'm okay.
Speaker 2:Cool, thank you. It's that Jennifer Lawrence meme where she's cool.
Speaker 1:It's adorable.
Speaker 2:What else is? Oh, I saw yesterday that they finally broke ground at the back, or?
Speaker 1:Baccarat. Quotes there the Baccarat.
Speaker 2:Why can't I say that? Can you say that I don't? Know, which is amazing to me that they somehow figured out do that how to do all that present. Yeah, the ancient artifacts. So you know, if you follow me on Twitter for any time, you know that I have this thing with related, but also with Baccarat in general. It's that has been their wishes and dreams trademark project for for many, many, many, many years and there's been scammed.
Speaker 2:It's been the most Miami project in history and they found that, just as they found Indian artifacts at the site, then stuff, they found all kinds of books, and so they found all the stuff. And it's been a drama and there's been architects, archaeologists and it's been a mess. So of course it's my, they're pulling shenanigans. They already, they already presale all the condos. I think Baccarat is sold out or very close to sold out, so they basically sold the condos and then brought in archaeologists Most Miami thing ever. And then so I just came in there. Well, we have a lot of really old stuff here related. Can we not do this?
Speaker 1:I have in my head.
Speaker 2:I have this vision of the related boss at the table and just like a cross table and the guy's talking about finding things and he's just. But do we?
Speaker 1:exactly. I've been heard it said the time they will do there, then they have to be under every other building in Brickle too. Yes, and that's not wrong? I don't think that's faulty logic?
Speaker 2:It's not, but it's also. It's a paradox and it makes my head explode.
Speaker 2:I know, I know I'm not sure how to how to handle that, but anyways, so there's more to this drama. So that is a three project, a three tower project, right, and what they're working on, they're building right now the one that's on that Fifth Street, that Southeast Fifth Street. Okay, the faces that face 500 Brickle, whatever it is. They're building a multifamily one, that that one's already out of the ground vertical. The Baccarat one is the one that's on the river. And then there's a third tower that goes where the Capitol Grill is. Okay, Okay.
Speaker 2:Another hilarious thing they never show all three towers in the same rendering.
Speaker 1:That's true, never.
Speaker 2:They are allergic to it. They will show one, two or three, but not one, two, three.
Speaker 1:It's the Porsche Tower. Renderings Don't show the building right next to it on one side, yeah.
Speaker 2:Or I love when they do the rendering and they show a tower and a lush park all around it.
Speaker 1:No, it's not. There's no lush park and there are buildings on either side. It's the best especially for pre-sales, for condo pre-sales. It's this beautiful tower in isolation it's not bad. Are you all planning to destroy all the buildings around it with the plan?
Speaker 2:But you know it's funny because where I'm moving, canvas I think it's hilarious, I think it's very petty. I'm all for I'm all for pettiness, they, they, yeah, sorry, they built the tower next to canvas on the north side. This you can reach out off your balcony and touch.
Speaker 1:Hey neighbor, hey neighbor, got any sugar? Has to be something.
Speaker 2:It's even more petty because they didn't even decide that faces canvas. It's just a blank concrete wall, right? I mean all the way up, it's just, it's from the pool deck to the top, it's just so they put their stairwells and everything there and then balconies right here.
Speaker 1:Okay, so they put all their stuff there. They're there, the backup house stuff, stairwells, everything else. And they said, oh no, well, no view for us, but we're going to get in front of them there.
Speaker 2:It's wow, that is some petty.
Speaker 1:That is super petty.
Speaker 2:And it's the same developer that built canvas and then sold those people.
Speaker 1:They sold their out. It's not theirs anymore. Now they're building the next thing.
Speaker 2:That's a mess, it's the same thing with 830 Brickle in, in, in Brickle, because you have SLS, luxe and now SLS, which is a pretty nice building, now has a view of a shear wall for for 60 stories. That's close too.
Speaker 1:So moral of the story, everyone, it's important to recognize the potential of the lots next to which you are purchasing.
Speaker 2:Do you, do you remember my golden rule for Miami condos?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:You don't. Okay, it's this. Basically, the golden rule is this If you're buying a condo or anything really on an apartment, it doesn't matter If the water the Biscayne Bay, atlantic Ocean or a historic park is not directly in front of you or directly across the street. If that, if there is anything in between there that's privately owned and you currently have a view, your view is temporary Correct. I agree with that. That is the golden stock rule 100%. Water, a historic park or the river? Your view is temporary.
Speaker 1:Yep, exactly right.
Speaker 2:Or that's the building in front of you was literally just built.
Speaker 1:Correct. It was built the last five years or something.
Speaker 2:You're good for a while You're good for a while, but otherwise your view is temporary.
Speaker 1:Very true.
Speaker 2:I almost we should make an AI thing that compiles the projects that are incoming, the views, and then does a cross-check, and then it's like this this, this one's gonna have a good view for next.
Speaker 1:How many years you got there? How many years, oh, time to sell Before everyone else figures it out.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think, I think it's important for me. The view is the most important thing for me. Same, I have to have a view. I will. I'm building currently not the best building, but my view is great. I was, I was fine with that, but I had a view. Same, I cannot have a view of a wall or someone else, no, no, it's what you see every day.
Speaker 1:It's so important. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was, that was.
Speaker 1:That's important things to consider, especially when people buy pre-construction. Yeah, be super aware of again the, the potential buildable whatever of the lots next to you.
Speaker 2:Yes, and not to push a shape, but most realtors aren't are not going to tell you this.
Speaker 1:They're not going to tell you this. They're not going to tell you this. They don't know and they don't care to know, and they're not going to tell you.
Speaker 2:I mean, I did get to shout out to my realtor, Kevin, who is absolutely fabulous. I know everyone in Miami is a realtor, literally everyone except for me, apparently, until a certain person always is trying to get me to be a realtor.
Speaker 1:Who.
Speaker 2:But but yeah, so anyways, I'm actually a governor of the association of realtors?
Speaker 1:Yes, and we have the largest association in the country and actually we've hit new membership highs this year. I'm sure we have over 60,000 members and the second highest association. Second largest association is one in the Houston area, I believe, and they have 20,000 fewer people. They're a third smaller than us. Yeah, but anyways, Kevin's great, he's fabulous.
Speaker 2:He's helping with all my plays. He's helping a ton of people in my friend group. He's great If you need a realtor who's not your typical Miami realtor. He's not the ones who shows up in the Maserati and the three-piece suit. He's in a converse and jeans and a t-shirt, but he knows all the HOAs, he knows all the associations, he knows all of them. So he's a ninja. It's fabulous, wonderful. That's my, my pitch for that. Anyways, I want to talk about a video. I saw this. I saw, I stumbled across on Instagram a video of a girl talking about her apartment in Miami.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, but her rent was with her rent. Yeah, rent was.
Speaker 2:And it was really fascinating to me because I think she was an only only fans girl or adjacent, I don't know yeah looks good yeah. I didn't click into her.
Speaker 1:Right, he didn't subscribe to her, only fans.
Speaker 2:But it seemed she, that was her, that generalist, just anyway. She lives in a Mello building, I do currently, and she was going through and talking and she's from California, that's where she originally from. She's been in Miami for about two years and I think that's what she said, and so she was talking about how much her rent was. Her rent for a two bedroom at I think it was that was our plaza, that was our plaza Was $3,000 for a two bedroom.
Speaker 1:She has a roommate, yeah.
Speaker 2:With a roommate and so she said her in the video title was she was paying $14.50. Yeah, and the entire comment section was basically littered with two people people who didn't believe it was that cheap and people from Miami telling her to go back to LA.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, those were two people talking.
Speaker 2:But it was fascinating to me because it really hit. A point that I always make is that Miami's had a lot of increases in rent and stuff but relatively relatively speaking we are still a good deal.
Speaker 1:Yes, we are.
Speaker 2:And that I'm going to have all locals yelling about this, because I understand. But if you just take two seconds and compare the rents in most compared buildings, you can get across San Francisco and LA and Miami. It's a different universe.
Speaker 1:Because it's not just the price, it's what you get for the price.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And at those lower prices in those cities you're getting disgusting old buildings and you're getting new ones.
Speaker 2:And she was talking about, she had this huge balcony, this view, and she had a pool.
Speaker 1:Watched my dryer in her unit lots of storage space and she was paying $3,000.
Speaker 2:But her portion was only $14,50, which is even better. But it was just funny that people weren't believing oh, I want to see your lease, I want to see the actual price. The thing is I knew a truck that's about what I pay in more or less the same building. But that was a very interesting sort of disconnect not disconnect, but observation.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so, in New York City for that price you're getting ooh.
Speaker 2:A studio.
Speaker 1:Or it's going to be old and crappy. Whatever it is, it's not new product.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it'd be $7,000 to $8,000 in that setup.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, 100%, 100%, with a washer dryer in unit. Nice new property with balcony? Oh yeah, yeah, anyway, you're over $6,000.
Speaker 2:I know people will fight me about that, but it basically just is what it is. You can't really argue with the facts of it all. Miami is expensive for Florida, right, it is not expensive for the rest of the country.
Speaker 1:No, and it's not expensive for a city of its stature.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And for what you get now.
Speaker 2:What it is. It is expensive versus what the incomes are here. Correct, and that's a problem. We know this, we've covered it at length. But if you have a good income and you don't, the thing is you don't have to have an insane income. No, you really don't. Yep, it helps, obviously. Money helps out with everything, as long as you have a decent job.
Speaker 1:And I would argue that the same does not hold for New York, which is where I grew up, I would never qualify for an apartment in New York. Right, and it was to live a decent lifestyle in New York. You do need a lot more money, even relatively speaking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like in New York I'd probably have to make $250,000 to have my same sort of lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Yes, 100%.
Speaker 2:And I don't make anything near that 100%.
Speaker 1:Right now 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's. That goes back to what I was saying about me looking at other cities and comparing what I would get. It just doesn't, it just doesn't compute.
Speaker 1:And you would have winter, yes, and rats on the subway.
Speaker 2:You know, speaking of pettiness, this is sort of my petty times. This is the time where I start sipping my tea and watching all the people in New York and up north. Oh, they're freezing and it's sleeting snow, and I'm just. You shouldn't have talked so badly about us in the summertime.
Speaker 1:Haters are fans too. They're just jealous.
Speaker 2:And you know it's funny. That is the thing I think. That is the thing you'll fall back on. Oh, people live Miami because it's got great weather. Well, duh.
Speaker 1:Why is that a crazy thing to say?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, duh, it's good for your health, yeah.
Speaker 1:Not to have months where you feel cold and dark. You're indoors. It's just an aggregate. It really, it's really good for you to always have a nice climate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I've been healthier in Miami than I've been in any place I've ever lived. Same 100%. I used to get sick every winter pretty much on the dot, and I still get some colds and stuff. But I used to get sick for at least a month when I was in cold Seattle, in Pennsylvania or something Lots of people do. I would get sick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the lack of vitamin D, all those things.
Speaker 2:It was a month of just feeling blah, and here I may get a few passing colds, but I go outside and lay in the sun and then we get started.
Speaker 1:It's fantastic when you feel down. You go outside, look at some palm trees, it lifts you up. It's wonderful, it really does. It can be active exercise all year round, because you can't hide and beg you winter clothes yes, so you don't get that winter, you know, it's always bikini season.
Speaker 2:I was talking to someone yesterday She'll be ready to remain nameless and I was commenting oh, you look great. And they were like yeah, it's Osempic, oh my God.
Speaker 1:Everyone's an Osempic.
Speaker 2:And they just told it to me up front. I was just.
Speaker 1:Wow, people have told me up front too that they're an Osempic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, no, I don't know. For me it's. Would I have to be a little skinnier? Maybe Do I want to spend half my life in the gym? Or a risky, a risky life, a risky injection when you give me a pill that's very tested, very safe, I'm going to pop it Right. I don't know what this, but the Osempic thing.
Speaker 1:I'm not a fan of popping drugs for things like this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, maybe someday, when it gets very futuristic, I can just I don't know Zap the fat away. Yeah, little, zap it away. That's how we'll get there, but I don't know that's.
Speaker 1:To me it's not worth it. Nothing is a net zero effect. It doesn't exist. You're putting something in your body. It will have side effects. It's impossible for it not to.
Speaker 2:And I can always tell. Basically, when someone's on Osempic or adjacent drugs, I can always tell, because one of the things that it gets rid of the fat here I can't pronounce it, but there's a name for the fat here. And the thing is once this fat is gone.
Speaker 1:It doesn't come back. That's why people get filler.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because they put it back in their face.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and when you lose this you look very gaunt and older, especially if you're an elder millennial myself just the time of your life where you start to lose volume and stuff here. So once you lose it, it's gone.
Speaker 1:Exercise people, yes, exercise, exercise Lift weights.
Speaker 2:Get some sun and then wear sunscreen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wear hats, wear sunscreen, exercise, lift weights. There's no magic bullet. You just have to do those things that people have always done with consistency.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, yeah, I mean, I think we this is a great conversation. We covered a lot today.
Speaker 1:We did, and I told her on this Miami theme about the flow coming and being your best self. Go on, what do?
Speaker 2:you think? Well, I think that is. I always say Miami has a lot of hard and a lot of soft benefits, both ways. And the soft benefits are a little harder to fully explain and talk about. Correct it's that feeling. It's the feeling and when you walk around and people are happier and I don't know it's, it's a very real thing. And you have to sort of be here to figure it out you got to be here. Correct.
Speaker 1:And people Bezos making that decision. It speaks volumes.
Speaker 2:Yeah it really does so I don't know. I'm happy to be here and it's interesting. I still get people pretty much every week ask me questions about moving to Miami. It has slowed down since the peak but I still get them. It's still inbound.
Speaker 1:Actually, since this data just came out for 2022 and it shows that the flow of people from New York the net flow was higher than the previous year to Florida Wow, yeah, I dig into those numbers this weekend, but it just came in.
Speaker 2:We should get to cover that in our next podcast. Yep, cool, all right, guys. Well, thank you so much for watching for this very rambling but awesome podcast. It's always we make this because I'm doing it and because I think you're doing it too. I love it, but we do it for you, guys, and so if you have questions, comments, things, we should cover things you want to see. We are more than happy to hear it.
Speaker 1:Yep, have a great weekend everybody, or a great week whenever. It is that you listen to this.
Speaker 2:I have to play my move.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're moving now.
Speaker 2:Yes, but I'm to the point now where I just hire movers and just yeah. I can even think about it. Yeah, it's the best way I used to move myself with friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I'm just paying.
Speaker 2:You all can do it.
Speaker 1:Correct, Let the professionals handle it yeah.
Speaker 2:I can't.
Speaker 1:Cool, I don't pull age, but I'm too old for that.
Speaker 2:Oh no, no, this back can't hit on anymore 35. Oh, and our birthdays are soon, that's right. What are we doing? I don't know.
Speaker 1:I think we should do something. We should do something. Yes, we will. I'm excited, okay, cool.
Speaker 2:All right guys. Thanks for watching and we'll see you in two weeks.
