The exposure that Art Basel gives to the Miami real estate market is undoubtable,” says Douglas Elliman Florida President and CEO Vanessa Grout.
Yes, this is a manic, vital week for selling homes in Miami, a week where billionaire art collectors and mansion buyers, along with much of the fashion and entertainment worlds, descend for a week of partying and networking and, yes, even buying art.
It’s a week where you can have multiple spreadsheets with dozens of events happening simultaneously, a week where art, design, commerce and real estate development are intertwined from early morning to late night, a week where only being double-booked means things are completely under control.
Nobody understands this better than Jorge Perez, chairman and CEO of the Related Group of Florida, who has weaved high design and art into condos all over Miami. Perez has built more than 80,000 apartments and created residential neighborhoods including the tony South of Fifth area, where he’s responsible for eight buildings with more than 2,000 apartments combined.
His latest SoFi building is One Ocean, with 50 condos; typical units are around 3,000 square feet and more than $5 million. The building is launching at a private UBS dinner tomorrow.
When we reach Perez on Monday morning of Miami’s busiest week of the year, he’s already met with interior designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg at the sales center of One Ocean. While we speak, a group of art collectors are waiting for him in the next room. Later, Perez would make a presentation for his art museum. Then there would be satellite art fairs to visit and multiple dinners and parties, “about 10 functions today.” And things were just getting started.
“By the time the week finishes, I wish I didn’t have to see anybody for the next month,” Perez says. “It’s intense, but it’s wonderful because it’s all about art, which I love.”
And in Miami, good art and good design are good business.
“We used one of the foremost architects, Enrique Norten, to do a really streamlined building that resembles a wave,” Perez says of One Ocean, where he’s keeping a residence for himself. “We’ve commissioned some of my favorite artists to do unique works for everything from the floors to the walls to the gardens.”
The team includes landscape architect Enzo Enea and artists Jose Bedia, Eugenio Cuttica and Michelle Oka Doner.
But Perez isn’t just involved in the high-end market. Related’s 300-unit IconBay downtown development, where units are about $500 per square foot, is 95 percent reserved in three months of sales.
