Florida Real Estate Power Developers

In Central and North Florida, the cash crop is considered to be oranges.  So important is the industry that, when a harmful fungus swept into this Sunshine State, the state embarked on a program of clear cutting trees found to be infected until outraged Floridians halted the program.  In Miami-Dade County, the real cash crop is development.  Springing forth from the ground in every shape and size, residential and commercial projects may as well be classified as plants for the concrete vegetation is spreading everywhere.  And nowhere is the prospect of a jungle more welcome than in the City of Miami where the mantra for prosperity, whether true or not, is upscale development.  Miami, unlike other communities, does not shy away from being a Manhattan South—it embraces it. After all, it is Miami-Dade’s downtown region, a city in every right, so why not?  The new leadership is bound to make itself concurrently on line in traffic and education and services for Miami planner’s neo-urbanistic visions.  Right?  But the boom is not restricted to the city limits of the Magic City.  Even in built out Miami Beach there are still new projects coming up and the Northeast frontier of Aventura, Sunny Isles and other points is still being probed and exploited.  In front of this effort to build are people called developers.  Yes, some passionate controlled-development advocates probably prefer they not be labeled as such, but they are in fact individuals with interesting backgrounds and personalities who are equipped with the knowledge to make it in the real estate world.  Virtually every developer worth his or her salt has some kind of powerful trait.  If they don’t, they get eaten alive. There is a lot of competition out there, after all.  In this Power Developers section, the SunPost attempts to reflect this side based on various sources of information either sent to this publication or researched on the Internet.  Consciously, we have stayed out of any controversial aspects of people’s pasts (that we will save for another time) and instead have concentrated on their accomplishments.  We should also state that this is, by no means, a comprehensive list.  There are a lot of developers out there and they all have their claims to fame.  We can only profile so many.  So sit down, have a wine, put on your favorite classical music CD and read about the people who are re-shaping this community.  It’s harvesting time and the crops are ripe for the picking.
 
 
Jorge Perez

Jorge Perez is the chairman and majority owner of the Related Group of Florida and a partner of the Related Companies, a New York-based real estate company with divisions and projects throughout the United States.  Born in Argentina and raised in Argentina and Colombia by Cuban-exile parents, Perez has achieved a world-class reputation for cutting-edge work in the construction, syndication and management of many of South Florida’s luxury properties.   Now, he embarks on his latest and perhaps boldest development effort to date: a Miami Beach high-rise condominium building collaboration with Philippe Starck, one of the world’s most renowned designers.  The result of their partnership: Icon, a two-tiered luxury condominium (located next to Related’s past project of Murano Grande) that rises 35 and 40 stories into the sky and offers four interior themes: Classic, Nature, Culture, and Minimal.  Other innovative projects under Perez’s belt include Murano at Portofino, Ocean I and Ocean II at Sunny Isles and Portofino Tower. Next year comes the Boca Grande in Boca Raton; the Ocean III in Sunny Isles; the Slade in Palm Beach and One Miami in downtown Miami.  To date, The Related Group of Florida and its sister affiliates has built or rehabilitated more than 200 projects in Florida, Texas, California, Georgia and New York comprising upwards of 40,000 residential units. Together with Related Capital Group, the New York affiliate of the Related Companies, P