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
Miami Rising: Examining Condo Tragedies, Urban Innovation, and the City's Economic Ascension
What if Miami became the new economic center of America, leaving cities like New York in its wake? This episode takes a deep dive into Miami's incredible momentum, despite the budget shortfalls and negative trends seen in other American metropolises. We unpack Miami's evolution, challenge the idea that migrants are the root cause of a city's financial struggles, and discuss the historical role of sanctuary cities. With personal experiences and viewpoints interwoven, we expose the vibrant economy and entrepreneurial magnetism that Miami has to offer.
As we navigate the city’s promising potential, we also address the tragic Surfside building collapse and its lasting impact on the condo industry. From condo buyouts to the future of urban development, we explore the complexities and implications of this disaster that has reshaped our understanding of safety. We also take a closer look at how developers are capitalizing on this tragic event, and what this means for Miami's future. It's a sobering discussion, but one that is vital for understanding the landscape of urban development.
This isn't just about the big picture, though. We also provide updates on upcoming developments in Florida, like the Bayfront Plaza and the Edge on Brickell 2.0. These innovative projects represent a new wave of urban planning and design that are stretching the possibilities of what Miami could be. The episode wraps up with a celebration of the growth of our podcast and a chat about the current state of the real estate market. Expect a blend of insights, discussions, and personal anecdotes that make the complex world of urban development and real estate accessible and engaging.
Hello everyone, here we are, episode number nine, and the evolution of the podcast room keeps moving ahead. Look at this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like obsessed with like tweaking and perfecting it.
Speaker 1:It's pretty awesome in just nine episodes. Look how far we've come. Yeah, and you know, the fun thing is.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people think you need a ton of money and stuff to podcast. Everything in here is my Kia, Amazon or, you know, my own house.
Speaker 1:It's just how you put it together. Yeah, ryan is creating magic here. I love it.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you can trust me, you can do a podcast with $30,000. I mean, you can, you know, totally do it with Canon and Nikon and stuff, but yeah here.
Speaker 1:We are Amazing, and what is also continuing it's evolution here is the ongoing corroboration of our Miami Ascension thesis. Yes, as we predicted, as we predicted, the story keeps writing itself because momentum cycles are very real things and they build in. History does not go backwards. So we've been talking about, while we're building positive momentum, our feeder jurisdictions are building negative momentum, and this is not Shadden Freud, somebody wrote on Ryan's Twitter. I grew up in New York City. I wish it well. This is just objective observation. We wish everybody well, but momentum cycles are a thing, and we had in the news today the mayor of New York, you know, making some statements about New York's budget shortfall and assigning blame, or I would say, hiding behind the migrant situation, attributing it to the migrants. We actually covered New York's budget shortfall in a previous episode. Ryan had found this great data about, you know. A study of cities focused on New York was showing how, compared to other cities post COVID, and there was a chart that showed New York's budget shortfall and Miami's being far, far less.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, now we have actual.
Speaker 1:They actually came out and say it that it was a large shortfall $8 billion I believe it was and I was saying that if they I believe the mayor and his mayor Adams, and his speech said something to the effect of if there is no drastic change that all these city organizations that he said quote New York was rely upon, will have to have 5% decreases and whatever they're calculating. So it sounded very dire.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was also that they have to reduce things education and police. This doesn't sound pretty.
Speaker 1:It doesn't sound pretty at all and, honestly, this reality was there before their migrant situation from. The migrant situation for sure did not help, but it did not create this reality and I think they're hiding behind it.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's just. It's just one of those things where you can it's. It's a political potato that you can like a potato that you can say, hey, I'm going to use this because it it it. It'll help people make sense. The layman of what's going on in the city.
Speaker 1:Right and they can say it's not their fault, it's not systemic.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly when, in fact, all these things with education and all else in New York City have been systemic for a very long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it's. We were just talking before we started recording that. It is interesting because Miami, Miami, the city itself is sort of a de facto sanctuary city. It has been since the 1960s.
Speaker 1:Correct and maybe the original one. Right. There's these different flows of different migrants. Have been sort of writing the story of Miami.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Because I mean you know the, the Cubans came here in the 60s after the missile crisis, the first wave, the Batista wave. The Venezuelans, argentinians. We've been to sanctuary since 1960. Yep, and has vastly improved the city, Absolutely, I think, I agree, I agree, I agree. And then you have say in New York, which is basically second largest city in the United States, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:Isn't that only the largest? Maybe yeah.
Speaker 2:It's the second largest, I think, and they're saying it's an emergency. They have all these people coming in.
Speaker 1:And it's a sanctuary city, right yeah, which I always find to be a little bit of a. It's called a virtue signaling.
Speaker 2:And before, before I get canceled, let me say I think, I think immigration is great.
Speaker 1:I'm an immigrant. I was born in this country.
Speaker 2:Yeah, immigration is fabulous, correct.
Speaker 1:Everyone Correct.
Speaker 2:And that's great, but it's. It's just the government has made it a mess by just lack of action.
Speaker 1:The government makes most things a mess yes. Going back to that lack of accountability for actions by elected officials yeah, and you know, I would say probably most of my friends in Miami are immigrants.
Speaker 2:They weren't born here.
Speaker 1:They have same 100%, and that was the case when I grew up in New York City too.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's not a new thing, 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure what changed, but you know I'm not. I'm not entirely sure what it is. Incentive structures yeah, so something is. Incentive is wrong along the way.
Speaker 1:Incentive structures. But you know what it? It is what it is, yeah, and it's accelerating their budget shortfalls and they're, unfortunately they're in negative momentum.
Speaker 2:I just think. I mean, I don't want to go too far. I don't think they canceled this week.
Speaker 1:But Twitter won't cancel it.
Speaker 2:But it's you know, say, is Miami, and places in Texas and Southern California and wherever, and they, the desert states, they have been dealing with this forever and no one cared, correct? And then New York City, is it talking to New York City?
Speaker 1:No one cares, virtue signaling I'm back to that.
Speaker 2:They don't people care a little about what happens in these border towns in Texas Exactly.
Speaker 1:Elan wet and videotaped at all showing the deluge of migrants coming in there and nobody cares and now New York is experiencing that reality for a very short period of time, relatively speaking, and it's a national disaster. Exactly Hypocrisy, virtue signaling and hypocrisy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I really just like we start to get closer elections, because you get this.
Speaker 1:Correct, correct, and this is part of what we've been talking about, about divergent realities increasingly coexisting in our country. It's just the phase of the empire that we're in. And now people? Now we're in addition to the wealth polarization which was accelerated by COVID, we're getting geographic polarization, because people are now moving in accordance to their abilities to move in their belief systems. Yeah, so I think these, this divergence, will keep going. And on that topic too, we had the, we had Mr Citadel, ken Griffin.
Speaker 2:We're just going to New York. This is just another, another.
Speaker 1:What do you come from? New York, actually, so okay, but this is just another, another cooperation of the Miami Ascension Thesis. What did? What did Ken Griffin say?
Speaker 2:He said Miami could replace New York as the world's financial center. I actually, I actually have the story right here.
Speaker 1:Yup, it's fantastic.
Speaker 2:From the next Miami. I mean he did with Bloomberg, but Yup, Yup, he says we will see how big Wall Street South becomes.
Speaker 1:Exactly and, if we'll recall, there was a it was in the journal and Bloomberg a few, maybe two, three months ago, saying that, for the first time since this has been measured, the six fastest growing Southern states, of which Florida is one, now account for more of national GDP than the Washington DC, new York, boston quarter, and they call that a shift in economic center of gravity. I've been saying shift and focus for three years. It's the same thing, it's a shift and it's inevitable. History never goes backwards. Yeah, new York was the capital of the pre-internet 20th century world, and here we are.
Speaker 2:At this part says Miami, I think represents the future of America.
Speaker 1:Isn't that wonderful.
Speaker 2:Griffin said, incredibly vibrant economy and you know it's. It's so interesting to me because I got here in 2017. And when I got here in 2017, people laughed at me. People laughed at me from the West coast my friends and family. What the hell are you doing? And I know it's a story before and probably on this podcast, but it just I'm not saying I'm north of Nose, of Domus or something where I can make a bigger future, but you know, just I feel I want to be. Yes, I was right, exactly I wanted to do that.
Speaker 1:I guess I was right, yeah.
Speaker 2:I I picked the place to be in the 2020s correct in the United States.
Speaker 2:You felt it some yeah, and remember folks I I know you most know this but I did the entire west coast, from San Diego to Seattle. I did it, all of it, every major city he sampled. So I think people think I'm a west coast hater and just off the cuff. No, I did it. I did it. I got the t-shirt and the pin and the and the traumatic stress from the weather in Seattle. I, I did it all. So it's not I don't have and I lived in Chicago land as a kid. I grew up in the northeast. Really, the only places I haven't lived is Atlanta and the Las Vegas desert phoenix area. That's it. Those are the basic only places in the United States I haven't lived and so I've done most of it and and Miami really is the best and I talked to people. I can go on a rant about this. I talk people.
Speaker 2:I meet people in my life who's who either lived- here they mean for a while, oh, I'm gonna, I want to move to LA or whatever, and I'm, that's fine, you do what you feel is best, but I don't, you'll be back. Unless you somehow make a million dollars and whatever, you'll be back here. I have friends who have lived here in Miami for their entire life. They move to somewhere else, mainly California, and they've been running back in three years. Yep without fail 100%.
Speaker 1:The quality of life is hard to replicate, especially now. Yep exactly, and it keeps getting better.
Speaker 2:I would say before, covid, it might, you may have had, california may have had a little more stickiness.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Okay, a little bit new york too. Yeah, yeah, but now no, it's, it's clear.
Speaker 1:And all these, all these stories we keep talking about bezos, you know, can griffin, all all these things that the mayor of new york speech, these are just. It's just. It's just breadcrumbs. It's the story writing itself. It's all part of this shift in the country. Yeah, I remember, change is inevitable. So people and you know what he said about the future of america, right? So america is very much the land of the explorer and the entrepreneur. People gotten crazy wooden boats and left everything they knew to get here.
Speaker 2:No, it's true.
Speaker 1:And who knew if they could ever contact people. They left again. There were no telephones. They're gonna send a letter. Who knows if it got there. So it took some balls, it took courage to get here and that really is the story of america, yeah, and and the flow of kind of ingenuity, entrepreneurship, creation, it always goes somewhere and it goes towards the paths of least resistance and we have guys can griffin saying that this is the future of america. What that means to me is that this is where the innovation is flowing. I remember we have the highest per capita new business filings in the nation.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's all part of the story, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, I actually set up my first florida, llc last week.
Speaker 1:Congratulations. He's added to that stat. Look at that. You know I, you know I do consulting, market consulting.
Speaker 2:So I needed what I actually did need one, find an official one, so I set it up, and now I have a stack of letters from people who catered to lc's this thick. Yeah, it's great, I got my mail today here at the office and I had this much man, it was great. But you know, I think there was some stat maybe you know, it Didn't mind me if the highest number of small businesses or something per capita filing is correct.
Speaker 1:Yeah yes, correct in the nation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the nation by by large margin. Yeah, and I think what you're seeing now is Is those businesses have tended to be non tech, non venture capital type things right in the past, right, but now I think that's changing. I think you're starting to see we still still work to do, but I think you're starting to see more.
Speaker 1:Of it 100, I think stripe actually so that, according to their data, were in the fastest growing startup hubs in the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I you know what I fit Miami because I get this a lot people. Oh, miami is just super early stage people with no Product, no revenue.
Speaker 1:I kind of bet because that's what Silicon Valley was once upon a time. Of course it didn't always exist either. Exactly Right.
Speaker 2:Silicon Valley started with people in garages and no products and whatever.
Speaker 1:People lose sight of this and how quickly things can change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so we may have yes, we may have a ton of early stage. I just barely out of ideation companies, how cool is that? But that's cool, it's super cool and that will eventually attract the, the things that are needed around it yes, the venture capitalists and the infrastructure. It's, it's. I think it's in progress. We got a boost from covid, which you know was nice, but it it takes 10, 15 years 20 years.
Speaker 1:A lot could happen in 20 years.
Speaker 2:We just got a little boost. We got a five-year bump.
Speaker 1:Yes, we did yeah we got an acceleration.
Speaker 2:It was like a yeah, so we just have to take advantage of that and keep Keep it moving forward.
Speaker 1:I think we will, and I think we will and I think what's going to help us do that again Is, unfortunately for them, situations exacerbating in a our feeder jurisdictions that keep calling them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if those people just keep misbehaving, well, they're going to double down on bad policies.
Speaker 1:The mayor of New York saying unless there is drastic change, we're going to have reductions, right? So what does that mean? There's not going to be drastic change. They've done this path for a while. It's not going to all of a sudden about a face and go the other way. And in the other report. The other thing that caught my ear was when he said for those new workers that rely upon them, right? So I've been saying that when politicians double down on wealth taxes and obviously Unlosing positions in the face of population taxpayer exodus, it's because they're pandering to the growing percentage that does not pay in. Yeah, and that's exactly what he was saying with that statement. And that's what they will keep doing and that divide will keep growing and they would build a wall if they could at some point.
Speaker 2:Keep them in yes, it's not a sovereign issue, so they can't close bank accounts. All socialist regimes do at some point didn't california want to do an exit tax, exit tax.
Speaker 1:Yes, they keep talking about it, correct?
Speaker 2:Can you imagine? The?
Speaker 1:fact, that's even spoken. You want to move.
Speaker 2:So you've got to pay me x, y and z dollars for active exit taxation.
Speaker 1:It's, it's loony tunes, it's just, I know it's. It's incredible you give me. I'm sorry you can't do that and listen.
Speaker 2:You know it's, we have our own problems, but you know I always say this, mymes, problems are dramatic and manageable in your daily life. For the most part seeking for myself, but it's, they're just. It's like it's a little bit of a telenovela With characters and drama and back stabbing and whatever, but you can manage it. Yes, it doesn't if you're, if you're a normal person with a normal job, living a normal life quotation marks right you can.
Speaker 2:You can manage it 100% and I don't think I'd be able to do that in other places. No, I agree, you can't. You, there's some things that Problems that just you can't manage. In my, in Miami, you can manage our ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Correct you don't have to spend hours shoveling snow off your car.
Speaker 2:That's a, that's a bonus, I think. The shoveling of snow? No, I've Not.
Speaker 1:yeah, it's what makes life more manageable at all? Yeah, the stresses of life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's funny. I know what we're talking about, so I officially moved last week, this week, this week, this week. I can't even. It's so exciting and my house is just a complete and utter disaster. I mean just stuff. Everywhere it's moving, it's normal. But I woke up this morning and I opened my my shades and I just had this 180 degree view of the skyline and the port and I just what floor you on? 33?.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a direct easy view of the port and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's yeah, it's nice, it's nice, it's really nice living in a condo building again. Mm-hmm, I have nothing at Small DeFamily, but living in a condo building is nice.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful Congratulations.
Speaker 2:But now I just open the door. Yes, this, all this disaster, is worth it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that beautiful view You're gonna. So you see the city Speaking of condos.
Speaker 2:I pulled up a story here that I want to. This is from the Miami Herald and it's about condo buyouts and you can't see the picture here, but the picture was of Biscayne 21 right over here in Edgewater and two roads bought it. They're doing the addition there. It was very interesting because they talked to I was just looking for your name here. I was surprised they didn't find you Last.
Speaker 1:I'm not in that article, although Rebecca Sanjuan is. She's a wonderful journalist, she's the one who did that profile on me earlier this year. But the Herald followed me around for a week and did video footage of me in training and also with Russell Galbit at Crescent Heights at Five Park, so she wrote the article about me, okay. I can treat it to a lot of articles, but last, not this one, let's continue.
Speaker 2:So it was a cool story and they were talking about surfside, aging buildings and they talked a bunch of realtors about this and the interesting thing is that just from, this was basically sell while you can Don't be.
Speaker 1:Sell while you can, yes, sell while you can.
Speaker 2:Don't be the last person standing Because do you know the drama at Biscayne 21?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:So they got kind of an 85% of whatever of the thing, but in the 40, 90% or something, I don't know. And the people who were holding out, held out, and they held out and held out went to court and the court didn't agree with them and then they only got market price.
Speaker 1:Oh, interesting.
Speaker 2:So they were paying 1.5 to percent to X market value. But then the holdouts who left out, they only got paid market value.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's, it's at a precedent for don't hold out.
Speaker 1:Because if it goes to trial they might give you market value.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, and market value on an old con of that is not going to be. It's not great, it's not great. So it was just a really interesting story. And then there was a lot of stuff about the, the reckoning we've been talking about for many episodes, about the surfside, the post surfside, about how people have to come to terms. These buildings are old, there's a, there's a life span on them and they're going to spend either millions of dollars bringing them up to code or sell, sell Correct. You know, if these buildings get red tagged or whatever, you're out of luck.
Speaker 1:I know, and in reality it's not a bad thing because obviously unsafe conditions can arise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's, it was really. It was quite an interesting. You know it was interesting. I think it's the article, but I think this part it says. He said this is a guy talking. He said if the association brings everyone together, the developer will play a premium because they didn't do the heavy lifting.
Speaker 1:Correct. Make it easier for them and they'll pay.
Speaker 2:If I was an H-Wave board and I had an aging, old building I bet this is not people. Do you want to pay? Let's, let's get this handled, correct.
Speaker 1:Make it a a sellable package.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Just because I don't know if you saw, but a couple months ago people were fighting over what's it called, the one down by Pericio, the old one in between Pericio and the sort of in 19, said park towers or something. Down there at the end of Edgewater there was dueling. They're dueling developers and then people who are holding out and cause they have a huge lot. It's this huge tower, a huge parking lot in tennis courts so that they could build three towers there. But everyone's fighting over it. It's just I don't know.
Speaker 1:People in condo boards are. It's hurting cats. I think. I think this is a good precedent. Then perhaps you can organize around this.
Speaker 2:I know it's here, so this is the driving force. Behind the condo buyouts is a combination of insurance spikes, reserve requirements and mandated repairs that all that all result from the collapse of Champlain Tower South. Yep, this is the part condo Termitions are going to be on their eyes for the next five to 10 years. The simple reason is it is an effective way for developer to purchase or acquire property at a desirable location. Developers are driving this because they want land.
Speaker 1:Yep Waterfront land. Exactly, exactly, makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I, I, I, I'm just always pretty cool because a lot of times when they're Herald is these stories, they're very, basically, a little old lady. That was sort of.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like the big bad developer the little old lady.
Speaker 1:I like it because they were just facts. That's a good article. Shout out to Rebecca San Juan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a good article. Good job. Good job, rebecca, that's awesome, I like it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:I thought that was interesting. I think the echoes of surf side are going to be around for a long time.
Speaker 1:A long time. Yeah, a long time. First of all, it was shocking. Buildings should not collapse in the 21st century in America. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, I'm so. I am always been a person who's been fascinated by disasters, always have, whether they be natural disasters or mechanical engineer. I think it's fascinating, like not the morbidity of it, but the sequence of events, and I the Champlain South is just so shocking and I've researched all the disasters that you can think of. It's so shocking. Yeah, it really is. Like I mean, there's precedent for planes crashing Yep, ship sinking Yep, but a building in a first world country just collapsed.
Speaker 1:It's absolutely crazy. Clapsing is just it's absolutely crazy. So I did a lot of press around that time for that. The BBC interviewed me on some radio show. An article on the BBC asked me if I thought that global warming contributed to it. I swear to God. I said no, it's a 40 year old. No, I said if that was the case, other things would have been affected as well. It's the only one. Yeah, and I told them that it was a trifecta of negligence and competence and corruption. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean that that was a people powered disaster. Yes, 100% Sure, there's a mechanical and engineering problems.
Speaker 1:Wow, it shows the stupidity of people in groups. Yes, with their capable of.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that was all you know. The cocaine gold rush time in Miami. They were putting buildings together with toothpicks and oh no, I mean also the continuation of it, with the condo board being in. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:What everyone's capable of in groups, I mean like it's fine everyone.
Speaker 2:I mean, the developer was negligent. Yeah, the condo board was. I don't even know what the word is for it, I don't even know. Like that is you know, designing a, designing a poor building is one thing, knowing it's a difference Developers. They put it up and like I'll be fine, but the HOA people knew it was bad and they just kept going, keep going. It's incredible. That, to me, is insane, completely.
Speaker 1:Because they're living in it. It's like it's living on the Titanic. It's fine.
Speaker 2:It's sinking, but it's not, it's fine, it's fine.
Speaker 1:It's a little water, it's okay.
Speaker 2:Oh boy, yeah, that's, it's quite a change.
Speaker 1:You know, I always look at it.
Speaker 2:when I ride a bike or scoot around, I look at some of these old buildings around here. I'm just you scare me a little bit. Yep, yeah.
Speaker 1:But you know what? Luckily for them, listen the buildings, regardless of the development going on. The buildings many of them are in untenable situations. They're unsafe and cost a lot of money to repair. So, luckily for them, there is this demand for product here and they do have an exit. If there was not demand for product, they would have no exit. They would just be stuck with these old buildings. They can't live in it anymore. Now they actually have people they could sell them to. So hey, I was.
Speaker 2:I was visiting a friend at South Bay Club in sort of a? U I guess Remember me, yeah, and that building is kind of scary to me. Oh why? Because I was looking up and there's a rebar on the, on the balconies and the pool was nice. I had a great time with the pool, didn't they renovate?
Speaker 1:it. Recently the pool was renovated.
Speaker 2:The whole building. I thought I don't think so. Oh, like I'm saying, looking at some of these, older buildings. I'm like you all just need to sell Like it's like that, the South Bay Club.
Speaker 1:It's an apartment building.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I know it's that's. That's Westgate, or?
Speaker 1:Westgate.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm just. That building is in a insane location. It has bay views and will never be obstructed. As far as views, oh yeah, it's kind of yeah and it's a huge lot yeah.
Speaker 1:Huge, huge, expensive pool space, everything Yep.
Speaker 2:You could build three towers there. Oh, easily, yep. And so it's start getting the papers in order, sell, make, make double. This is true, it's a great piece of land. Yeah, speaking of old buildings, finally we're on next Miami here. Finally, finally, they got a total demolition permit for one bayfront plaza.
Speaker 1:What's exciting?
Speaker 2:I know it's. They've literally been demolishing it with toothbrushes for a while, for a long time yeah, they cleared out the inside that I swear. They're taking it out brick by brick, one brick today, another brick tomorrow. It's just been astronomically slow. Well, that's good it is, and this I. It's funny. I saw earlier this week one of the Miami history Instagram accounts and it was Miami 1960. This was the only building from the river to fourth street there was nothing there.
Speaker 2:It was nothing there. It was just this. The one, the current one, bit Bayfront Plaza. How funny, yeah, and this building is is so decrepit it is really decrepit, I know even when they're demolishing. It was really decrepit, but it's interesting. Florida's most reality has held on to this since they built it. They've owned it since 1958 wow, yeah and so they're demolishing it and what's coming super tall, it's gonna be multifamily with some office very good yeah, so it'll be a huge, huge improvement, huge improvement because that is a very it's a prime location.
Speaker 2:It's on what is over there. This is first, and then it's right next to the southeast financial center. It's got a cross from base Bayfront Park and then it on the back, at front and what's. There's third something, but it's amazing location and right now it's just terrible to walk around. So it'll be a really big improvement. That's great yeah, so I am excited about that one.
Speaker 1:It's super good. It's gonna take a long time, obviously, but the progress is being made but I think it's multifamily, because then there's no selling, it's just start building exactly yeah, I don't have to wait to hit certain reserve numbers or anything else, they can just go and introduce more housing inventory, which we need yeah, another interesting.
Speaker 2:There was another interesting, another big one, amco at 333, 3333, 333 3 that's probably. That's lucky. That is where the Hamilton is up in North Edge Water. They're gonna do three towers there, like this product to, because it is it's three multifamilies and then one office oh nice like a 12-story office.
Speaker 2:That's game, that's great. So it's an actually mixed. You know, it's interesting. One thing I've noticed in Florida we don't do a ton up, we don't do truly mixed use projects make we do mixed use towers that you know a part of it and then some offices in it, and then you also think because these enter, which are actually mixed. You right, but I least live in Seattle I actually didn't belly which across the water and they had a complex called the Bravern and Microsoft had offices there. It was a very high end at the city center and it was great because.
Speaker 2:But it was also open air it was great because it literally had all the stuff it had it had multifamily, it had condo, it had office, it had some mall and shops downstairs. Project this because you can literally mixed use mm-hmm everything that you need in one place cool. So yeah, that was a fun one what's the timeline on that? They, they've got utilities okay utilities usually mean they're about starting to mallish. Okay, yep, oh, this one.
Speaker 2:I say this one about lofty two or three no so do you, or you were here when they were proposing the edge on brickel yes, so this is the edge on brickel 2.0. Okay, so this is lofty.
Speaker 1:And then this is the edge on brickel 2.0 got it so guys, just so you know the edge of brickel site it this big yeah, two of these 12 by 12 room across super narrow, it's not right in the water, hence it's called the edge.
Speaker 2:It was yeah, and that died.
Speaker 1:I think 16 or something, yeah, so I don't recall just went away over here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it never went away so the lofty product keeps, I think, just keeps up morphing and getting bigger and adding things. They were originally one tower, mm-hmm. They had a second tower which is to the south, and now they're adding to the east on that very skinny piece. But the cool thing is, on this one all the parking garage spaces are going to be in the other two towers.
Speaker 1:Oh, and what will this be?
Speaker 2:this is called good question, was it called?
Speaker 1:it's called to Riverside and what is it going to be? Oh, it's 780 to residence in it and I'm building it she's like 50 feet wide.
Speaker 2:Small units, small units, it's good, yeah, so, oh, no, sorry, no, no, that one to fit phase B is 169. That's this one. Okay, so they're gonna be very, but the party full floors, mm-hmm, like right in the middle, mm-hmm that's exciting, it was exciting. Oh, this one in brickel and upricle your story commercial.
Speaker 2:I can't talk when wood moon tie. Is that a restaurant? I don't know. I'm not sure entirely, but it's a three-story and the cool thing is my friend Aaron is designing this. Oh, that's amazing. His Aaron de maio, uh-huh sorry, his company called future vision studios cool and he's doing some of the architecture and design work awesome yeah, I'm pretty excited about it. It's I love. I love the.
Speaker 1:It looks neat. It looks neat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like when they put a little effort in, and Aaron is really good at urban design.
Speaker 1:It looks very in tune with the street, very walkable. Yes, yeah, that's what he does. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Aaron also consults city roads and all that fun stuff.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I walked around, looked for an ice cream place for a silly ride. Windward design district. It was great because you could walk between all the buildings, these cool little passageways with art and swings and all this crazy stuff. Yeah, it was really fun.
Speaker 2:And then another one, edgewater. This is on to Amco as well and that's right across the street from the Hamilton. That's multifamily then also. Yeah, so there are four towers coming to. It's a lot of housing boys and girls Right there. The whole foods on South Beach.
Speaker 1:I'm excited about that.
Speaker 2:That's like Dave Boulevard right.
Speaker 1:No, that's going to be an altar in 17th.
Speaker 2:Oh, isn't that where Dave Boulevard is, though? Oh, I don't know, I don't drive Like it's like the Venetian. Yes, yes, yes, yes, where it cuts across right by it. Correct, never mind, yes.
Speaker 1:I never go on that roadside. I usually walk to around South Beach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it, he's correct.
Speaker 1:I love that the current Whole Foods in South Beach is probably like the worst Whole Foods in the whole country.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That disparages them. It's a very small space. It's not their fault.
Speaker 2:I also read that it's like the most, it's the highest per square footed, it's like sales or something.
Speaker 1:It's tiny and it's the only one in South Beach and she all suffer with it because it's the only option.
Speaker 2:It's so weird. It's bizarre, but this one.
Speaker 1:And they always discontinue everything that I actually like, because there's such limited space and everything I like just goes away.
Speaker 2:I love Whole Foods because I like their stuff. But I'll go there and get like four things Now like your total is $120. And I'm like I got potatoes and like water and like it's $120.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't buy food with ingredients.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of like a food Nazi at home. I try to eat super, super healthy at home so that when people try to feed me elsewhere, I can actually eat something and not be a weirdo and say, no, I can't eat that. So when I'm at home I just buy like eggs, greens, like fish. That's it. I'm very boring, Okay.
Speaker 2:So they restarted on five one first. Okay, they had issues. They went vertical without getting all their codes.
Speaker 1:Gosh darn it.
Speaker 2:So they had. They were paused like a month and I was funny because, since they were trying to work with you, I always think I was these places like how much money it costs per day, and they were paused for a full month. That's crazy Good job and I was just like that. I don't even want to think about how much money that cost them.
Speaker 1:A lot, a lot. I mean, what did they think was going to happen? Well, who do they think?
Speaker 2:they are. Who do they think they are Mello? Like my, the only thing that I just moved out of downtown fit went vertical before they had any permits. That's awesome, and they just paid the fine and got the permit later.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. They did some math and they said this would work out better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause, like Mello's whole thing is, they build really fast, so they're like we'll just pay the fines. Okay, so Good to be done, but their final one first problem was that they didn't do fire codes or something, so that's kind of that's not good.
Speaker 1:That's kind of bored.
Speaker 2:Oh, and then this. Look at this ridiculousness. I posted this last week. There are six six towers six potential towers on in one block in Brickley that is between South West nine street and between South West first avenue and South Second Avenue. That's crazy, six towers.
Speaker 1:What Control of this city? I know I am, I am. That's what happens in my he's like do more traffic, We'll have flying cars.
Speaker 2:I mean, I got some mind bills anyways. We're just like oh, you know what that reminds me? I saw a post on one of the comments next Miami about that exact thing, about traffic and building all the stuff. It's like person's like we can't do this, but I'll have the transit. Then the other person was both anonymous. They were like that's the thing with Miami you have to cause pain in order for things to happen. Miami is not proactive.
Speaker 1:I don't think most cities are proactive.
Speaker 2:So like the person's like build all the things, cause all the traffic and the city people, the commissioners will have to do something at some point. So I was like, oh, that makes sense. It's like build all the things and then they'll be forced to do it at some point.
Speaker 1:That or flying cars.
Speaker 2:Oh, I parked my car in my new building for the first time and it's interesting because my building it's a condo but there's no assigned parking, it's just a free for all. You just park in the first available space, which is kind of random. I was like, wow, that seems like anyway, I don't care.
Speaker 2:I drive extremely rarely so I can park on the top floor and not worry about it, so I had like my own space. But I looked at it and the almost the entire garage is flat and the the elevator's corridor is in the middle so they could convert it, like tomorrow, into offices or residential.
Speaker 1:The ramps are like this big on the sides this has been kept in mind by developers is the potentially disappearing need for parking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like that's really cool and it even has like windows, like they built windows into the parking garage that are like regular windows.
Speaker 1:They were forward thinking to modifying the building away from parking. Yeah, that's pretty cool, I know. I was like oh see, I can't drive. I'm ahead of my time.
Speaker 2:Can you do not have a driver license? No, wow, yeah, that's wild.
Speaker 1:I grew up in New York City. Then I lived in Switzerland briefly. I moved here and I moved here right before Uber came and I did briefly the license. But I never driven by myself and I really can't drive. Okay, and it's for the best. I'm always in my head. I have no sense of direction. I think you should learn, ryan. Why is the car not starting? I'm worried. Where are you? I don't know but it's not starting. Oh wait, that little thing says E, it's on E. What does that mean?
Speaker 2:I'm going to name the title of this podcast, like all these updates, and today I learned Anna can't drive. I really shouldn't. Bad things would happen. Another interesting tidbit is my world center retail is 90% least. That's amazing, that's fantastic, and I've sort of been watching. They have a very interesting sort of tenant mix, for example, bricklesley Center. It's beautiful and fun, but some of the stores I'm like who are you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:It's like I'm sort of terrified to walk in. It's a little random. It's random and just so high end. It's like they're like show stores.
Speaker 1:It's like a museum You're walking in. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2:My world center is interesting because I think they've been putting some thought into because, like, they have this new gin that's like an equinox level called club studio. It's by the parent company of LA Fitness, that's like the very high end brand. And then they also have the container store. They have burger pie and these coal fire pizza. They have like a cafe and then they have like a bowling alley and a sports bar. Ray bans are a little lemon Sephora, so it's kind of like a mix of experiential and then like normal things.
Speaker 1:High end, but normal they're activating.
Speaker 2:Like you know, you'll actually get people going to Louie, Lemon and Sephora and, like Bricklesley Center, it's almost too high end for its own good. It has gotten better, though. When it first opened it was all the stores were like who's heard of them. Now they've sort of brought in some of like the Nike and like the Cole Hawn, like some of the more approachable ones.
Speaker 2:But my world center has really been a good job of like sort of they're gonna have a museum of ice cream there too, oh nice. So it's gonna be like a entertainment and shopping, but not like the Sawgrass Mall or the Dolphin Mall, but it just felt like it got out of the way.
Speaker 1:It's sort of like in between. You're not gonna go to my World Center for deals. Right, right, right.
Speaker 2:But there's things that you can actually use.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Which I think is highly convenient. That's pretty cool. Yeah, any interesting project updates that you have been Off the?
Speaker 1:top of my head, not so much Okay.
Speaker 2:Oh, also the Apple Store in my World Center. They are building and working on it. It's very much in progress. Okay, that is at the corner of eighth and first. Okay, that square is gonna be a public square with landscaping and there's gonna be an Apple Store in the corner. So it'll be a very nice. Hopefully. I'm really hoping it's like a dramatic architecture sort of point.
Speaker 1:Which they've done in the past, so it might be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'm hoping that they do something pretty cool with it. Any, I'm trying to think of anything else.
Speaker 1:No, this is all just super positive stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know things are happening and we're still I just, I know it's all time, but we're still announcing things are happening. People are pulling permits like they're being built.
Speaker 1:Other places are not building. I just sent you that thing You're selling, yeah.
Speaker 2:I just sent you that thing that I on your way over here about the people losing $100 million on office buildings.
Speaker 1:Correct, correct, selling blow replacement, losing I know writing them off.
Speaker 2:It's really just a wild.
Speaker 1:It's momentum, it's super real, it's super, super real. It's crazy cognitive dissonance, Yep yep, and that's the phase of the American empire that we're in. It's gonna keep going that way. I keep saying that, but it's true, it's gonna keep going that way. It's just begun, oh, wow, it's just begun. And when we get these symbolic figure heads moving here and making grand statements, it just they're the Vanguard. Almost even though people came before them, they're the most public. So, in essence, they're like the Vanguard and they're making it easier for other people.
Speaker 2:You have some exciting personal updates. You wanna talk about what happened.
Speaker 1:Oh, my cage match.
Speaker 2:Your cage match.
Speaker 1:It's the real one.
Speaker 2:We're gonna digress from real estate, from it to talk about.
Speaker 1:So my hobby that I do at a kind of professional level, cause I'm an extremist is a jujitsu. So I train two plus hours a day. I did three hours on Thursday. I train at least two hours a day at MMA Masters with the team there, with the professional fighters there, and I compete in tournaments in jujitsu. But at my gym we have amateur fight nights. We have a lot of professional fighters, ufc people and so forth. We also have some amateur fighters training as a team and we have this called Premier Fight League.
Speaker 1:Every three months or so there's a card at the gym and basically it's a big facility. So they put tons of chairs, there's a lot of people like 100 people. They have the cage, they have ring girls, that's on pay-per-view commentators, it's like a whole thing. It's a whole thing and usually the fight card is mostly MMA, but they'll put kickboxing, other stuff, and they'll put grappling on it too. So I had a grappling match in the cage and it's the same rules in jujitsu. It just looks more dramatic in regular tournaments. There's like a border, there's a line in the mat, so you want to bounce, they reset you back in the middle. In this case you could fight off the wall, and so actually I had a really nicely I was proud of myself, it was a nicely executed judo throw off the wall. I had her up against the wall and I threw her ass away.
Speaker 2:So we just go. You need to tell who your opponent.
Speaker 1:you don't say who it is, so no, my opponent is a wonderful young woman, so she hears this actually where we become friends. I like her a lot. No, no, she's a great person. I like her a lot, but I'm going to say this as an inspiration point, not to disparage my opponent, who I think highly of. But my opponent was 22 plus pounds heavier than me and 22 years younger than me, and that is the truth. So I'm 42, she's 20 years old and I've got significantly heavier than me.
Speaker 2:I honestly, would never guess her 42, by the way.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, I turned 43 in a few weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we both. I turned 36. Well, you're much younger than me.
Speaker 1:So there you go. But yeah, my opponent. She was less than half my age and significantly heavier than me, and has competed more than many. She's done a cage set up before too, and this was not my decision. So, sensei Valverde, shout out to him.
Speaker 1:And he told me that they had what's called a super fight for me at the fight night, which means there's no weight class Means. And I heard that I said, really, how much does she weigh? Cause I knew he wouldn't give me a smaller opponent. I don't get that gift. And then I went to her Instagram and I'm like, oh my God, this girl's over 180 pounds. Are you serious? And Sensei's like, yeah, no problem. I said I choose the competitor. She wins all her stuff. And I'm like, okay, and so, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And in fact, we had a rules meeting before we went out and one of my teammates was in the UFC and Shavas comes out to the rules meeting with me and she's there with her coaches and they're like yeah, you know, we're training for ADCC. Are you okay with anything? Go, is like any submission, whatever. And Shavas, my teammate God bless him, doesn't blink. He goes yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah. And he's a fighter. Who's the new guy? He's like, yeah, yeah, and I'm okay.
Speaker 1:And then like, oh, it's, you know smothering also. Smothering is where you could put your hand over the person's mouth and nose. It's not allowed on IBJJF, I believe it's like ADCC. And he's like doesn't blink. He's like yeah, absolutely. And I'm like all right. So all my guys knew that it would go the way it did. They're all like you're the only one who's surprised. But he's like yeah, and I told one of my other teammates, miguel Baez, I was also gonna say I told him that Shavas was like anything and Miguel was like yeah, I would have been like whatever, do whatever you want. So I won, I won. And yeah, I have IBJJF World Championships in Vegas in December.
Speaker 1:Okay, In my actual weight class. So Nice when in December, December 7th and 8th oh wow, in Vegas. So right after I turn, I don't do masters I could choose to compete in my age group against women in their 40s. I do not do that, so Like give me these young. I train with boys in their 20s who are professional fighters, and God bless my teammates. They go hard on me, as they should, so I should not compete against women in their 40s. It would be not fair.
Speaker 2:Also, I'm not gonna spill a T now, but we're plotting a career expansion. Correct, we are, it's gonna be awesome, so boys keep an eye on this. Yeah, I like that we're plotting something that I can't quite disclose yet.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be fantastic. We're merging and amplifying our skills together.
Speaker 2:Marketing skills and her, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:Whatever it is no, no, my expertise, yeah, expertise.
Speaker 2:And something about sports Making men afraid. But they like it, I know, I know. So that's it. So I was laughing at myself, so I do laugh at myself.
Speaker 1:I don't take myself that seriously, thank God. But on my social media I have my two posts next to each other. One at the Biltmore Hotel last week giving some dissertation on mech economic cycles the Miami market right after the mayor of Miami spoke. I'm there like your charts behind me. And then the next post is me doing a judo throw off the cage wall with this girl.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:All right, folks, like they said, stay tuned. I think so. Our next episode, number 10. Correct, and is it going to be on our birthday week? It might be. I think it's our birthday week, so we're going to do something special. Maybe we might do something live, I don't know.
Speaker 1:We're going to figure that out. We have to figure it out because if it's a birthday, I'll be in Vegas on the Friday. I don't know if it's the Friday before. We'll figure it out. Ok, we'll do a.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you guys for listening. It's always wonderful, exciting times. We just have fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this all keeps evolving and it's fantastic, Just like Miami's evolving. We're evolving. The podcast is evolving.
Speaker 2:And it's like you know, I think we just we hit like 100 downloads or something, a couple last week. Yeah, you posted it and I'm just like that's great, I'm like that's great People listen to us, people listen to us. It's like you know, honestly, I'd be happy there was five. Exactly Like you know, if I said this is something that we both like to do, we don't have sponsors yet. Unless you want to Hi everyone, hi, you know we like sponsors, so if you want to hit us up, that would be great.
Speaker 1:But anyways, get us some matching palm tree prints for happy.
Speaker 2:So I can really upgrade the rest of this. But if you want to sponsor us, let me know. But yeah, this is just fun. I like talking to you. So thank you guys for watching and we will see you in two weeks.
