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's Metamorphosis: Real Estate Shifts, Cultural Currents, and the Future Skyline
Picture the sun setting on Miami's dynamic skyline as January closes with a transformative buzz. That's precisely the backdrop to our latest podcast chat, where Ryan and I take you through a tapestry of personal anecdotes and the city's shifting real estate scene. From the influx of New Yorkers making the Sunshine State their home to the growth of mixed-use projects that redefine living spaces, we pull back the curtain on how Miami is not just changing its skyline, but also its community's pulse.
As we wander through Miami's vibrant Overtown, we can't help but share our excitement for the new Aldi and how it stacks up against Publix. We also dissect MSC Group's leap into the local office scene, and how their move signals a deeper transformation, one that includes accessible senior living and new workforce housing. It's a journey through the sparks of change igniting across neighborhoods, shaping a future that promises inclusivity and vitality.
Strap in for a ride along the cultural currents sweeping Miami and beyond. We tackle the delicate dance of Miami Beach's governance, the tug-of-war between preserving community charm and embracing the economic engine of tourism, and even wade into the contentious waters of political maneuvers. We'll zoom out to applaud Brightline's milestone and zoom in on the real estate trends that mark Miami as a resilient haven in a world of flux. And before we say goodbye, we'll tease you with whispers of the constructions set to reshape Miami, painting a picture of a city that's always one step ahead. Join us, as we bring the essence of Miami's streets to your ears.
Hello everyone, welcome to episode number 14 of Ryan and Anna on Miami, on MIA. We're very excited to be here today. We're wrapping up the month of January, first month on the books.
Speaker 2:Yeah, is it just me, or has January seemed like it's been really, really long? It's been long for me.
Speaker 1:I've had a challenging January, but here we are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my mother was here for two weeks so she was wonderful. Yeah, ryan's mom, she's great Mom got to meet all of my, all my ladies, all of them. Ryan's harem, oh he's being modest Everyone it was funny because you all loved her and she all loved you, so it all worked out. We're going to visit your mom on my list now I'm going to have to charter a flight out to South Dakota to go visit.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly. I love it.
Speaker 2:She'll show you all the things. She'll show you the Black Hills and Rapid City, all those things. So exciting. So you have something you want to.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, so we have been talking extensively about the, the. The house cycles tend to propagate momentum bills. They don't go away and many people don't realize them until it's far. It's so obvious you can no longer ignore it and sort of to corroborate this that this sort of shift in focus away from New York City the northeast that we've been observing and talking about. We have a tweet today this was put out today, friday was the 26th by Amir Krangi, who is the publisher of the Real Deal, which is a real estate industry publication that I'm a big fan of, and Amir is based in New York. I believe he's a professor at Columbia. He's a great guy and he made a tweet today that said met with four major investors and developers this week. All of them short on NYC, long on Miami. All think Trump is going to win. All think progressive movements are having reverse intended effects. All four have an office or opening office in Florida. All Democrats. Makes me sad for my city.
Speaker 2:Yep, it's interesting. I'm not. I'm not sure I agree with the projection on the next presidential race, but that's a story.
Speaker 1:I agree. I think that's actually beside the point, because what's happening is bigger than that. An independent, what is happening is actually independent of that. I believe yeah.
Speaker 2:I, I don't think Regardless that particular person will be able to win. That's my feelings on it, like legally, I mean, like right, so, but that's the story of our different, a different podcast. But I do, I do like what he's saying there because it's, you know, I think people with COVID, I think they thought the flow and traffic sort of ended after COVID, mm, hmm, it didn't. It may have gotten less press and less news, but it definitely didn't end.
Speaker 1:No, it did not end. And then it's important to recognize that all of these places like New York were established before the Internet, when there were different necessities, where you had to be different geographic constraints and life never reshaped until habits were broken by COVID. And there was an article in Bloomberg along these lines it said the title article is in Bloomberg this week. It says New York's financial district condos pile up as office life retreats.
Speaker 2:The office condos are.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's condos in the financial district.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's, it's, it's residential, yes, in the financial district. Yes, yes, okay, god, it got it.
Speaker 1:And it's basically because there are fewer people in the office buildings, fewer foot traffic, fewer people need to live there, et cetera.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, and you know it's that that's funny because the financial district in Miami is Brickle. Right, that's our financial district and they are building condos like it's no tomorrow there, like there's, there's probably 15 projects in the next Yep, in the next five to six years that are happening right now. I actually went by condos but I went by Southside Park with our building and if you guys know where Southside Park is, it's in West Brickle. On what is that street there? Is that is that Northwest first or second, I don't know Whatever's on the other side over there and they they're really digging down like a hundred feet because it's it was a brown field site so they had to take out all the toxins or whatever, right, but yeah, it's a lot of work. It's down like almost like a hundred feet and that is going to be a building that's like I think it's got like 600 units of residential, like 300 hotel rooms, office. It's a massive mixed use project there in Brickle.
Speaker 1:Yep, cause we're building around current and future demand rather than having sort of ways of life change around us and us being stuck in a static position.
Speaker 2:You know something interesting. I might be incorrect with this, you tell me, but I never thought of New York City as a place that actually built truly mixed use buildings. It seems to me anyways. They either seem to be like all residential, all office, all multifamily, like maybe with a mall at the bottom, but like never like truly all together. I don't know.
Speaker 1:An older city. Yeah, yep, that was the model back in the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and here in Miami we love multi, multi use.
Speaker 1:Yep, like a Brickle city center. Yep, exactly, it was a more modern approach to building yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I think you know, I think that guy is right. I hope to meet him today. He seems pretty cool yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes, he always comes down to the, to the real deal events here. And then we also have along the point, we have license plate data for 2023 that shows the influx of New Yorkers is still leading the pack and is still far higher than it was pre COVID. Interesting, it's a very real thing, boys and girls.
Speaker 2:It's unfolding. You know that is something else. Before COVID, you only used to see New York license plates during, like the wintertime. They're all here right now. New York and New Jersey, they're all here right now. But now you even see it in the summer, before before they switch it over. Exactly, you see them in here in the summer too, so I find that to be very interesting. Some other interesting news that I came across this week so MSE cruises, you know who they are.
Speaker 1:No, you just told me, but I did not, so tell everyone.
Speaker 2:MSE cruises is Mediterranean shipping company cruises. They are the fourth largest cruise provider or operator in the world. They're right there behind Carnival Royal Caribbean region and they have. They're fairly new but they have a massive amount of tonnage, that's amount of ships. They are based in Italy, I think, or, yeah, I think I think Italy, and they have had like a dispersed US headquarters, so like pieces, parts, here and there they are bringing all their headquarters together in Overtown at Exciting, yeah, at Block 55. Wow, and if you don't know, block 55 is about two years old, two blocks west of the Brightline station in Overtown proper, because you remember, everything west of the Metro Rail tracks is over, across the train tracks, literally literally across the train tracks.
Speaker 2:That's where and that's where Flagler's train ran in the 1800s. So across the tracks, but anyways they. There's a product. They're called Block 55. And Block 55 is a massive project, absolutely massive. It has about 600 apartments for seniors that are affordable, which is pretty cool. It's going to have Target, aldi Ross, bakery, starbucks, the whole thing. But the MSC took a massive lease for all the parts of their company. So they have the cruise ships and they also have MSC shipping company that's what they are, the containers. So they're going to put all the US headquarters there in Overtown.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. That's exciting for Overtown, it's exciting for Miami. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean a little selfishly. I am more excited for the Aldi to open there.
Speaker 1:I love Aldi. I am an Aldi super fan.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny, I can't say it out loud, I'll probably get canceled. But Publix is not my favorite store. Oh, it never was my favorite store, it's just not. I don't even think it's that good of a deal.
Speaker 1:No, it's terrible deal. It's not particularly nice inside, nor are you getting a bargain. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I know like people in Miami like will sacrifice their life for public. It's like a Florida company.
Speaker 1:It has a whole history and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:But I do very little shopping there Same, because I think it's overpriced and the service is I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's nothing special to me, no agree, agree, the vibe isn't anything special. I expect better prices for what it is. We're definitely getting canceled for this.
Speaker 2:I think still have scales in the front.
Speaker 1:That's their tradition for the history of Publix. But you can weigh yourself and see how fat you are on the way out of Publix. That's what I always think. It always kind of shames me. I'm like, oh, there's a scale here, why is there a scale here? Well, don't get weighed for like competition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know. That's why it's always in my mind.
Speaker 1:I have to get publicly weighed everyone, although sometimes if there's someone in my weight class, I have gone up a weight class which you're allowed to. You can't be too light for your weight class, but you can't be too heavy. I'm sorry, you can be too light, but you can't be too heavy. So you can choose to go into a higher weight class and I've done that before and I was like well, people just think I'm fat. No, because let's say that I can't get in whatever weight class. I'm like I'd actually weigh that, but whatever, yeah you know it's fine.
Speaker 2:It might be a side topic, but I love Aldi and Aldi is interesting. This is going to be a side topic, but Aldi is from Germany. Yes, and it's interesting. So there's actually two Aldis. There's Aldi North and South, and the fun fact is the one we have here is Aldi North, I believe. Aldi South, which is a different company, owns Trader Joe's here in the States, but they're not connected in Europe, so they have the same name they do.
Speaker 2:So it was two brothers and they Couldn't decide if to make Aldi high-end or not. Got it. So split, the company got it and at some point the other Aldi bought, trader Joe's got it. But the real mind sort of is that if you go to Aldi and Trader Joe's, they have the same products, different packaging. They have the same suppliers.
Speaker 1:That's very funny.
Speaker 2:Anyways, I love, I love all that. I discovered it when I lived in Switzerland. Yeah, you can go there and get like a Whole cart for like a hundred fifty bucks.
Speaker 1:You have really good chocolate from Europe here.
Speaker 2:Yes, and the middle aisle of Aldi is like a wonderland of like you never know what's gonna be in there. It's so fun you can get like. You can get like t-shirts and like chocolate makers and and like air beds and like You're. I always go in that aisle and I'm just like I walk out there cart full of completely random junk that I have no need for. I'm like it's cheap, I'll take this and that and that and that me.
Speaker 1:You and yummy. But you know, when is this Aldi opening?
Speaker 2:So apparently they are. They are being the the. It is, october is when they need to open. Oh, here's the. Here's the details. Msc group is going to take all 130,000 square feet of office space. Oh, wow, that is a massive amount of office space. Wow, I think our 25,000 square feet here is massive. 130,000 square feet is ridiculous, correct, yeah. And then there's gonna be Aldi, a Ross dressed for Five Below Burlington and a tropical smoothie cafe. That's exciting, yeah. And the. The apartments are going to be for low, affordable. They have to earn at or below 60%. Okay, the median income. Okay, so that's good, that's great yeah.
Speaker 1:And again Miami's addressing housing with building new stuff by building new stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also there across the street, sort of like caddy corner from block 55, they're building another tower that is workforce housing it's not affordable but workforce and that's gonna have like another 400 units. Oh wow, that's amazing. It's all directly around Brightline Metro, rail, metro, mover, like right there long Miami. Yeah, we still need to get those t-shirts.
Speaker 1:We do need to get long. Miami t-shirts. Hi Omar, we're talking about you too. We all need to wear them at some point. Oh look, everyone, I have a. I have an Anna. Anna is an acute. Miami Beach, florida, which is in fact where I live. Ryan got this for me. Look how great.
Speaker 2:I, I saw I was taking my mom around Bayside Marketplace because she wanted to get like the tourist chachis for the kids at home. And I saw that and I got one for you and I got one for Elizabeth.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it. It's Anna, with one in like. I'm from Serbia. That's how we spell it there, and that's how people in Latin America spell it too, so my name exists here in Miami. When I was a kid, I never had these. It was always two ends, and so I never had anything, just from the store with my name on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. It was funny at the Bayside, all the names so there's also kind of spinner rack and all the names there were like super white names, like there was no really, because they. Bayside is for tourists. Tourists, yeah, tourists. So there was no like like they had like Brandon yeah.
Speaker 2:Brandon and Connor Ryan was there. Of course there was no Latin or Latina names on the list. I was. I was kind of dying at that. That's why I guess that other customer base, speaking of Bayside, peer 5, opened this last weekend where in that they said okay, yeah, and that is very interesting because Bayside for the past, whenever it's been open, has sort of been like seated to the tourists, yes, like the locals don't go there. No, I go there when I have people in town, my mother, same, same Because to get the chafkes and the whole, a whole Miami experience, yeah, there's will the fairs will.
Speaker 2:But pure five is by the same people who did the wharf breakwater. I think that's what they are breakwater, and yeah it's very nice. I didn't actually go in it because my mother was there, but I looked around, it was very nicely designed and it seemed more high-end than like the tourist type thing Different vibe, yeah. So they're definitely trying to get a different people than like the giant margaritas, you know the two beer giant margaritas.
Speaker 1:Yes, why was that ever created?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that Miami Beach has cracked down on that a lot. I'm sure you guys have seen or read the news, but you know a couple years ago a lot of the cafe lost their license Because they would have menu without any pricing on them. They would have like a predatory, like host people who would come out and grab you would order a drink and your bill says the drink was $60.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was to cheat beers and a giant glass of some type of margarita slush.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, I know. Yeah, they would get in trouble all the time for that. So I'm glad that my beaches sort of cracked. I mean, each did something right. If only, if only they would crack down on like ocean drive, like I see, that blows my mind.
Speaker 1:So I grew up in New York and the problematic areas of ocean drive are maybe 10 blocks. Yeah and you can't police 10 blocks. Well, it's just, hmm, I don't know.
Speaker 2:So it's so fun fact my mother watched our podcast and she told me I need to be more controversial.
Speaker 1:Well, she did. Yes, I was like your hats everyone I.
Speaker 2:Was like okay, like my traditional mother is telling me after a more controversial, okay guys, so I guess she's trying to get me to click bait, but anyways, we totally could, but just play back the messages we leave to each other and just have no dream We'd be. We'd be famous and canceled. But anyways, I am highly annoyed by my beach most of time, most of time I have to, because it's a really cool place that has completely incompetent Politicians and management, completely incompetent.
Speaker 1:I have said in the past that Miami Beach has upped it out of the region's growth. Yeah, and that's exactly what it's done. Population is flat to negative. It's virtually. It's extremely Onerous to build anything on the beach. And you have all these neighborhood design committees, all these little neighborhood boards full of Nimbies, which we've discussed in the past, who just seemed to Run the show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's like like the alcohol 2am thing. Why there? The problems are not caused by people who are buying alcohol a little bars at 2am. It's caused by people in the street. Yes, and so if you want to address those people, how about enforcing existing law? Yeah, rather than creating laws that punish legal business owners.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I. For me, it's just like I heard a quote one time and it's not my quote, I don't know who it is, I apologize, but the quote. The quote was something is Miami Beach loves the party but hates the crowd. The crowd, yeah. And and that to me is like nail on the head, because it's a city built around tourism, right, that's literally its lifeblood, right. Yet they act like tourism and the people that come there are like the biggest pain in the neck. And it can they, some of them can be, but like you can't, just you can't be like one of the coolest tourist places and decide, oh, we don't want you to come here. It doesn't, it doesn't work like that. I don't know, it frustrates me.
Speaker 1:Not everyone there loves the party either. Yeah you have a lot of people who seem to want to know fun zone. They wanted to shut down the drum circle at South Point Park. Everyone is out was as a park. Southern tip of Miami Beach and every Sunday there's a sunset drum circle. People like dancing, doing acro yoga, like a fire show. It's a really nice, wholesome neighborhood activity. I, I, the kids out.
Speaker 2:I love that. Yeah, I used to go pretty much every Sunday, especially during COVID. I would go there and just hang out at South Point next beautiful you could see beautiful people, people doing cool things, cool things and also dancing acro yoga yoga and just all kinds of stuff. But yeah, I don't, I don't know like, I'm not gonna throw stones because I Miami is a hot mess on into itself, but but like Miami proper, like Miami the, the city's area, yeah, the two cities.
Speaker 1:I didn't know they were until I moved here in New York. I thought it was all just bros. Oh bro, it's like yeah, that was all Miami and they were just part of Miami. But it's not. Miami Beach is its own.
Speaker 2:Discibility. That's a whole other thing. I think people do think that's like you know, when he said he's taking his talents to South Beach, I'll hold that whole thing. People do consider Miami one giant thing and that is why it because member used to be Dade County. They added Miami Dade in like the 90s, to take advantage of Miami's name and brand, which is, I guess, they thought of God what they wished for, because now everyone, now everyone goes from from Homestead to Aventura, it's all Miami and they're very different, missed palities in those different in in in those borders, like extremely different.
Speaker 2:So but anyways, what I'm saying is not throwing glass stones. Miami's a hot mess, but like a different kind of hot mess we have like Local hot mess, I don't know like listen, here it comes down to this I like Vegas. I Would probably not live on the strip. I Personally, maybe if I was rich I'd have a condo there, but like I wouldn't do a full-time life on the strip. If you don't like the fact that the whole world comes to your backyard, don't live there to be fair, though, about Miami Beach.
Speaker 1:It's not the whole world that's the problem. It's Memorial Day weekend, that's the problem. That's the honest truth. I live in Miami Beach and so. Memorial Day weekend and those high-intensity weekends are not what happens the rest of the time. Yeah, and those are the. The focus is that that's when the shootings happen, that's when you can't walk out in the street, that's when we have police barricades and you can't walk on ocean drive, like it's a real problem.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I'm going to play the other side of this for once. My thing is Miami Beach has known about this. They know this happens every year and every year they act surprised, like it happens. That's ridiculous. I agree that that is the part that I am just like. That's incompetent. That's what I'm saying. I agree with you.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. Every year I say the same thing. I'm like why are they surprised? It was the same last year. Yeah, it makes no sense to me. And then they. And then they want to. They want to look like they're doing something, so they create laws that punish Business owners, who have nothing to do with the problems that are that everyone's complaining about.
Speaker 2:They are. Every time there's a high-impact weekend, they are. They do this. Reactionary press releases a state of emergencies, whatever, and I'm like you know it's going to happen like clockwork the whole thing is so ridiculous to me.
Speaker 1:It happens like clockwork. It's ten blocks essentially, and rather than creating new laws that punish law abiding business owners, how about enforcing laws in the books and say you can't drink on the street and start arresting people for that? Yeah, and that's it. They'll be deterrent, it'll no longer be the free party zone and they won't come back.
Speaker 2:And and you know it's funny when they, when they do the whole like, when they do the whole like close the clubs at whatever time, you know that pushes people to the streets.
Speaker 1:It's a problem anyway. The problem is high-impact weekends are groups of people congregating on the street and causing problems in the street. Many of them bring their own alcohol and they're not even patronizing local businesses. Yeah, though, the whole thing is ridiculous.
Speaker 2:So I agree, I agree and they also Like they try and do like this programming every year. That's just like so weak, it's like so weak and so so Fringe-worthy. And I'm like that's your year and it's. It's like it's like trying to plug a damn with like a tissue paper, like yes, yes no, it's a, it's a whole thing.
Speaker 2:And going back to Vegas, look at Vegas. Vegas patrols a strip they have. They have police that if you're drinking on the Vegas strip, I think I don't know, I think I don't think you can have open alcohol on the street, can you? I don't know, but they don't have. They definitely don't have the problems that that my beach does. No, they never have. No, as far as I know. I know nothing, I don't know. Yeah, and I know they have casinos there and stuff, but really it's like, look at Vegas and the strip, it's the same concept. So the my the ocean drive is a smaller Vegas strip and it's small listen.
Speaker 1:Derelicts will act as badly as you let them. Yes, and that's what's going on there. No one is scared of enforcement or not scared enough of enforcement. Yeah, which is what it is and every year it's like they're surprised. No, I agree it's, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:I and it's I almost love watching it because it's like you can almost like by clockwork to see the tweets come out about the emergency issues. Like every year it's like the same thing they have like unlike a pre-programmed thing for. Oh, we're surprised about this. Okay, I could rant about that for a long time, yeah now I just I try to actively not notice anymore.
Speaker 2:Here's. Here's an example Ultra in Miami. Ultra has had maybe a couple bad years and it's 25 year history, but I live downtown like by ultra and Miami Handles ultra. I Like, like, like it's like there's the police, their stuff is gated off, like, and people get arrested. Like it's, it's handled, and I know it's different, a different setup than ocean drive, but it's still 50,000 people descending on downtown Miami over the course of three days correct, I agree so I agree, I'm just, I've Like suddenly look vaguely better over the years in 90 Beach.
Speaker 1:But Memorial Day weekend, yeah, used to be far worse, yeah. So I think it. Hopefully it's tapering off.
Speaker 2:Okay, hopefully. So, moving on from that controversial thing, hopefully that was controversial enough.
Speaker 1:Another controversy for everyone on a national scale. So have we all been keeping up with what governor Abbott's doing in Texas? And I bring this up because this is obviously not a Texas themed show. However, this ties into the theme of national polarization that I keep talking about, and it's one of those underlying forces that is going to keep Reshaping our country, like the shift in economic focus from the Northeast to the South, all these things. This is all part of the country polarizing, not only on in terms of wealth gap, but also in terms of belief system, and and there's actually a map that was tweeted today just showing the states. So we'll get back to back up here.
Speaker 1:Governor Abbott, of course, has had this war with the federal government regarding how they, how the Border, can be patrolled and and there's apparently barbed wire and something being done by not the federal forces that, not the state, where they the what's the word, what's the word for the National Guard, and this went to the Supreme Court and Supreme Court rule that the federal government can order them to take down the, the wires, and Texas said we don't have to listen and they invoked an invasion class. Apparently there's some articles of Whatever it is for the states and there's something there that says that they have to follow the federal government unless and there's a thing it says, unless there's an imminent sorry at like, a current invasion. And they're saying there is an invasion and that they will not comply. And so now we essentially have Texas in a standoff with the federal government and this is so fantastic from an interest, from, like, a pure interest perspective, because that this is, this is part of that polarization of the country and contrasting belief systems and we're seeing it at play. And Somebody published a map today showing states that support Texas's, the state of Texas's anti federal stance. It's a very interesting set of maps because the map that shows the states that support Texas's stance against the federal government Overlaps very nicely with maps that I've bought.
Speaker 1:People posted, including myself, that show the population flow between COVID and now and the states losing population, like California and New York and Chicago and Illinois do not support Texas, whereas the state's gaining population support Texas.
Speaker 1:I posted, I tweeted that together, side by side, I said look at this interesting overlap everyone. And this is again. This is part of the real end of the country, the polarization of the country, and it's this phase of the American Empire that we're in, where we're seeing, you know, presidential candidates being put to trial, says this is very Latin America stuff, it's banana Republic stuff, and now we're seeing real conflict between the states along very, very strong belief system lines and we're seeing how support is is different like that, that it's fracturing it's. It's like a fracture in the country. The states that are receiving the population growth are supporting the stance and the other ones are Not, and the member the states. There's that we're getting population from states that were blue states and that were high lockdown and so it's kind of going along with that theme of people who disagreed with the federal government stance. It's fascinating.
Speaker 2:I? I don't know much about this, but I did. I did see a tweet about it. That was kind of funny. Have you seen the movie or heard of the movie coming out called civil war?
Speaker 1:No, where have?
Speaker 2:I been, I'm not. It's a movie coming out. It's an 824 movie. Okay, you know art house that movies, but it's basically the storyline is there's a modern day civil war between I agree some sort of that is what it is it's conflict between the states. Yeah, and someone says between about the text thing like, oh, wow, they're like the viral marketing for civil war. The movie is Next level.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah but I get it. But these things kind of manifest together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the air.
Speaker 1:Somehow it's like guys and it comes out that way. Yeah, but listen, we can't have people are not gonna pick up guns and muskets and go fight each other for states rights. Today, number one Americans are too fat to go fight a war like that. Talking about, talking about being controversial, I love it. 10 plus obese those aren't my stat, like Google it, okay, but truth's unapologetically. Obese and fat, okay. Fat people are not revolutionary. They never have been, they never will be. They have too much stuff, they have too much food and they can't walk up the hill carrying stuff. Yeah, so they're not going to war like that. So there is no civil war in America. People picking up their guns and going to war, it's just not gonna happen. They physically cannot and they have too much stuff. So it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1:But I think we are in a civil war type mentality Because, remember, it's like how countries today, they're not gonna, we're not gonna have trench warfare ever again, right, like we had in World War one, where hundreds of thousands of men died at France to get, you know, two meters of advantage Over the span of years, a core herific France.
Speaker 1:That's not gonna happen because we have technology that's gonna, that wouldn't allow that, obviously, right, even machine guns got away with Trench warfare, right. So so we can no longer do those things, the civil war in that old sense will come back. But yes, exactly right, we cannot have metanorms today for many reasons. But the other dynamics are still at play and it is like a cold civil war. I think it's gonna keep increasing as states are increasingly, as some states, the country Polarizes. The states that are in the end that is not aligned with the central government are gonna keep sort of pushing the envelope there. And I think I think this is just begun with what we're seeing in Texas, and this is all part of those forces that are pushing people towards the state of Florida.
Speaker 2:It's early days orientation before is that Both Florida and Texas are crazy. Okay, we know this. Where this is not, that's not up for debate. It does not happen at normal it doesn't. But Florida's crazy isn't religious tinged correct, we're more Libertarian yes, libertarian.
Speaker 1:I like to think yeah yeah, so it's a different.
Speaker 2:Like Florida, texas are kind of like different sides of the crazy coin, I don't know, but I'd rather be in one that's libertarian crazy and religious crazy name any day of the week.
Speaker 1:Same hundred percent, yeah, same so I love it.
Speaker 2:Well, we definitely, we definitely got the controversial down this time.
Speaker 1:Americans fed is not controversial and they have just for some time. All you need to do is go to a major airport and look well.
Speaker 2:I think it was epic might be a fixing that that's the American way.
Speaker 1:Drug yourself into health and fitness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I definitely have friends who are, who have taken the I do too the shot there. They've dropped like 40 pounds, huge amounts of weight, yes, in like a month or two months. I don't think I'm all about doing things that are good for you, but I don't think we know enough about it.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:I, if you know, if there was years and years of study and stuff, I might be like I could lose 15 pounds quick. But not now, not when it just came out like, like you remember, back in the 90s or 80s they had that one drug that was like gave her everyone cancer or something, something along those line.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you're morbidly obese and about to die, then it might save your life Fantastic. But don't take some new untested drug to like be skinny and lose 20 pounds. Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I'm not quite on board with that yet. No, no, so exercise people.
Speaker 2:Yeah or just no, that's so. That's interesting. My mother, when she was here, she kept commenting on how I walked everywhere, like I walked everywhere, I took the match remover and transit, and she said that's like such good shape because I don't work out. I'm not a workout type person, I'm very active, I'm not like, but I say in pretty good shape because I do literally walk everywhere and I also walk around the hub here like probably 10 miles a day. So I think People in urban settings tend to be better shape. And the reason my story is leading up to my mom and mom with comments about people in Miami oh, her, her comments out Miami were priceless, like it was so it was so anyways she's. She commented to me she's like there are no obese people here. I mean there are, but not that she noticed doesn't either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so she was like there just isn't. There was no obese people. You could just look at a crowd and there and there was none exactly You're right.
Speaker 1:No walking versus just sitting in your car and going everywhere. Yeah, yeah also what society normalizes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think also if you're not hot in Miami, you get voted off the peninsula. Only fans capital the country. It's like 60% something crazy.
Speaker 1:I think people in Miami pay their rent cough cough.
Speaker 2:I think that I think I was reading somewhere recently that like Some insane amount, like over 50% of only fans creators. In Miami I saw my other people who produce money, like the top orders. Yes or like in Miami.
Speaker 1:I'm not surprised. Yeah, oh boy, kind of crazy they're different.
Speaker 2:I see, I, I think, I think that's what I'm gonna call this podcast. I'm gonna call it money, a different kind of crazy. Yes, yeah, but you know, I listen. I appreciate that because when I first moved here I definitely was shocked by all of the In generalized insanity that happened. I was shocked, like read the news and watch the things that happened, I'd be like whoa, what, where did I move to what's happening? And then, after a few years, I Just, first of all, I guess I got used to it, but it keeps me entertained. Now I know what I call it. You know what my term for it is. I call it ambient chaos, because there's always chaos happening, something crazy always popping off, but it's not like I'm gonna get stabbed or something, it's just. It's just like easy, no, yeah, and but I actually it makes me feel kind of like Cozy now, like I don't know, like I feel like if I was somewhere where nothing crazy was happening, I'd feel kind of become part of the Ambiance crazy ambient, ambient chaos ambient chaos Sorry.
Speaker 2:I know I think I need like that, like that I need to get. Like a shirt says like ambient chaos. You know it's also like a pop, a pump up, a pop punk band or something. Yeah, okay, changing topics bright line, they said. They say they passed two million passengers in 2023. That's great, yeah, it's a lot. And remember their Orlando one just opened in October. So they did almost two million without the Orlando extension. Yeah, and they generated revenue of eight eighty seven point seven million up one hundred and seventy four percent over 2022 it's just getting going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:And then also, it said, the total of one hundred thousand fifteen passengers rode bright lines long distance service to and from Orlando. In December, the first, the first month of full service, yeah, for the region now interest. Interestingly, short term ridership between Miami West Palm Beach was down 34% compared to the same one two thousand twenty two, but the average fare increased 41%. Yeah, and I think that's it's important to know that Brightline Was never intended to be cheap, cheap or for like public transit, that it's not that it's not that, and I think a lot of people who hate on Brightline are looking at through that lens.
Speaker 2:It's not supposed to be that. That's tri rail yes, tri rails for seven dollars to go to West Palm Beach. It'll take you double the time, but it's seven dollars different products.
Speaker 2:Yeah, also of that note. We talked about it last week, but tri rail now officially is operating at Miami Central. It's not a one-seat ride, you have to transfer train-to-train. Still in Hialeah they have to get newer engines or something, I don't know. But the one-seat ride will eventually be coming. But it's operating and that is a big deal Because you now can transfer directly, can walk in downtown Miami and then take one transfer and you're in downtown West Palm Beach for seven dollars. Yeah, so I'm excited. I have to do it still. I like tri rail when I'm in no rush. I actually prefer a tri rail. It's an, it's a nice ride and for seven dollars you can't, really you can't beat that. Do you have any other trends you want to talk about?
Speaker 1:I was looking at something the other day again, sort of quantifying what the wealth and the effects of the wealth and talent migration on our on our resale markets, and I was putting something together and the thing that was really shocking that jumped out at me that was in 2023, in the calendar year for condo selling past 2000 square foot, I think, in Miami Dade County, a 91% roll cash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw Something maybe Omar was talking about on his podcast last week. What was he talking about? There was something about. There was oh, it was Grovile, oh and he said he was saying that most of the people that bought there were cash, but from the US yes, they were domestic cash. That's the trend in a lot of the new construction.
Speaker 1:correct Yep, exactly right, because Miami's, compared to Global cities and world, compared to our feeder jurisdictions in the United States, is still a deal. Yeah half price? Pretty much. No, it is. That's the crazy thing. And then people, people I was talking to somebody today who was advising sorry, earlier this week, who was advising someone on what their family should sell a brownstone for brownstone for in New York for a long time where it was and they're like to just get out.
Speaker 1:Take money and run it depends, I mean, and then this person lives up there and and and they're very Disheartened with what they're seeing happening in the city and they, they feel like it's just it's gonna deteriorate and that that's a vibe that Miami does not have. People here feel quite the opposite. We were that between the beginning from the publisher of the real deal. Those are those things. It's kind of infectious. When people start saying stuff like that out loud, it's, it becomes part of the area you breathe, more people repeat it, more people retweet it. And it's the opposite effect of what happens. People repeat and retweet long Miami, everything's great, everything is happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sort of sows down and it accelerates whatever is not good that's happening there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think also I'm still. Every week there's a new story about how Distressed CRE is causing problems in other parts of the country. It's never Miami.
Speaker 1:No, it is never, it is not exactly, and these?
Speaker 2:I Know we've talked about it in every podcast, but I don't think many people realize how much of the country's economy is Tied up in CRE, in like superstar cities, not including Miami, los Angeles, new York. So much of it and so many of these banks, wells Fargo, maturity yes, so much of it. And as much as people are whining and bitching about going back to the office. No one's going back to the office.
Speaker 1:Correct. It's, it's like to be precise in this language. It's something that's not no one, but even no, no, no, but that's like we're exaggerating here. But it will talk about it from a, from a, from an infrastructure perspective, an office market perspective. Even if just 10% of people keep saying change their behaviors, it it's, it's the ramifications that are enormous in the asset class and it's more than 10% of people who change their behaviors much more. And that's called 30%. 30% is huge, a 30% loss in usage. We're talking buildings.
Speaker 2:We've talked this before but people, I would say this, like there's so many, like New York City and San Francisco, they have Giant financial districts, like giant Brickle is not giant, it's, it's rather small and it's interspersed with residential buildings. There are areas in San Francisco, in New York, that are just offices, just and, and if you reduce the occupancy of those buildings by 20 or 30 percent, it's, it's a huge compounding effect, huge on the, both the underlying Relief, the restaurants, the yes, everything, and even like the underlying debt or the loans, because it's booked against Occupancy.
Speaker 1:I think yeah, it's a shift in paradigm, a huge shift in paradigm. So and we have any it hasn't really even begun to unravel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the truth and also One back to us, the they key international. They are building a new office tower on Brickle Ave where their current headquarters are. I think it's 848 is the address, and Sterling Bay just joined them. Sterling Bay built 545 win in in winwood and they're also like a Chicago based developer. They were going to partner with Ken Griffin and Citadel, but now they're. They're not there, but but yeah, we have. Let me see if I can Count them. We have one bricklesley center which is super tall. We have 848 Brickle. We have whatever Citadel is doing with eight. We have 830 Brickle that will be opening shortly. So there's like five or six towers, brand new, class, a office that is being built in Miami about to come online.
Speaker 2:Get the opposite of what's happening elsewhere we're building more and they're selling below replacement and but I think this you know, I you can fact check me if you're not. Not but, but. But Miami is not well known for its Urban planning or zoning. Right there we're. Just we're not particularly good at it. However, because places like Brickle have multiple uses residential stuff they are faring better because even if the office buildings are empty or the residential ones are not, so you get the true mixed use of it all. So I don't know that it's, you know the Miami's not perfect. We're far from it, and we do things badly a lot.
Speaker 2:Oh, I have a rant. So I I tend to be a person who talks about Miami about Impositively, and I try and say that way because there's enough people who talk about it negatively. There's more than enough. My rant recently has been the county infrastructure around the airport, around transit. It is Terrible.
Speaker 2:The Metro mover across the street here, the. I went there yesterday. The elevator was down, the escalator was down and one of the two stairs was down, just closed, and they, when you get on the trooper, it does a little recording and tell you what elevators or escalators are open. They could just tell you which ones are no, which ones are closed. They could just do one telling which ones are open, because it'd be a shorter list. So it's like People, the elevators don't work and I just it's like, come on, people like I Try to speak badly about politicians, but the mayor of Miami-Dade County is going to have a problem this election year there.
Speaker 2:Miami has has always had problems, but the, the infrastructure problems are now like glaring, like they're in your face. You can't ignore them, like they there. If, if someone was disabled, there would have been no way them to get up to Metro mover. No way, they couldn't have done it. And my mom, my mom is one that pointed it out. She pointed out if someone was in a wheelchair, they could not have gotten up to the Metro mover station. Yeah, anything, anything, anything less than perfect, exactly so, anyways, that's my rant and I, just like I I really hope they do better. And I called them out. I posted about it. Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 1:Getting some great footage. We're gonna be interviewing all sorts of people or developers received rewards there. We'll be having fabulous outfits. Will be asked them what they're wearing. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they'll be my first red carpet. I'm going to in trip to Miami style. I'm gonna be wearing like a nice, nice pants. I'm gonna wearing like a Miami I don't know such wonderful prints. Yeah, I'm wearing my print. I'm not gonna go for like the black tux.
Speaker 1:I'm doing red or black. It's gonna be dramatic, we'll see.
Speaker 2:No, I know you and it will be dramatic. Just a couple other pieces of news that I want to cover very quickly before we finish up. There's at least three of them. So they held the groundbreaking for the new tower at Solomie in North Miami. I don't know if you guys know that Solomie, but Solomie is a master plan. It's by the same people, by the Turnberry family and partner with somebody else, but it's gonna be really great. It's like 50 acres and it's gonna have like residential, multi-family, commercial. It's where Costco is there. But they also have the lagoons like the, the artificial lagoons. So like you have like a crystal clear lagoon outside your front door. That's me pretty neat that there it's the. The building is by Turnberry. So that's one.
Speaker 2:The other one is the Waldorf Astoria in downtown finally got a phase construction permit, which I've been waiting on that one for a very long time. Like that's gonna be a very cool, super tall to watch, excited about that. And then Miami's most scandalous project, baccarat, got their permit as well and they are going full steam ahead on that one. I'm sure they're building as quick as they can to make sure that the permits don't get pulled. It's gonna be at 10 stories by like by like. Next week they can really build, yeah, best they can build. And then they started demolition of the old 395 bridge. So that will be. That's gonna be a headache because it but it. I am excited about it, it's super cool. So so, yeah, so those are just some of those are some of the things that are happening around Miami, but I've gotten built lots of lots of, and I think I said before, 2024 is gonna be a very good year for development.
Speaker 1:I agree, yeah, I agree so, and we'll be interviewing many of these people tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so please watch us. I'm gonna try and let you run Instagram or something like that. Yeah, but we will see you guys in two weeks and also tomorrow.
Speaker 1:So talk to you guys soon you.
