Inside Miami Worldcenter: The $6 Billion Project Changing Miami Forever

All right, so we're back with a new beautiful day in Miami uh with our we continue our DDA series with our good friend MJ Green from the DDA.

All right, MJ,

very happy to be here. It's a beautiful day in Miami. Super excited about this conversation uh to really highlight Miami World Center. Uh we're here with Nittton, developer of Miami World Center and this is a $6 billion development. We are right in the heart of downtown Miami and just excited to show this off and continue to uh highlight this great development.

Yeah. So, I think first I want to say kudos and thank you to Nitton because this is beautiful. Spectacular. The city has needed this for a very long time and you guys did not a good job. You did a phenomenal job bringing this here. It doesn't feel like we're in Miami anymore, you know. So,

how many hoops did we have to go through this?

That was my next question.

Very, very few hoops because uh we are blessed and lucky. Nitton was one of the longest standing board members of the DDA.

Oh wow. So he had the experience needed in order to get this across the line.

Yeah. And maybe you can tell us a little bit about the vision when it started. I know it took a little little while but how we all got here to this amazing development.

That's important.

Yeah. But I would say before that introduce yourself to people who may not know who you are. Give us a little bit about your background, your history and then how you ended up in this position.

Sure. So Nitton Matani uh managing partner of Miami World Center uh along with some great partners we developed this incredible city. So thank you for having me. It's good to be back with MJ. Uh 15 years on the DDA as we were working on this project since inception. So small, you know, small family business. Grew up in Fort Lauderdale running some small motel. Left for college, left for Wall Street. Came back in 2004. got involved with this project um with some partners and uh that was 06. It's been 20 years and our idea was actually pretty simple. You know what? If you could own the center of downtown in a major city and what if the city, county, and state built a museum of art, a museum of science, the performing arts center, expanded the port, created a signature bridge, Bright Line became this public private partnership to invest $3 billion in creating rail system. What if we could all do that and have 27 acres in the middle of all that? Now, the problem is it was owned by 43 different sellers. Wow.

It was 144 different parcels. slight slight slight difference, but I always joke that, you know, uh I was young enough and naive enough that when my partners came to me and said, "What do you think?" I'm like, "Yeah, we can do this. This, you know, we we we were confident." And um was that in the morning or after 5:00?

It was both. You know, 20s are an amazing time in life,

right? I just moved back from New York. The sky was the limit. It was 2006. It's a very different place.

And then, of course, the financial crisis happened, right? And I remember the day we got this approved. It was 2008. The market tanked 500 points and one of the commissioners said,

"Just let them try." Like, what do we have to lose? The world's getting worse. And as you know, Miami was the epicenter of the financial crisis from a real estate standpoint.

But what people didn't realize is that we never had institutional apartments. What is that? You look around, we built the thousands of them here, but we never had apartments. We had condos that were second homes that were used for two to three weeks a year. Suddenly all these condos became apartments. Suddenly there was life being fed into our downtown. And as I was on the DDA, we did a study that said, "What's going on in these buildings? The world's saying they're empty." Found out they were 62% occupied. And even in '09, you had 50 net new businesses open. Why? Because people needed coffee, breakfast, different things were going on. So there was a different story happening. So parallel past that, Miami World Center, we started doubling down into our project. And we went on this journey to create a true city within a city. And people didn't understand that here. We vacated roads. They thought that was a bad thing. We're sitting in one of them right now. Right. We created 5 acres of public spaces and parks throughout Miami World Center that anyone can enjoy. We did art and public spaces. We're building 10,000 residential units between apartments, condos, short-term rentals, got 300,000 ft of retail, 97% lease. It's like a dream. It all took 20 years,

but it all came long dream, but we're here.

Yeah.

And it's beautiful. I mean, I think

looking at this, we are blocks away from the Bright Line, right? Which allows the opportunity for people from all over Florida to be able to come down here, enjoy this blocks away from the Heat Stadium. Can you kind of talk about all the different things that are here? I know you mentioned some of the the apartments, but some of the businesses and what was really your vision as you guys kind of put together this amazing retail and restaurant mix that we have here.

So, we started off actually, you know, RF Falconee CIM are partners in this. We went traveled the world visiting projects and looking around and we said, you know, we live in the city with incredible weather. We live in this city with incredible culture and arts. Why don't we have any public spaces? This was a big push at the DDA when I was there. where we created what's now Baywalk. That didn't exist. We created these parks which didn't exist. They there were public spaces. No one used them. Now they're used all year round.

So our whole idea was if we focus on the pedestrian first and create this great space that people can walk around safely, comfortably with shade, landscaping, these great different lighting and and shade structures we created. people will go outside because we live in the greatest place in the world

I think. So that was like one path that was kind of the horizontal and we had an extraordinary architect who became a mentor of mine Howard Elkus of Elkus Man Freddy and unfortunately he passed during COVID but he would always say if I could dream as an architect and he did projects all over the world

of a of a location this would hit all of it right all of the cool things that were around us now we have to create something cool at the ground level so instead of four to 5ft sidewalks do 15 to 25 ft sidewalks instead of creating pocket parks that no one used. Create incredible parks like this that we designed with Apple so that we can do events or Lululemon or Sephora can do events or Eight Bar can do events and host things out here. But if they're not doing that, people can walk and just enjoy the space. So, we really focused on the pedestrian spaces. We didn't create this, right? We went around the world and we learned what worked and what didn't work. And for Miami, it was just an opportunity to do something different. We incorporated transportation. Last week we unveiled the Miami World Center Metro Mover stop that we paid for. We also improved the Freedom Tower stop. We've incorporated direct access to Bright Line to the Metro Mover. Transit's a big part of what we're doing here. And so if you make it easy for people to walk, someone pushing a stroller right over there, right? You make it easy for people to take transportation. You make it easy for them to park. It just creates a different dynamic. So we're just excited. And as more as the retail continues to open, more people are here. It's just a great It's a great feeling. I

I was uh with uh walking the grounds a couple weeks ago with MJ and there's this corridor here to the left hand side that seems like it's going to connect to the Bright Line.

Yeah.

Uh when do you think that's going to be finished?

So the Seventh Street prominade will be completed this summer that will take us to Miami Avenue. Uh beyond that is another site um that connects to uh Bright Line. That project um is still in the development phase. So, we will create a path to Bright Line later this year. The direct path will take a little bit longer as that next project gets built.

Wow. It's going to be amazing cuz then people can obviously jump on the Bright Line, come down, watch a heat game, get back and leave.

By the way, we already see it. I mean, when you sit here at any of these bars before, after a game, and you just watch the, you know, hundreds of people getting off the train, walking through, stopping for a drink, having a bite to eat before or after the game. It's incredible. It is like a dream come true. I'm impressed with the fact of the stores and the quality of stores that you have here.

How how was it difficult for you guys or was it was it was it just an easy thing to show these people? Because this is this is this is impressive to me.

I appreciate the quality of people that you have here.

I appreciate that. So I'm laughing because at one point this was going to be a mall. All right. And that was a Bloomingdales and there was a Macy's and that was the whole plant that really

Yeah. that went away and then we as the developers stepped in to become retail uh experts, right? And we had all done a lot of retail, but this was 300,000 square feet.

So, a lot it's

that's a lot.

It's a lot. So, I had the pleasure of of meeting Tim Cook at a Duke basketball game and I said, Tim, it took six years to get this lease signed on this incredible space we have behind us. First carbon neutral store in the world,

largest ground flooror Apple store in the United States.

Yeah. And and so he said, "Sounds like my team did the right job." Like six years I asked.

So six years. I'm like I'm thinking he's going to be like, "I can't believe it took that long." And his response was, "Sounds like they did their job."

And you would think it's like an easy, you know, development. It's just, you know, open space with tables.

Yeah. You know, retail is interesting because once you've proven the sales, then everyone wants to come in, which is like what's happening in our second and third phases now. But to get people to believe in pre-construction in a neighborhood that historically, remember this was all parking lots for the old arena in the new arena, which is funny. We still call it the new arena 20 years later.

It was uh nightclubs with the 24-hour district, right? It's obviously the nap center. Like there was nothing. There were no businesses. There were no pedestrians. Camila's house was here. We helped move Camila's house to their state-of-the-art facility. So there were a lot of people in Miami who were actually our biggest naysayers who were like oh I know that space right and those are the people we encourage to come back because when they come back they have the same reaction you do which is I didn't know this existed I want to come back often and more often so we're really excited the retailers that that came and signed on with us in the beginning I mean you'll hear we'll talk about some of them but it was extraordinary you know you go to Chicago the state capital of the world

and you go to six restaurants and you eat like a champ and And then you say Maple and Ash.

Yeah.

It's got the food of Chicago. It's got the vibe of Miami. It brings all the right demographic.

Spectacular. Great restaurant.

Now we have to convince them to come to Miami World right in this new neighborhood.

And they did. They believed in us and they're doing incredibly well. You know, we went to the popup for Museum of Ice Cream when it was at Fina and they kept extending and extending because it was so much demand. When they decided to do permanent locations, I went to Manish who' become a friend and I said, "You have to open here." And no one was telling him this is the place to be, right? Because no one understood it. And he came, he walked it, he saw it, he felt it and was like, "This is it." And I could go tenant by tenant. The national ones like RayBan and Sephora, they believed in us. They understood Miami well enough to realize this was really the hole in the donut, right? The confluence of arts, culture, entertainment, transportation, and education with Miami date college's expansion. And then you had all these, we didn't want to have like all national restaurant tours. So our first restaurant we opened was with Chef Beltran and we opened Braserie Laurel and then the cigar bar Elvisino,

right? Because we wanted that local flare. We should celebrate the incredible people that we have here.

And then we went to Maple to get Chicago, you know, the steakhouse. And then went to Saraphina because we wanted the New York Italian pizza.

I hear Lucky Strike gets good, too.

Lucky Strike is so much fun. What's cool about Lucky Strike and Museum of Ice Cream

is you go during the day with your kids, you go at night with your friends. Two different vibes. So much fun.

But then you Uber the kids home.

Oh yeah. Right.

After five.

You guys bought a Miami staple. Earls.

Earls is it's actually a Canadian company that just gets Miami so well. And what I love about them is every night's a different story. Like their 10 p.m. happy hour.

I'm like really? It is the thing that people come to me all the time and mentions. Our favorite happy hour in Miami, the 10 p.m. Earl's happy hour. Like,

yeah, they had uh in the one in Dayland, they had these little I don't know if they do it here, little teddy bears, teddy bear glasses

and people would steal them and after such a long time of people just taking them home cuz they were so nice, they discontinued them and they would usually give you the cocktails in those like nice teddy format glasses. But I've been by the one here and the bar is just slammed. They're doing great and like everyone's like hype great story right like my kids I didn't appreciate sneakers my kids got into sneakers they were obsessed they are obsessed with them suddenly I'm hearing about the store hype we talked to them and we're like you're doing great you're great on social like we want some local flare and they came over here and they're like we love this so now they're here doing great stuff and they came up with some great swag some Miami world swag that's awesome and fun

well I think it's you know it's your vision the DDA we did a you know demographics and retail report and the special thing about the really the entire DDA district, I think, from a retail perspective, is that not only do you have 300,000 people that are coming down here for work every single day, you've got a half a million people getting off cruise ships. You have people that live here. So, you have daytime, lunch, and evening. And I think that that really makes a very attractive opportunity for the businesses that are able to see your vision as you started to lay that groundwork for to come down here because I think as a retailer being able to service folks in the morning, the lunchtime crowd which is really strong with the businesses that continue to come down here.

Yeah. And then all of these apartments and different things that pop up mixed in with the tourists

which where you see in Bricka as well because that was my question. Do we do we feel like we're competing with Bicko and Winwood?

That's a great question. You know, it's so funny. When we were developing this, there was all this fear. It's like Design District, Windwood, Miami, World Center, Midtown,

Bickl, and you're like, have you been to any global city,

right? You think about places like New York or London.

Every corner.

Every corner. It's a different neighborhood. It's beautiful. It's interesting. It's dynamic. It's different.

That's what we believed in Miami. And so, the better Bickl does, the better we do. The better Craig's doing up in Design District, the better we do. The better Windwood's doing. We're all It's this rising tide raises all ships because when the cruise Yeah. Because when the cruise passengers come here, they used to come less time to Miami than they would in Fort Lauderdale. Why? Because there was nothing to do around the port. So they'd fly in the night before maybe or the morning of, get on their cruise, hang out.

It was a day. Now they're coming for days on the front end, days on the back end.

Yeah. There's a bunch of stats that say that people are staying one or two days on the front end and the back end to really be able to enjoy Miami to enjoy Miami World Center and the rest of the things that this amazing place in Miami Day County has going on.

Yeah. It's like our daytime population is growing. Our tourist population is growing. We Miami is hitting on all cylinders. The last thing we should do as a community is hold ourselves back

by lack of interesting infrastructure. And so I think that we if we fulfill our niche, Bickl does theirs, everyone does their own thing and we're all supporting each other.

Listen, I still think we need more.

I I'm I'm one of those people that keep on saying we need more because at the end of the day, you know, I don't call my biggest thing is I don't call this Miami, Florida. I call this Miami, USA.

You know, I I feel like we're our own country. So that everybody wants to be here and everybody just is going to continue coming over here and we need more of these places because at the end of the day when you look at all when we do so many you know pods all over the place you see every different area you see the people of Kendall have their areas in candle you people the you know coral gables you got coral gables the groves got the grove you have to have all these you know all these spots that everybody you have to have it and at the same time all those are the people that want to get into the places and come and visit those places. So this for me is something that should be not only be here but duplicated even even to another higher level in the sense of what you guys are doing. I mean this is phenomenal. I'm one of those people that tell you I really don't come and visit over here as much as I should. You know, I' I've been to Maple Ash spectacular. And I think that one should really say this is a spectacular place for like a Saturday, Sunday afternoon that the whole family can come. And that's our biggest purpose that we do in the pod is really to show and showcase all those folks, all the beautiful areas that DDA, you know, manages and really promotes. So, I tell you that this is this for me is I mean, I I was impressed just I'm I'm waiting to leave here to go visit the watch store.

Yeah. Yeah. The watch store is coming on the pod. Oh, and they're another great example. We signed a lease with them. Incredible operator.

As they spent more time in Miami and getting to know the product, they're like, "Okay, we want to move. We want a bigger store because now we can get even better brands, right?" Because they were understanding what was happening in Miami and at Miami World Center. Like Go Greek was another example, you know, like all these social media sensation. I'm not a big social media guy, but a lot of people like talking about this place where all these famous people go in LA and they want to come to Miami. It's to an 800 foot space. And I'm like, really? The line of people to get into Go Greek is extraordinary. Their product's spectacular. My kids love it. I love it. If you're healthy, if you want to, you know, cheat and have a great day and eat a little extra sweets, they've got everything. They fly in this stuff fresh

every day. I mean, this is like incredible concepts coming to Miami and they are killing it because it's an incredible concept. We're so glad they made home.

I have a couple questions and some praises. Um, first people usually don't the typical reason for not coming to downtown Miami is at least from the locals is parking.

But I got to tell you, the parking garage that you guys have there, I've come for the Miami Marathon and I parked easily. I came during the diplo

parked easy. Every time I come in, the system is excellent. You know, so you guys have done a great job with having available spaces for people. Um, beyond that, what was the biggest hurdle that you guys had while the construction was being developed that that could like stick out?

One of them,

just one, just one.

Give me your top three. Uh, you know,

you you know, it it um it's tough when you're doing something of this scale and size because it does have a it comes with a big responsibility, right? So when we were talking about vacating streets in order to create pedestrianon environments and it was new to people and we kept saying but we want to make it easier for you to walk and ride your bike and push a stroller. That was a tough concept. Now obviously we've reaped the rewards and a lot of those naysayers have actually come back to apologize and appreciate what's happened. But at the time you're trying to educate people that we are trying to do the right thing

and create community with that. Right.

Create community. It's exactly right, MJ, because the problem is if you don't have this great public space, people show up, they park, they go shopping at Ray-B band, they leave.

Yeah.

You want them to hang out and go walk around a little. So, so that was definitely part of it. Another part were the retailers. You know, as you all mentioned, you're trying to convince retailers three, four years in advance that we're going to build out all of this stuff, right? And each of these buildings you have, it's like every one of it was like Field of Dreams. If you build it, will they come? Yeah. Right. And the world was changing retail-wise where everyone understood they wanted to be in outdoor spaces. They wanted to have their own identity. They wanted the public spaces, but the question was who would go first. And so we had to go and kind of balance juggle all of these folks getting them in the open. That was also a really tough thing. Um and then I'd say lastly, I'd say that you mentioned the parking. It is complicated in these things because if you want to create a real walkable space, you can't have parking garages in every single block because then no one can ever walk. And that's unfortunately what we have in a lot of buildings because that's how they're built building by building. We had the benefit of the master plan. And so trying to get retailers, residential buildings, hotels, others, office users to understand like there's going to be these, you know, a thousand parking spaces there and a thousand parking spaces there. and in the end it's going to make it easier for everyone was a little tough including for the elected officials. Some of them really understood it, some of them didn't. Then we had all these

That always happens.

I'm sorry.

That always happens. Yeah.

Then we had all these neighbors who relied on these parking lots, right? Like the heat or the museums and they were like, "Whoa, we don't have parking. Where are people going to park?" And we're like, "But we're building our parking for us." So then we we ended up having to overbuild our parking to accommodate some of these incredible institutions around us to make sure that we all won. Yeah.

So there were there were a lot of dynamics, you know, forgetting about the financial crisis or the retail apocalypse or all the other things that happened co

there were a lot of other challenges, but those were kind of three newer concepts.

But even with those challenges, I mean, I think when I first was offered the opportunity at the DDA, one of the more exciting things was the opportunity to to work with you and being such a visionary. I think that, you know, a big reason for doing this partnership with the day in Miami is to highlight the amazing entrepreneurs and the amazing visionaries that we have in the DDA district that don't that jump over all of those hurdles to make things happen to help people rediscover the DDA district in a completely different way and really being able to get that information out there working with all of our different institutions that you mentioned. I mean I think in this conversation one of the things that you know obviously your vision to just see through all of that but then the partnerships right thinking about the cultural institutions thinking about the people that were here thinking about the Miami date college and then the heat right you have an amazing partnership with the Miami Heat and it's really about you know before and after the games folks that go to the games are able really TO BENEFIT FROM MIAMI ENJOY THE area

about the heat disappeared

we we hit the bat signal or the heat signal Wait, wait. We got We got Wait.

And so, to my knowledge, if you take your ticket after or before a Heat game, you're able to get discounts, hang out with Bernie uh in Miami World Center, and get a free pizza from Saraphina.

Bernie,

sir.

So, you told me something earlier that they have you guys have uh some some discounts available when he win some games. Yeah, that's important. So, who can benefit from that? When a heat when you get a heat win, where can we come to the Miami World Center and enjoy ourselves?

You can take your your tickets before and after the game to Saraphina, to Earls, a bunch of the different restaurants here and receive discounts. It's free pizza uh with another order at uh Saraphina. And I think that that's just a really awesome partnership for people to be able to park here, enjoy a drink, some food, something with their families before the game, go to the museum of ice cream, and then after the game, be able to come here and celebrate the Heat's winning. Right. Right Bernie. Yeah. There we go.

Hey, look, the the Miami Heat have always been an extraordinary part of our story as we were talking to people over the years, retailers, investors, etc. Because what an asset to have this incredible team and our man Bernie right here always hyping us up, celebrating this incredible community. Uh, and so for us, this was a natural partnership. It was an obvious partnership because we'd been partners for 20 years already.

Yeah. Right.

They were just celebrating their 20-year uh championship from 2006.

Yeah. Yeah. That was great. We had everybody show up. That was a wonderful, wonderful night for the Heat organization.

One of many that they've delivered to us, which we appreciate. So, this was a fun natural evolution where we said, "This is a win-win, right? It's great for the Heat. It's great for Miami World Center and our tenants, and most importantly, it's great for the fans." And I think that that also shows, you know, although this is about the DDA district and this is about downtown, downtown Miami is for everybody in Miami Day County, everybody in South Florida, and for really everybody in the world as a global city that continues to rise. And I'm just truly thankful for your vision, for your partnership, and being able to really put all this together that makes my job much easier at the DDA. Um, and couldn't be more excited for the future of Miami World Center and for all of the partnerships you continue to bring to the table.

Well, I appreciate that. I want to be clear. I'm I'm part of the team. I've got great partners in this that have been extraordinarily supportive and helpful, as well as all of our tenants, developers, etc. And everyone bought into the vision, including my man Bernie. You're the best.

Thank you, Bernie.

We love the heat. Uh, and and thank you for doing this. You know, I think that it's true like we have evolved as a city. We all knew every great restaurant when someone asked you like now you can't keep up.

Y that's true.

You can't keep up with the new neighborhoods and what's going on. And I think letting people know come back to downtown. It's changed. It's different. Or if you're going to a museum or to a heat game or concert, whatever it is,

plan a little time on the front end or back end. But that's important for you to say because at the end of the day, everybody wants to be proud of their downtown.

That's right.

You know what I'm saying? For a lot of years, Miamiians were not, you know, you would say downtown. Nobody wanted to come downtown. This is a moment that everybody can be proud.

Rediscover downtown.

This is this I mean every what city doesn't love their downtown?

I think when you were young, people used to come to downtown though. That's what I was

He's still young. He's still young.

You know, but your your point is actually it's so interesting you say that cuz when we started with this, that's exactly what we felt.

What major city doesn't have a downtown?

That's what I'm saying. I mean, everybody loves their downtown.

Stories of like Bayside before that it was always good back then. Yeah, it's kind of like fell apart, you know, and then you guys have brought it back to life, you know, this whole area.

Well, I think that that's what Nitton mentioned, not to not to cut you off, is that Bayside is actually still doing well and tourists go there and they continue develop and they're looking to redevelop some of those things, but there is enough density, there is enough opportunity, there are enough people for all of these areas to continue to be successful.

But that's the point. In my time, the only thing that was was just Bayside. You follow me? It wasn't a place that you said you wanted to hang out in downtown Star Island.

You know what I'm saying? That's it. Now there there's not only one there's many reasons why being here in downtown to N's point. You know what I'm saying? But I I want I have a a question I want to ask you. What do what where do you foresee people are standing here? What what what do you want them to feel and say five or 10 years, you know, that later in life they say, "What what is it you wanted to accomplish that they stand here and go, "Wow, you know, this is

what do you want the legacy to be here?"

Yeah, it's it's such a great question. I think, you know, it's ironic, right? You guys happen to choose a location sitting in the center of this park and when Howard Elk started working with us, he said, "When you look up, you see a bunch of beautiful buildings, and they're all beautiful." And we didn't do the Disney World move. We hired different architects for every building so that it feels and looks like a real city, right? But what we wanted was the ground floor space, the public space. As we're sitting here filming and we see the strollers going by, the bicyclist going by, the joggers going by,

like the dogs everywhere. I mean, be great if everyone cleaned up after their dogs. That's that's one complaint out there.

We're working on that. Please keep that up.

Asking for too much.

But but I'd say like the legacy is I you know, when people sit down and just look and be like, what a beautiful place, right? And whether that's with their spouse, they're on a first date, their kids, their grandkids, that's what we want. We want people to come and just feel at home in a safe, comfortable, beautiful space. We should enjoy the outdoors. We live in the most beautiful city in the world with the best weather in the world.

Well, if we can continue this this weather that we have right now, it' be great.

You know, I mean, we you know, we in here they made it permanent. This, you know, it's really take over California. talking about this beautiful space. Do you guys activate this space at all? Do you have markets or anything along those lines? Anything in the future we can expect or

it it it's a great question. So, one of our uh developers here, FL, they decided to start a Flow farmers market on every Sunday there's a farmers market.

Oh, wow. You have to come check that out. It's

And then they just opened a grocery right here on Seventh Street Prominade that you mentioned. They shut down the whole place. There's 500 600 people. They opened a grocery store now, right? Because you have all these residents.

No idea. Yeah,

there's a Publix two blocks away, but sometimes people want fresh produce, fresh organic things, and so they open a cool small grosser.

Our team here does an incredible job um organizing events. So, I'll give you some examples. We just had Diplo had his his his uh

his run club. We did an event we with Frankie. You know, everyone knows Frankie, my

he's coming on the pot tomorrow. Frankie,

he's the best, right? So, Frankie does all a lot of his run club stuff here, including the the Diplo pre-event and after party. um when Jimmy Butler was on the heat, you know, we had his coffee, you know, launch.

Oh, big face coffee.

Yeah. We've done stuff with Dog Days where we've done these different things. So, yeah, we're programming the space. That's part of the joy of we paid for it, we own it, we operate it, we maintain it,

and we also work with our tenants because different people like Apple has great ideas, Lululemon wants to do great yoga in the park. So, we come up with all these ideas on our own. We also welcome ideas. So to folks out there that have ideas, we have an incredible team

that really does a great job programming and we're always looking for fun new ideas to bring the community together.

Okay. My next question is, is there any space available for a business like if somebody wants to come and open a business and be a part of uh Miami World Center?

So the the majority of Miami world as we know at the 300,000 ft of retail is 97% lease, 90% open. The rest are getting going through the permitting process. We are building additional new phases. Um, so yes, there is space available on the retail side and office side because now we're getting a lot of these companies saying that we want some office.

We have a lot of businesses that are always telling us, hey, where do you suggest we go? What's the next move?

I don't even want to be coming down downtown.

This is a great place to go for not only the retail and office. And the DDA has an incentive program that has grant dollars to be able to support uh your office space or your retail space. And we're happy to connect you guys with Nitton and the rest of his team to help make that happen.

That's amazing.

And I'd say we're continuing to evolve. There's new projects. We just delivered in the last 90 days. Crazy. We delivered a thousand condominiums in the last 90 days.

Um all sold out by the way. And so we've got other projects that are for sale right now like Flowhouse or Gem. And so

I can't even imagine the amenities that you guys have at these condos.

Can I get a day pass? So it so so it's really funny. When we were building Paramount Miami World Center, our tagline was most amenities in the world. We did all the research. This is before Chad GPT. We did all the research and couldn't find another building with more amenities. Till this day, right, that's been I don't know 14 years. No one has been able to show up with more amenities. I mean, this is

We can ask GPT now.

We're going to have to take a tour to confirm that.

But that's creating community, right? And I think you again if you're thinking about opening a retail business, yeah,

you have more people moving down here than ever. You have the more offices and and businesses moving here. And then again, the cruise industry continues to grow and grow year after year along with all of the other events and travels. You know, the Bernie was just here, but the Heat Stadium is almost filled every night, whether it's a Heat game or a concert or something else. I mean, you think about things to do and to be able to have the opportunity for transactions is what I think about for retail business. There's no better place for that opportunity than in this general area. Right.

100%.

Non, I mean, this is our the probably the toughest question you're going to get asked in this whole interview.

No, but wait, are we going to that already?

We're going to that. Well, before before we go to that, Nin, I want you to explain to our viewers how important is the DDA.

So, I got to tell you, I'm I'm I'm biased because I was on the board of the DDA for 15 years. I think what sometimes gets lost um is we now have this dynamic market where you have residents, you have business owners, you have retailers, uh you have elected officials who represent it, you have the city, county, and state on that jurisdiction. It's complicated and there's a lot of moving pieces and I think we need to make sure that downtown continues to get the focus that it deserves. We are the economic engine not just of Miami, city of Miami or Miami date county, but really of the state of Florida.

True.

And so I think it's important we have an advocate who's representing all of those various interests. And with that representation, similar as I said with Miami World, with that comes the responsibility. You need to hear from these various constituents. hear the good, hear the bad, hear the ugly, and help build consensus. Because at the end of the day, the way for downtown to continue to grow and thrive is together. We've got to do right by our residents. We have to do right by the business community, both small and big. And we need elected officials, many of which don't represent downtown, haven't been to downtown, right? And who need to better understand all of the complexities of what's going on.

Agree.

Do you guys any do do like downtown tours or anything like that? Sure. I'm sure there's companies that do that.

Yeah, there there there is. Uh we we do something during our Basle. You know, there are the the the double-decker buses and all that good stuff. So So we're doing our best to try to get uh the word out, but you know, the the beauty is if something like Miami, I mean, imagine we're in the second largest project in the country after Hudson Yards, right? If you open in any other city, thank you. If you open in any other city, it's the talk of the town. Not for a week, a month, a year, for a decade. We're in Miami. There's always stuff going on.

And so part of this, that's why we appreciate this opportunity is getting the word out. Something is there, something new, right? Not just one story. It's all of these stories. I used to tell people, you know, I'm managing partner of Miami World Center and they look at it as a project. I'm like, no, it's a city. We are one of the largest taxpaying districts in Miami Date County, just our project alone, right? Because of how much we're building here.

And so I think that's important to get the word out because there's a lot of stuff to do here. Well, that that's that's the biggest purpose of a day in Miami and a day in Miami is to keep everybody to know and put that word out to everybody of the things that exist.

So, if you could send a message to the local community, people who live out in Corgos, Kendo, Homestead, DA, Westchester, etc., what would your message be to them? Take a day, maybe two, and plan a trip to downtown Miami. I'm biased, so I say come to Miami World Center. Right. But I would say this place has changed a lot from when we were kids. Yes. Right. And there was one thing to do,

right? That Baywalk that we've worked on for 15 years now is miles of waterfront that you can walk, push a stroller, ride a bike. From Miami World Center, parking's easy, the restaurants are great. accessibility,

the entertainment's great, but you can also get to all these other neighborhoods and try different things

for free. The freebie and the metro mover.

Yeah. And and we also did an art and public places. So, if you're into art, as an example, we spent over $5 million in art on our buildings so that people can appreciate and have an outdoor art gallery, which is what we show off during Art Basil. But I I think that like it's easy for us as Miami to take our city for granted and say, "I've been there. I know downtown. I've been to a heat game. I get it." just give it a shot. And I will tell you, you know, we have Citizen M open, which is an incredible opportunity for people to stay at reasonable prices and a beautiful property,

those station.

Yeah. But we've also got these cool short-term rentals like we just opened the Crosby. It's 450 units. You can come rent a two-bedroom apartment with your family. Yeah. Yeah. For a night. Um you got Flow House, which is another uh that one's 30-day minimum. So, if you want to come on a vacation and like or or or try something different, live in a different part of town, you can do that, too. So I I think that like we often take our city for granted. We often kind of, you know, throw our city under the bus a little. It's easy for us to make fun of each other and make fun of our town. The bottom line is we are the envy of the world. We celebrate it. I agree.

And so come to downtown and experience it in a way that's different than what you have in your pocket.

A day in Miami World Center.

Yeah.

A day in Miami World even better is two. You want to ask the last question, MJ, or

I mean, I think, you know, my my last question, which I think we kind of touched on, is, you know, what do you see for the future? What are you most excited about in Miami World Center for the Future? I know we got the three-story building going up here, but what excites you the most, maybe?

Look, I I think what excites me the most has to do with our city as a whole, right? We're no longer having to sell that Miami is the city of the future, that we're the most exciting city on the planet. That's a fact.

It's selling itself.

It's selling itself. And the best part is just when we thought the story was starting to fade, people are doubling, tripling down, right? We've got the world's greatest entrepreneurs moving here. Those people don't sit idle. They invest. They reinvent. They want great things to happen in this community. I think the business sector has been has joined in uh in a way I have never seen them engaged in bringing this city to the next level. Um and so I think with the public sector and private sector working together, I think it sky's the limit. Now, let's come bring that back to Miami World Center. As we continue to open new projects, as I mentioned, we just delivered 1,000 units. We'll deliver another 600 by the end of the year. You'll see us break ground on another thousand plus units uh this year. It the story just keeps evolving and getting better and as though and there's also all these great projects around us, right? Because we're the hub and now that hub is kind of expanding. And so the walking distance, forget about the 11,000 units we're building, there's another 10,000 if you walk three blocks in any direction. And so I just think that we're going to continue to see Miami evolved the way it should organically, correctly

and with more and more power to our residents creating great vibes for them, right? And you see again the walkability that's happening, but also for our visitors and tourists because we do still very much want to welcome our tourists with open arms.

This is the final question for you. Don't get stumped on it. Okay.

Okay. You got to give us your top three restaurants.

Okay. You're probably going to make some enemies after this, but starting with number two.

Wait. All at Miami World Center.

No. In in in the county.

Whatever you like. If you want to do that.

No. No. You can't do that. Probably.

Yeah. All right. So, start with number three.

Start with number three. I'm doing all Miami World Center.

Okay. Go for it. I like it. So, I'm going to start with number three and I'm going to say this is really stressful. I got to tell you,

it could be the ones that for right now, you know.

No, I will tell you. So, number three, I'm going to go with Saraphina.

Oo.

Um, the reason is I love Saraphina. I've got all these great memories from New York. The vibe is right, you know, for a casual lunch or really fun cocktails. I really love what they're doing.

It gets good at night.

It's great. Happy Mother's Day. Happy hour.

It's a place you Yeah, of course. It's a place you can Well, I don't have to invite you everywhere I go. It's It, you know, it could start from the afternoon and just end up in a in a in a crazy night.

I like that.

And then number two, I'm going to give it to my my buddy Chef Beltran over at Braseri Laurel.

Okay.

But I'm going to cheat and add Elvisino. So, like my great night when friends come visit out of town or partners or whatever, I go there for an incredible meal. The food is awesome. Um, I did require them to open the Chugs Express because I live down in the Grove. So, we do have the little capacito right there. I could see it open with the line.

There has to be somewhere. But there So, so the coffee to the dinner, the dinner's incredible. Their wine selection, their drinks, the staff's awesome. And then just being able to go to the cigar bar right next door. Okay.

And I say cigar bar, but it's not the cigar bar that we think or we may think cuz we're from Miami, but like this is the elevated experience,

little lounge.

And you have a restaurant. I mean, you've got food you can order from the the the Michelin chef's restaurant right next door. So, you're eating incredible food, smoking great cigars. So, the vibe is like it's such a Miami thing. Yeah. And you're sitting out on the Seventh Street Prominade looking at

landscaping, water features, and beautiful buildings that we had the privilege of playing a role in.

And then I'd say number one, I got to say, is Maple and Ale. I'm doing my birthday there.

If you if you didn't, I would be upset.

Yeah. Seafood Tower. Amazing.

No, no, no. Danny, what? with with Danny like I those guys have done such a great job.

Um and when my wife and I were planning our birthday in the studio which is like in my my idea like it's the greatest private room

in Miami.

You got to check out the in the back if you get lucky.

When I went I finished dinner and then they're like, "Hey, you want to go to the studio?" And I'm like, "Oh yeah, sure." They bring you out through like the backside. It's such a cool such a cool experience and you're kind of like secluded out, you know, you know, whole a whole different area. So when we when they first opened and I had a little more sway with Danny, I would go I would do the good fellas entrance. I would go right through the kitchen.

That's a couple of the chefs complained and they were like, "You got to stop, man. Go around. This is like we're cooking for, you know, hundreds of people."

No, you know what I like about them? They print out the menu with your name on it.

You take the great memory for people. It's like those small touches. Look, I think they nailed the food of Chicago, right? The steak of Chicago. We didn't really have that here with the vibe of Miami, right? And those are two of the greatest things you think of. Now, they just opened Eight Bar, which is their casual spot on the corner, which is phenomenal. Different menu, awesome food.

Food's great.

So, like, I'm super excited about that. Um, but you know, and look,

I there's just too many good places, you know. We've got some other great ones that are You did a great job. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Wait, hold on. And I got to say, but for dessert,

I got to go to my yogurt spot.

Okay. Go.

Go Greek is awesome cuz you don't feel horrible.

The food is amazing. It's always great people watching. So for for dessert, I'm going to give it to Go Greek, too.

You're the man. Thank you, Nick.

Honestly, you have a very impressive resume. Thank you for bringing this to the city. Thank you for your vision. Thank you for your vision. Truly.

No, we we're delighted to have you all here

and we're standing by for the next one.

Stay tuned. We've got some fun stuff in the way.

I'm sure there has to be a stay, too. We get bored easy. But you know, look, we live in the greatest city in the world. We should all celebrate it. So,

thank you very much. And we'll be back.

I love these producers of ours.

Awesome. Visionary after visionary. Uh, now we have the owner of the Gale, Russell Galbet, with us. Super excited about this. Uh,

this should be called the Visionary Podcast today.

It very well could be. I mean,

the Damn Miami Visionary,

a day in Miami World Center. But I think one of the things that makes my job the most exciting at the DDA is to be able to work with people like Nitton and like Russell who have really made my job easy, laid the groundwork and done so much, not only obviously for their individual businesses, but for Miami and the other entrepreneurs that they really work with. And so, you know, Mr. Galbat, happy to have you.

That's a lot for Russell.

Maybe we can start off uh with, you know, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? You know, you've done a lot of great work here in all of Miami Day County. We have

maybe maybe the brief bio, you know.

Well, quickly I I can tell you we're born and raised in Miami, actually Miami Beach. So, uh been around a long time. I built my first condominion some 50 years ago. But it's really uh one of the more exciting things is seeing what's happened in this community because um you know I was raised when we we had the uh library across the street you know where the arena is and uh where all these cultural centers of excellence are and and we used to go there to feed the pigeons you know it was such a such a historical time and to see what has happened especially in World Center. It's it's really wonderful to see because like um when Bickl City Center was being created, we owned the land around there and we were able to build towers like Bickl Heights and and uh other things like that and really appreciated everything that was around it. And the secret is really to have those magical places that are things and places for people to go to enjoy the community and then everything comes and enlarges itself around that community. So I I think one of the more exciting places in in uh in Miami um is World Center because it has created that and why I think World Center will outperform any other real district and I would call this an incredible district. It will outperform any other place and I'm talking whether it's the design district Bickl City Center or any of them is because we have we are the center of Miami. It is here where we have all these cultural centers of excellence all around us from the art center to the ballet to the Frost Museum of Science, the Pam Museum of Art to the arena and more importantly to to um even Biscane Chops or or more importantly the Port of Miami. The Port of Miami is unquestionably the world's capital for cruising. The world%

Yeah. And I and I know a little bit about cruising. I will tell you next year, next year over 9 million people will sail in and out of the port of Miami. That is an astronomical number. And MJ said it right. 1.67 nights from everybody who cruises will be created as overnight rooms in the hotels surrounding this area. So, it's the largest rooms generator that we have, the largest economic generator that we have in Miami date county and it's one of it's the third largest in the entire state of Florida.

You see everybody walking around with their bags, you know, just up and down through. So, you know, these people are coming from the cruises and they're leaving the next day.

Cruises, everything. I, you know, I was blessed and lucky to have some friends fly in town for my 40th birthday. Friend of mine calls me and says, "Oh, man, I found this great place to stay. It's close to everything blah blah blah blah. Have you ever heard of the Gale?" And I said, "Yeah, I I know the place." But he was super excited because you have all these shops, you have the pan, you have the water, you have the heat stadium, and then you are easy to get around everything. And you have the free transit of the freebie and the metro mover. And so can you tell us a little bit about the development at the Gale? What made you kind of pick that location? And that is a, you know, people talk about these uh multi-use developments. Can you talk about all the different things that are in there? Which before he starts that, I want to be very honest. I didn't even I I had heard about the Gail. I hadn't gone. It's spectacular place. And I I was talking to him driving over here. I said, I I went I had the pleasure. I was at a an event of the Freedom Tower and they told me we're hosting something else after the Gale. I I sometimes I look at myself. I think I know everything was going on in Miami. I don't know. Crap.

Manny does know everything that's going on though. Yeah. Everyone,

where did this come up from? And every people are looking at me. You haven't been here yet. Look at the restaurant. look at the bar and I'm like this is what I mean I said I'm spending I think just one whole afternoon so I can go I want to go and try the restaurant by the way because the place you've done a phenomenal job on that place beautiful place

yeah it's been it's the restaurant has been picked as number one in a couple of our list when we ask people top restaurants in the city and it I think it it was like the oldest restaurant

in LA

in LA for 100 years or something like that

yeah so so most people know that uh Crescent we have a presence around the United States and one of our largest presence is in uh Los Angeles. So, we knew about Yamashira from from years ago and uh we knew it belonged in Miami. We just didn't know it was going to be the great success that it is today. I mean, it is uh I think it's the most fabulous new restaurant we have in Miami. Um and I think a lot of the newspapers are saying that, but it's true. Uh it's really a very special place, but it's one of those magical places that contribute to making World Center what it is today. And when you can have parks like this where you can actually have these type of interviews and uh and experience that and then have the opportunity, you know, Sixth Street has come onto its own because there was nothing there when we started it. When I bought the property, there was nothing there. Um and if you look at all these high-rise buildings, all you have to do is take a look around. They're all here in the last number of years. And and uh they're creating the excitement and the ambiance because there's more people on the streets. There's more excitement on the streets. Um, and we're really lucky to be part of that. Now, just talk about Sixth Street. That's the very entrance way to the Port of Miami. It's also the very entrance way to the arena. And guess what else is there? It's the train station. And what no one really realizes is that Miami is a city that's only 120 years old. Manhattan is 320 years old. And when did Manhattan start to grow? When they got their first train station. Okay. So, we have a lot of bandwidth. We have people coming in who want to be part of the life here. They want to experience the restaurants. They want to go out at night and they need the cultural centers of excellence, which guess what? We have that here. And when did we start? We started it with a $10 billion infusion with these cultural centers. And where are they? They surround World Center. So it wasn't it was an easy thing to see if your eyes were open. So what we did was we said, "You know what? Art Falconee and Nittton, these guys are brilliant individuals. They're they think of the future and they're smart and we're going to play off of that. We're going to buy the property to the south of it. We're going to buy the property to the north of it. We're going to buy the property to the west of it." And and it was a smart move.

It was a smart move.

A hell of a move.

You're a smart guy.

And and guess what? We're we're all around it. Yeah. So, it's not just the 27 acres that Art envisioned or that Nitton envisioned. It's really 65 70 acres and it's all part of of of being together. Now, one of the other things that's makes this neighborhood so great is we have the college Jade College here and and and I'll tell you what they just did in Freedom Tower. Have you been to Freedom Tower? I have. Yeah.

I mean, it is it is so special. Um, you know, I can't thank them enough. you know, extremely special for what they've done for this community. It is the most diverse college in the United States and how they continue to support and push opportunities for everybody in Miami Day County. I think that, you know, Matt Lynn is a great leader and couldn't say enough good things about Miami Day College and what they've done for everybody in the DDA district, but really everybody in Miami Day County.

You have you have three alumni right here. One, two, three.

That's amazing. they they're they're entitled to every credit. Maline is incredible. Okay. And let me tell you what she's doing now. She's bringing conferences and and people from all over the world to look at AI situations about education, uh about knowledge and and it's

they're leading right now the country in implementation of AI

for AI without a doubt.

We've had several AI classes with them and we're working with them now to dis to do a conference and they got a uh grant from the DDA as well. that we were extremely happy to be able to support and putting a million dollars into that AI uh uh school and that's the first AI school at a college right so it's also too about you know being the most diverse but being able to see I think again a lot of this like you said Manny is about visionaries but being able to see down the line and how important that would be and the price point that Miami Day College offers and to be able to have that opportunity to get educated in AI was something that I think the DDA was a no-brainer to really be come behind and be ble to support and I'll tell you a lot of it depends on leadership right so it's more than just the artfal cones and the nittens that create these magical spaces but it's how they get the help from leadership in politics because it's all public private partnerships and by the time you look at our new mayor Eileen Higgins our old mayor Suarez I mean these are people that are motivated to make Miami greater than it was when they came on board right their leadership Christine King one of the greatest chairmans the city of Miami has ever had I mean the true leader in what's important okay understanding the needs of the college understanding the needs of world center I mean these are the types of people and then you look at uh commissioners uh like Hardman and Ros uh Rosado all these people that are full of leadership capabilities and say what can we do to make the private sector work better together with the public sector and I what I love just makes sense

it makes it makes sense and when you see Eileen Higgins take the oath of office for the new mayor of Miami and what does she today. She says, "We're going to have speed to permit. We're not going to accept it. We're going to use AI. We're going to stop the nonsense of having people coming in for a $3,000 bathroom change of tiles."

She kicked that off in our podcast, Russ, just so you know. She kicked that off and on podcast.

Okay. Let me That type of leadership is not in other municipalities. I can tell you we're in San Francisco. We're in Seattle. We're in Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago. You know, there are cities that have leadership that are brain dead. That's the truth. So, we we're fortunate in South Florida. We have intelligent and our state legislature, our state legislature is incredible as well.

I was going to ask you that. I mean, I guess you answered it, but what's the biggest difference between making a development and working here with in Miami compared to all the other uh states and cities you work in?

So, I I'll tell you, you know, I'll I'll just rate locally because I'll the entire state of Florida is a higher level, a better level without a doubt. Okay. But then you have in Miami, you have the city of Miami and you have Day County. And both of those are are processes that are workable, right? Uh Dade County is much better because it's all professional and uh and I think that by the time Eileen Higgins gets done in the city of Miami, we'll have a better process for permits and so on and so forth. The the the brain the brain deadad child here is really Miami Beach and hopefully one day they'll they'll come into reality.

They'll wake up. They'll wake up. That's what you have to hope. I think that you know the thing about it and what we try to do at the DDA and I think about what you just mentioned is about supporting the entrepreneurs that we have here right the business people the visionaries yourself included but the entrepreneurs on all the levels are what has made Miami special today in the past and what will be make Miami special in the future and so as much as possible the DDA the politicians the other governmental entities getting behind those people that we have here those entrepreneurs and being able to support them is what's going to continue to propel this place in the future. And you see that in the things that Ken Griffin is doing. You see that in some of the movements that folks are coming here is really understanding that business moves mountains, but public private partnerships and supporting those business people and those entrepreneurs changes the world. And so I think that that's what we try to do at the DDA. We want to continue to support you. We want to continue to support Miami World Center. We want to support the independent entrepreneurs that are looking for their opportunity to move into a great location like this. And so I think that hopefully all of us can get on that boat or on that cruise ship and continue to drive all of that forward. I

I just want to address one other thing. It's that it is the DDAS that is such that play such an important role. Well, guess what? We have two CRAAS that really come to our community, okay? The Overtown CRA and the Omnic CRA. And when you have commissioners like Commissioner Capardo and and and shout out to Commissioner Partardo, man, he's really good at what he is incredible. There's no one like him. He's incredible with what he's capable of doing with the CRA. And you know what? Most people don't even realize it. I mean, they're concentrating on what makes this area greater and greater, which increases all the values of everything around us. So, you know, when you have those CRAAS, you have the DDA, that's all from the great leadership from the commission and the mayor. That's where that comes from. And these these organizations need to be supported, need to be funded so that they can continue in their mission, their mission of economic vitality.

It's so important you say that, Russell, because that's the importance of of these of these community developed, you know, organizations that people need to understand why they're there,

you know, because you have people that say, "Oh, what does this exist? Why does that exist?" But you're just pointing out the the the the best reason of why the CRA or the DDA exists. It's important for the for for the areas. They're the ones that get that word across and they're the ones that can help the people that want to come into the community get to the finish line, right? As well.

Precisely. When you sit in a park like this, this park is not cheap. I mean, you know, I built some parks in my life and I've given them to the city, right? This is a millions of dollars worth of a park. Okay? How does that get produced? It gets produced from the tax increment financing that comes from these CRAAS. That's why they're so instrumental and that's why I think they're so important. I I I can tell you from being here for more than 70 years, this is an incredible change. It's an incredible change and it would never have happened but for the leadership from the commission and but for the CRAAS and the DDAS.

I'm curious to know with your extensive knowledge in development of the city, where did where do you see where you're like, okay, this city is really going to start blowing up now? Like was there a moment that you saw things happening prior to everybody else that you could indicate a signal that you said, "Okay, this is where I see."

Was there a crystal ball that Russell had?

I think he definitely has a crystal ball. I think I've seen it in the Crescent Se uh uh conference room.

I I'll I'll tell you, you know, we're a city of sports today, right? And the first thing you have to know about in sports is you don't look for where the puck is today. You look for where it's going to be tomorrow, right? If if you're thinking, "Hey, the puck's over there and you're going over there." Well, guess what? By the time you get there, it's over here, right? So, you sort of have to forecast where it's going, you know, when you have great leadership, when you have DDA, CRAAS, that they have the ability to invest in the community. Okay? When people have the ability to invest, what does it take? It takes it takes minds and and and and people, but it also takes capital as well. So, that's a good sign because that's where you know things are going to change. And life's all about change. So as you go through life, you have to to look at those changes, right?

I think that that's important just to to double down on that. The change I always say that if you've lived in Miami for at least 20 minutes, you've seen some amount of change, right? I've been here for seven years. I've seen Miami change a great deal. You guys have been here much longer and seen multiple iterations of what Miami Day County is and will be. You know, kind of just doubling down that change. I think that there's some friction there because some people don't like change and I really, you know, I think always listening to you and Nittton and the things that you guys say I think are, you know, level three deep.

What do you think or how do we get people to be more okay with the change that is coming? Miami today is not going to be the Miami of 2050. The Miami of 2050 isn't going to be the Miami of 2075. And how do we work with the DDA, the CRA, the politicians, and the community to get everybody on board with that change?

Some somebody sent me a recording of 2050 in 2075, by the way.

I don't know where I'll be. Hey, 2050 is here now. Okay. And and you have to go sometimes out uh of the the community to see where the future lies. So, most of you know, uh, we're very big in LA and I've been going to LA, but about a year ago, we started taking all these taxis that are driverless, completely driverless. Okay? And it's happening there. Well, guess what? It's going to happen here. That's going to happen here. And we have a concept of what's called last mile. So, our trains and our train systems going to get better and better. Today, around here, we have seven trains already. Seven trains. We're one of the few communities that you can get off at Miami International Airport and in four stops being on Sixth Street. Sixth Street, that's World Center. Yeah. Okay. That is that is a benefit that that is incredible because what happens is when when a city has something like that, you know, your occupancy wherever the train station is, that last mile around the train station is going to be stronger than ever. So, I want to just give you a glimpse of the future. Today, we have nine over 9 million people coming to town to go on a cruise. They come to town and because of lift and because of all the other issues, they come to town a day before. They stay a day later. But guess what happens today? Today they check into the hotel at the gale and if they want they just take a backup with them to the room because they know they're going on the cruise the next day and they check in their luggage where and when? Right when they enter into the hotel. Those type of abilities are coming. That's part of the future. Last mile driving. when they get off at the train station, there's going to be a driverless car to take them wherever they want to go. And that's what the future is. And it's right around the corner. Now, you say, "How do you get people convinced of that?" Some people you'll never be able to because some people, you know, we're we're we're working at lightning speed and it's going to get better and better because we're such an accepting community. We have people from all industries moving here because of we're the free state of Florida and people want freedom. Yes,

they want freedom and and that's what Florida stands for and that's what Miami stands for.

So on on that question, I just want to ask you, is Miami officially a global capital or do or do we have to continue proving ourselves? Russell,

I I think that anytime you don't try to improve yourself, you're making a big mistake. Con life is a constant learning experience. And you know, I never end. I'm in a constant search for excellence. Whatever I do, in a constant search for excellence every day, you know, we go to Kasa Ganiano, which is a great restaurant right next door. Every day we say, "How do we make this restaurant better?" You know, Yamashi, we can't make any better. It's it's it's got over a thousand reservations for Saturday night. I don't know HOW THEY'RE GOING TO SEE THEM. I mean, you know, I mean, um how do we make the guest experience better, you know, and and um it's a huge hotel, you know? So, and there are a lot of things we can do. One of them is our conference centers. We're trying our best to create a conference center. And the reason we're doing that is we have not only do we have many hotels around us, but we have tens of thousands of condominium units around us that are what's called shared communities where people can live in their community. And if they want to rent it out to subsidize their rent, they can rent it out on a weekend or move in with their mother or move in with their girlfriend, the boyfriend, and so on and so forth so that it can help subsidize them. And that's really great for the college that's here because there's 50,000 plus young people in that college. And so they're the ones renting the apartments. They're the ones putting them on Airbnb. And and and what happens is you have a lot of inventory. So all of the what you want to do is attract them. So you have conference space and meeting space for them. And I and I think that's something that we're going to see a lot more of because you can see we have ultimate capacity here. 27 acres is not 27 acres cuz when you add everything around it, it's 65 acres.

Wow. About the conference center, I think also to the demand. We all know that this is an amazing place and have had friends, business, relationships come down to Miami.

That's only going to continue to grow. And so to be able to have the opportunity to work with you and try to to push that forward, I think the demand is there. Plus all of the amazing entrepreneurs and the event producers that we have in this county. It's a space for them to be close to all of these hotels, all of the other attractions that makes it more attractive for a conference to come here because you aren't just coming for that conference. You're coming for the restaurants. You're coming to hopefully go to a heat game. They're coming to be able to experience the water, sun, and fun and all the other things that happen in Miami. And that's right here in Miami World Center with all the other things that the entire county has going on. Quickly, you mentioned Kasa Gana, you mentioned Yamashure. Can you kind of talk about and I think the exciting and continuing to always grow and develop. I love seeing developments that have multiple things in them. You know, uh the Gail is not a uh onedimensional development. So, can you kind of just talk about all of the different things that are in there?

Yeah, thank you so much. I mean, we have an incredible spa. Um, we have people coming from the ships all the days.

A spa. Spa one. A spa. A spa.

And And it's really a great It's really what

they have day passes.

You have day passes. And And not only that, they wake up in the morning, they whenever a ship comes in, they got an extra 400 day passes. It's the most amazing experience because what happens is when the ship comes in, obviously the ship has to change over. So they got to get you off the ship as early as possible and sometimes the planes don't leave till night time. So even those that are not spending the 1.67 days staying in the hotel, they have nothing to do for the daytime. So they will come, they will give in, they'll check in their bag that will go on their airplane and they'll spend the day in the spa. And that's happening more and more. We have Kasagana, which is a great restaurant, a great bar at night. It caters to the community. We have Yamashi who I can't Yamashira that I can't say enough great things about. Um it's just a cultural change and we have a lot more to come including uh our exhibition and con and convention space uh that we hope to create and are already creating and I can tell you that uh with um MJ's assistance and everybody else's assistance we have people coming from all over the place. I would also say that on the other side of World Center we have 11th Street and 11th Street is really the adult entertainment capital of the world. Okay. It's becoming that. And uh we know that we have the largest piece of land that is yet to be sculptured directly on the signature bridge.

Oh wow.

That type of opportunity only comes once in a lifetime. Once in a lifetime. And how and how we make that work and what we put into that property, only time will tell.

Do you have any updates on the signature bridge? I know

this the signature bridge is extremely important to get done and and the park that goes underneath it. It's an expansion of the park and you can see it's coming out magnificently. It's it's really going to be a huge benefit to our community. Um and and we're all hoping and praying that this thing gets moving a little faster cuz it's been slow to move.

They said it's slow and they say it was over budget, too.

Way way over budget. But, you know, I think we can deal with the budget issue. The the slowness we all need to pick up the speed, right? They need to pick up the speed. And I think that this uh more recent lawsuit is it you see the change, right? You see people working all of a sudden a lot harder than they were working before.

As a developer,

right?

You know, usually, you know, this is more of a question from the public. They always see these big projects that go out and then, you know, it gets delayed and delayed and delayed and then it goes over budget. Can you give us some insight onto that? What are usually typically the reasons that people could expect a delay happens? I know there's a multitude probably, but you know, usually if something is happening along those lines, what what can someone attribute it to? Because like in this case, we're always saying that, you know, the 836 is never ever completed. The turnpike's never finished, you know, and that's kind of like a like a running joke in the city.

You're right. You know, the the bottom line is is that there are so many unforeseen conditions um that people are only human. They put in their best perspective and their best uh timelines that they can do at the time, right? Um, I can tell you that we've been working with the school board to build them on the north side of the bridge uh a brand new uh facilities so that their nine acres can be put back onto the tax roles and really help the CRA expand and we're working with them and uh I can tell you that we've been working with them for over 10 years. Okay, so that's government unfortunately. Okay, now how do you change that? You change that by great leadership. Okay. So you you and by the way the school board members are great leadership because they know that this is ridiculous that something like this has taken so long. So they put the pressure on the superintendent. The superintendent responds by putting the pressure on the facilities director and things happen when that happens.

Could we call that cutting a little bit of red tape?

They have to cut the red tape because that's the biggest problem is red tape. It's it's it's a nightmare. There is a magaz there's a um book written that's sold on Amazon. I think it's called Red Tape and and and and it's a story by a fellow by the name of uh Kevin and uh he used to be with the city of Miami Beach for 16 years. Okay. And uh so he he attributes it to a a a different name city but if you ever want to read a book that book is about Miami Beach. Wow.

About how they figured out how to do red tape. And I'll give you the best example. I built a condominium building that's still standing today at 1612 Jefferson Avenue. It was my first condominium building I built 50 years ago in the city of Miami Beach. I went into a fellow that was uh the then director of uh permits um uh and on a Monday with seven pages and I got my permit on a Thursday. That same plan in an effort to expedite the process would take 700 pages today. Yeah.

And over a year to get a permit. So that red tape book by uh Kevin Crowder. Yes. Is worth reading.

You you sound a little bit like a politician. Uh uh c can we expect uh you know possible run in the future? I mean you have all the skills it takes.

Yeah. I listen I I I do dedicate myself to doing the right thing and to doing charity and so on and so forth because I believe it's everyone's responsibility to do that right. Um, but I I think that when you have great leadership like we have in the state and like we have in Miami and and uh uh and in and the county, you know, I I think we're in good hands there. I think that um you know, in some cities you have so many nimbies and so many people that are against so many things they don't even know what to be against next, right? That it's it's you have to sort of say to yourself, is it is it worth investing time? because we only have so many days on this earth and you better enjoy every day and you better work hard every day and and you want to

watching the trends though you see that Miami is worth investing in and I think one of the things you talked about earlier is change and trying to continue to move hopefully at the speed of business right the DDA has a permit clinic because we understood that permits were an issue and taking time and especially for the smaller businesses that's a lot of money and can sometimes put a business out of business right where you start every Thursday we have a permit clinic that's open that helps to do that. We've seen the city take that on and try to move that into other spots of the city because it does provide a lot of help and support. But I think it's a lot about working with the people, working with the entrepreneurs and the leadership and being okay with changing things hopefully always for the better. And I think that that's the role of the DDA and really the role of all of us is to try to put drops in the bucket of improving things and drops in the bucket of moving things positively forward for the positive change that we all want to see. I I'll tell you what happens. You know, the best example is data. Data is the best example. Okay, Miami Beach sales tax, which everybody pays when they go out to restaurants, when they when they buy product, is down 8%.

And everybody knows what is happening in Miami. Look at all these stores. They're all collecting sales tax. Miami is up 10%. Okay? So, who has the right leadership? That's what you have to ask yourself. Okay? Who's going in the right direction? more and more of my friends that travel from all over the world that are on their second, third, fourth, fifth trip to Miami are staying at and over on the DDA side. They're staying at the Gale. Um, and I think that

they better be staying together.

That's amazing. And that also just shows the the change and what the city of Miami and the DDA district are doing, right? The walkability, the ease to get around, the cultural institutions that are here. And I think that again that is the leadership of all of us but also to the entrepreneurs that have put and laid the groundwork for these things to be able to happen and the public private partnerships that support all of this work.

And on that on on that note I want to ask I think to our viewers because we have a lot of young entrepreneurs here Russell what can a younger 20-year-old Russell Galbert tell those younger entrepreneurs out there that are watching? What can I do? I I I would tell them two things. Okay. Never ever give up. A loss is only an opportunity and you have to learn from every experience in life. Life is a bunch of stepping stones and that's what life is all about. never ever give up and learn from every experience and never stop searching for excellence in everything that you do because I think the most beautiful part of life is the ability to learn

and and uh so for all of you guys I wasn't raised with the technology of this phone but I'm pretty good at it today. I didn't take typing in high school.

You have Instagram?

I do have a little bit of Instagram, but I'm trying to My wife insisted I stay off of it.

I think it's important. I think it's important.

She says, you know, you're you're unfiltered. You can't go on Instagram.

You say it as you feel.

Out of all the projects you've done, do you have, you know, top three that are like your babies?

You know, I think the top three

are yet to come.

You know, are yet to come? Like Jordan, you know, I

Is the courthouse one of them?

The courthouse is one of them. I I I'm a historic, you know, I I love history. I don't think there's a more historic building in this county than the courthouse. I think we have the Freedom Tower and the courthouse.

Exactly. And I think what Meline did at the Freedom Tower will be great for our children and our grandchildren. It's for people to remember what Miami was like.

So I I I'd like to do that for the Date County Courthouse. I think that the Date County Courthouse deserves that. And um and I know there's a lot of people who look at it as a piece of land and maybe the county sells it as a piece of land, but that would be one of the worst mistakes ever happened in the history of our county because that facility, that building stands for much more than the physicality that that it is.

It stands for what Day County was all about.

100%.

Keeping the history is really important. And I think one of the coolest things that uh I've been able to be a part of in the last let's say maybe six months is that uh Black Coffee worldrenowned DJ was another great amazing entrepreneur and David Synopoly and his team at Space and Three Points brought Black Coffee to uh the courthouse during Art Basel and tens of thousands of people were out there. All of those businesses benefited, but it also was showing people one, what you can do in outdoor spaces in Miami, which is unique to Miami relative to any other place in the United States. But then two, how amazing downtown Miami is and how beautiful the courthouse and that backdrop is being able to see the tri rail go behind him as he performed and all of those different people. We know people come from all over the world for Art Basel to bring them downtown to the DDA district to be able to enjoy that I thought was just really amazing.

I again I'm with you 100% on the courthouse. I I mean that's where are we with that Russell right now?

So I think uh right now the county commission is looking at how they want to sell it. Um you know what happened is that they put it they put a a RFP out twice before. Um the first time they had no response. the second time we were the only successful bidder. Um we looked at it and you know I think there was a lesson to be learned there because there's there were some commissioners who said we just want the highest price. We don't care what happens with the courthouse and that was a huge mistake because they didn't realize the value of the history that's in that courthouse. And um and then you have other commissioners that are saying no we have to have restrictions. We have to make sure that they comply with the historic preservation the day county preservations associations that they respect what is there and and so when you ask for that that's what you have to that's what you have to deliver right so you know we we our sole request we agreed to the astronomical price because we we were emotional about the piece of real estate I mean we we speak candidly um so what we asked for is look this building takes millions of dollars to maintain and if you're going to maintain it another hundred years, it's going to be millions more. So what we said is whatever the taxes on the property are today, we'll continue to pay whatever they are. But whatever taxes that are created from whatever we do on the property should go into a fund to sustain the historical building for the next hundred years. And that's what uh should happen in this instance. And that's so important because that's that's the beauty of this podcast and our on and our podcast is to let people know what's going on because what you're just explaining, I may know a little bit about it, but not everybody knows what's going on with that. There's no there nobody talks about it,

right?

Nobody knows that it even happened.

It's it's it's unfortunate that no one talks about that one because that's really the history of our courthouse and the importance of the history of our courthouse.

I agree because then these things happen and all of a sudden they say, "Oh, they sold it. They're tearing down." People say, "But how what happened? You you didn't get involved. You didn't know what's going on." It's important to keep the history and understanding of the history is a a guide for your future, right? And I do think, you know, someone that is new to Miami relatively been here seven years. I think it's really important that we keep the history of what Miami was well before I was here and keep it well after I'm not here so that the past or the people in the future do know that Miami is special because of everyone that was here before me and will be special because of the people that are here after all of us. And I think keeping some of those things are really, really important for the future. The historic courthouse is one of those places inside the DDA district as all of this area continues to change. Keeping those things I think are really important.

You you tell us, Russell, we'll do a we'll do a podcast from the steps of the courthouse.

I love that. I think we'll do we'll do one there and we'll get everybody to come in and start a we'll get a panel going and we'll ask people why we have to keep the house. I I you know what I love and I think we get uh the people from the preservation league there too to talk about the importance I I think that the commissioners the vast majority of the day county commissioners will realize how important this courthouse is and why it's important to give it to somebody who has the history and the experience of doing renovations of historical properties. Agree.

So Russell I was going to ask you I mean we have several businesses that we run and we feel like there's never enough time. you uh as successful as you've been with everything that you've been doing. What is a day in your life? You a day in my life. How do you do? What's Russell's life like?

So, you know, I have people all around me almost the whole day. So, I start off

Are these all your people here?

Some of them. Some of them are. That's for sure. Uh I start out early in the morning because I'm No one else is up. So, uh and I

You call me I'm up. Trust me, I'm up.

I I I finish my emails. I start my emails at 4:00 in the morning. Oh wow.

So uh and I usually

call me at five. I'm up at five.

You know you it's interest and I don't listen I I do it because I have a passion for it. Okay. And um and I became and everybody has become so much more efficient from technology and from all of the aids that they give you to be more efficient. Right? So all you have to do is engage in today's world in today's life and and you can become more efficient yourself. So that's my private time from 4 to 7:30, 8 o'clock. That's my private time. I do the important emails that I have to think through. Um, and then the rest of the day I'm a very social person. I go to I I meet all the people from the different department heads. We have deep benches within Crescent, within the family office, um, and a lot of different investments that we've done. So I enjoy people. I enjoy life. And I enjoy going out for lunch and for dinner. And you'll find me in Kasajana, but you'll also find me in restaurants here. I'm not just uh I'm I'm I'm an open book. I I go out a lot and lately I've been going to a restaurant right across from the courthouse and the food is fantastic. But I'm I'm not just going there for the food. I'm going there because I just love looking at the courthouse

and seeing Yeah. What

is that?

Tam Tam Tam I can go to. Um but there's so many restaurants there. Yeah.

So, and I enjoy it.

Well, we talked about it. takes us a year maybe just to go and visit all the restaurants that we have around in Miami. Oh, without a doubt.

Um, a little bit of history or kind of like your experience with the region

in my experience with the cruise lines.

Cruise lines. Yeah.

Yeah. Cruise lines. So, I spent 23 and a half years uh as a director of NCL. The last 6 and a half years I was there, I was the chairman. I think 23 and a half years is a long time to be doing anything. A long time to be doing anything. And most people know that I'm I'm involved in in a number of public companies. I've taken a number of public companies public um and and uh you know I I I love the ex I love the experience of and the camaraderie of a board of directors. You know I'm I'm good at driving consensus. Uh and I love people. So I think if you love people that's something that you can love doing. Um, so I I've worked on many different boards and charitable boards too, but lately it's been more public boards and and um and it's all part of life. So, one should take the stepping stones, what they learned from one thing and take it to the next. But I will tell you that the greatest one of the greatest boards that I've ever been on is the NCL board. And I had the pleasure to lead it for six and a half years. And I and I would point out to what this entire conversation was about, it was about great leadership. Okay? And you have to say to yourself, well, what does that mean? You know, I can tell you that we had one of the best boards of any public company at NCL because we we looked for consensus and we looked for ideas. But it's not just NCL, it's all of the major cruise lines that are here. Yes, these are leaders, true leaders that are running some of the biggest businesses in America. And when you look at what's happened in the last year, I don't think anybody realizes yet, but cruising is up over 10% this year. Over it's on fire. And part of it is that we're delivering it's it's a no-brainer. Part of it is that we're delivering bigger and better ships that have become cities. They've become cities. And when you think about it, it's really quite fascinating cuz World War II was only 80 years ago. The biggest aircraft carrier we had in World War II was 40,000 tons. Today, we're creating ships at over 200,000 tons. Five times the amount. And and we're able to take people not just 3,000 people. We're take we're taking people that are 15,000 people on a ship. It's unbelievable.

Incredible. So, uh we might be taking a day in Miami Public. So, we might be giving you a call. Give us some advice on

No, we should take we should take you on a cruise. We should be doing podcasting on a cruise. You know,

I'm a big fan of the region. A lot of my friends actually work in the region. I heard you guys are moving your your your head you guys they're moving their headquarters down here now now

well partially I mean we have we have we we have offices in Dorado and we have offices everywhere but I I will tell you that uh under the leadership of Harry Summer um there is no limit to what can happen to to NCL and and uh and they have great leadership in the board so

finest finest

we're more than happy to work with them and do something there right

all right well before we go

go for it one sentence for you

what does Miami represent to you home. Home home. I can tell you that I built in all places around the world and you know crescent biggest presence is on the west coast in California, Seattle, you know, San Francisco, LA. But I can tell you Miami, I was born and raised in Miami. I will die in Miami. Miami represents one word, home to me. And and the people, the culture, the kindness is shown by everybody. and the idea that we all want to work together in the world. And it's a place that you can be proud to say you're a capitalist. And that's a big that's a big word. It's a big word. Okay? It gives you the right to work as hard as you want to do and to accomplish as much as you want to do in a free state. And to me, Miami represents my home. On that point, um I know a lot of people see online social media, they hear about, you know, San Francisco, LA, California, and all of the shortcomings. Um is there any truth to it from a business perspective? Like, do you want to comment on that? How has California changed over the years? I'm just kind of curious on your thoughts. Uh cuz I see, you know, how people complain about the the business atmosphere there and they're saying it's not too good and add to that that a lot of, you know, big business are leaving California. So look, you know, I don't we don't need to add on to it because it's true. All you have to do is look at the data.

The data tells it all. And and um and I think what what happens here is that we are the recipients of so much craziness whether it's there or even New York City. Even New York City, you know, our our limitations that we used to have with infrastructure, we've solved with private schools. We're solving. We're we're really orienting Miami as being a very inviting cultural city of excellence, uh, our train station. So, we're solving a lot of those issues. California, you know, they're they're just going in the wrong direction with the wrong issues. you know, now I will say with that, San Francisco's mayor, the new mayor in San Francisco, you know, is a Democrat, but a practical Democrat, a middle-of the road Democrat, somebody who's really smart because know he knows what it takes to turn around that city. And that city needed major turnaround, major turnaround. And I believe that leadership counts and I believe that that particular mayor is going to do something special. Um, but then again, you still have to deal within a state that has a governor that is dealing with silly items as opposed to how does he bring about economic vitality for the entire state of California.

I really like something you said earlier that was there are no losses and every single loss is an opportunity. The opportunity for business people is to join Russell, myself, the guys from a day in Miami, come over Miami and continue to build this place as one of the greatest economies in the world. And we welcome you. The DDA is here to help you. Our incentive programs, our relationships, and what we are willing to do to support every entrepreneur in Miami, in Miami Day County, South Florida, and the world to continue to to join down here, I think is something that's truly exciting. And there are no losses. There are only opportunities for Miami and opportunities to learn from great leadership like Russell Galbat, like Nittton, and some of the other folks that we have coming on the show.

This This is where we say preach, MJ. Preach.

Russell, last question. For someone who's been here for so long and and you know, this city is your home. You got to give us your top three restaurants.

Oh, my top three restaurants.

Okay. And

why don't we tell Russell, go by sections, baby. you know, this area over here. This area I was going to ask you if you had any plans to do anything in Kendall, but you know,

I'm not in Kendall yet, but you never know. I'm actually we're actually building our first project in Crowway, so we're excited about that. Um, but look, if if my top three restaurants

number three number three, that's a good one, is probably um Giorgio at a at a place called Santorini. It's really a very nice, very quaint restaurant. It's a beach head, too. So you can go there for lunch. You get a lounge on the beach. You take your shirt off. You get the sun.

I've actually been there before and that place is great. It was a hidden gym. Some friend took me there I had never been before. Great hidden gym spot. A

hidden gym. I got to write that one down. Right.

And and not only that, Giorgio is the most fun you'll ever find. And and he takes everything to heart. He does things right. He and he loves people. So you can feel the love when you go there, right? And and uh so I would say that was my number three. Number two. Number two would be Poppy Steak because Poppy Steak, let me tell you, that's the most fun restaurant you'll ever go to in your life. And you'll see so many fun people. I mean, that that is a fun experience and talk, but you're good, right? Music, but it's great. It's great. You know what? You love it. You love it.

You order the the beef steak, the beef the beef case.

The Yeah, the the briefcase. The briefcase, you know, and chuch-ing. Chuch-ing. You know what? no one realizes about Poppy Steak is that they have the most incredible wine menu you can ever imagine. So if you got an extra 10 or $20,000,

that's the place to buy a bottle of wine, you know. So I would say Poppy Steak is number two.

I'm curious to know you're number one right now.

That my my number one by far, you know, is Yamashiro.

Yamashiro.

I will tell you that place I didn't expect it. I didn't expect it. I expected the environment. The environment is exactly like this. It's outdoors. It's It's sexy. It's beautiful. But I The food was is incredible. The atmosphere is incredible. The music's incredible.

Yeah. And I was told that it doesn't break the bank either. Like it's

No, it's a very moderate price. In fact, the There's two questions that I keep getting asked. One is, "How do I get a reservation? Can you help me get a reservation?" And the second question is, "Why are they so inexpensive? Are they stupid?" you know and and I the second question I sometimes wonder about myself it's the best value of any restaurant and it's outstanding

yamashir is inside the gale one of the great things about this location we're sitting here in this wonderful prominade there are two amazing restaurants Maple and Ash and Yamashur above us that we can't see from the outside and it is extremely beautiful on the inside and I love a wagoo sandwich

they brought those to the table I ate them all and I said bring me four more I Are they open for lunch?

I wish. I wish.

Well, we would all be having wagu.

We going with Russell right now for lunch.

We're going to lunch over there, buddy. No, they I think Are they going to open for lunch? I hope so.

I hope so. I hope so. It'd be a great lunch spot for for business meetings and different things like that,

right? I know I know they're available for catering in the conference center. So, I know that uh and they do do a lot of um uh fashion shows uh and some many of them sent by the DDA and other things. and and I know that sometimes Yamashiro will cater to those fashion shows.

Mr. Galbet, thank you for your time. Thank you for your vision. Thank you for taking the time to do this. We look forward to those three projects in the future that you're excited about and I truly enjoy partnering with you and everybody at the Gail and your leadership uh is completely undeniable. So, I just thank you for taking the time here.

Appreciate it.

And now make and thank you for being a fan of a day in Miami.

Yeah. Yeah. We'll see you day in Miami on Norwegian Cruise Line.

Yes.

Yes.

Talk to me, MJ.

Awesome. So, super excited about this. You guys might not know this and I got this suit on, but I am a reformed

sneaker head.

Basketball was my first love and then I would say sneakers was shortly behind that. So, I'm super excited to be here uh with Marcus from Hype. Uh they have two businesses in the DDA district. Uh an amazing sneaker and clothing store. So Marcus, welcome to a day in Miami, a day in Miami World Center.

Thank you, sir.

Marcus, I'm sorry.

You're real quick. Do I get a reservation at Yamashiro for doing this or no?

Listen, behind me got to be together. I know a guy who knows a guy and we can work. Listen, I need you to put that RZP for Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day. I'm I'm going to work on that just for you. Thank you.

It's okay.

Just just take out a table in the backyard and go get some soup. My wife I I mean not to not to divert, but my I tell my wife this morning, "Hey babe, what are we doing for Valentine's Day?" She's like,

"Babe, you always plan Valentine's Day." And I'm like, "You're right. I got you." Okay.

Um and so we had, you know, look at her pair of sneakers.

We had Nittton. We had Russell on here. I think two great entrepreneurs, but then as we talked to Marcus, an amazing young entrepreneur that's really invested in Miami and just a great cool story. So Marcus, can you tell us a little bit about your story, a little bit about Hype and then, you know, maybe your excitement around being around uh in this location in Miami World Center?

Yeah, absolutely. So uh Hype has been around for about three years in Miami. We originally started in the Grove and then we made our way over to Bickl after a year. Then we had the awesome opportunity to move here to the Miami World Center for our second location and that really changed the game for us. I mean, being here has been an incredible opportunity that honestly exceeded my expectations to say the least. Um, but yeah, I'm I'm 22 years old. I'm from Philadelphia. I moved here uh to go to college initially and dropped out of college and opened Hype. What

color? What you're going to FIUM or

M? Yeah.

Nice. That's really amazing. You know, one thing. So, I you know, I spent some of my career in uh wealth management. One of the things they say is follow the smart money. And when insiders that work for a company buy more of that company stock, that is a great signal that things are probably going to go well with that company. Marcus opening up a business in Bickl and then opening up a second location in Miami World Center in the DDA district. I think it's a great green signal for investment for business in the DDA district and being able to see that Marcus. What did you see in Miami World Center? Can you talk a little bit about the clientele that comes by hype?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've had probably the highest profile clientele I can think of and that really only started when we moved to Miami World Center. We've had David Beckham, Paul Pogba, Aiden Ross, Lamar Jackson, just some of the names that have come into the store.

So, and these are all just again, these are some of them are, you know, planned relationships that we've cultivated, but a lot of them are just

walking in literally just walking in because of the area. I mean, I think

location, location, location, location, brother. But wait, you're you're 22 years old?

Yeah, I'm 22.

And you are running this company. You own Are you partners or what's the

Yeah. Yeah. So, I have one partner, his name's Yuri. He's also pretty I mean, he's not young as young as me, but he's he's 27.

Okay. We we started uh in Philadelphia working together really distributing sneakers on like a wholesale level to other stores and uh when I moved here I wanted to take a partner and it made sense to work together.

So So what's the value proposition behind the business? Are there like exclusive sneakers or exclusive clothing or can you cuz I had a friend try to do that. They came from Boston.

Yeah.

And they couldn't sell on Shopify. They didn't have licenses from Nike. It was really complicated for them to actually sell. And when they would push the shoes, people would come, but they didn't have the sizes because they're so exclusive. So, kind of guide me through that because you've you've obviously found a successful business model.

Yeah. No, absolutely. I think uh it doesn't stop at sneakers. Like we initially sneakers was the main focus, but I I like to say we focus on we uh we specialize in giving people what they want, you know, giving filling the demand in the secondary market of sneakers and clothing as well. Clothing has been honestly the biggest side of our business recently. Is it like vintage clothing or like exclusive clothing or just general?

It's exclusive clothing. I mean we have

What about some of the brands you got?

Yeah. So we carry some It's mostly street wear brands, designer brands. So Chrome Hearts, Louis Vuitton, uh gallery department make a stop over there.

Yeah. So the high-end the high-end sector of uh street wear and

can't tell MJ my MJ not this junior.

Yeah. So we really just specialize in curating what's rare, what's exclusive, what's in demand. So, how have you uh assimilated to Miami?

I mean, I've I think I've assimilated pretty greatly. I mean, like I said, the the World Center has has been a great opportunity for us in terms of the the clientele, in terms of the community. I think community is a big part of the World Center, like just all these, you know, residential buildings and everyone walking around, people like MJ, everyone, you know, DDA coming together, uh, I think is the biggest reason for our success

and just willingness to work together. I had called, uh, Marcus maybe, I don't even know, six, eight months ago. I had a buddy of mine that was in town. He runs a sneakerbased coffee shop in Portland. And I said, "Hey, Marcus, you know, he wants to do a popup. Can we do this or whatever?" He said, "Yeah, no problem." They had a popup here. It was great. And I think that that willingness to work with other people and not think that that's going to take away from your business, but it's going to only add. I think that we hear that in Marcus' story. We hear that from uh Russell, we hear that from Nittton. It's really thinking about the community, but thinking about those partnerships and everybody working together. And I really, you know, appreciate you doing that and giving them that opportunity to get a taste of uh the Miami market and work with you guys.

Yeah, absolutely. I think collaboration is everything. I mean, we've done, I always say, we're not just a sneaker store. We do tons of events, popups, you know, stuff like that. Are you speaking espanol yet or

Okay. Okay. Okay. Listen, I was going through your Instagram page, which I love your branding and style, you know, it's very dynamic. Uh, and I see you're out on the road a lot interviewing people. kind of, you know, how did that start or or has that benefited you in any way, shape, or form? And maybe what's been your craziest interview?

Yeah, I mean, social media has definitely influenced our business a ton. It's probably 99% of our marketing is just geared towards social media. I mean, we're a very young small team. So, we

not to cut him off, but because I want you to keep going, but every time I go in there, I see a different social media celebrity in there just in there shopping, you know, while I'm in there shopping. I think the last time whatever the big tall guy's name is King or whatnot, I saw him in there shopping, you know, and I think that this location really lends for that, but their business is open and inviting and really lends for those folks to come in there.

Yeah, we definitely we definitely leaned into the the influencers, the the celebrities to do whatever they'd like, you know, film, whatever the case is, and ourselves as well. Like you said, the street interviews transformed our business. Um, honestly, I had a friend tell me an idea to do one time a video where we went out on the street asking people if they followed us on Instagram. Now, the first video didn't do that well because, you know, just coming up to random people. What are the odds they're following us? Right?

Who is this guy?

And so, that first video, we finally found someone after like an hour. They were like, "Yeah, I'm following. I'm following." So, we gave him a free pair of Air Forces. I mean, $100 $100 pair of shoes, you know, nothing too crazy. That video got us 50,000 followers. Just one video.

No, no paid ads.

So, then you started doing videos every day.

Yeah. After that, I was like, "All right, we got to run we got to run this back." That's when we give away. Yeah. Right. So, so, so I guess that that'd probably be your best story. Um, what are you doing when you're going up to these people? Are you just asking general questions or is it just, you know, conversation?

I mean, the only way to get views on nowadays online is just to get a reaction out of people. So, whatever wherever you're getting a reaction or giving stuff away. That's that's the other way.

So, what what works like what questions work for you?

I mean, that one was great. Like I said, how how are you following hype? We'll give you a free pair of Air Forces. Um, we we give stuff like we we'll take like a shirt that's been, you know, $150 shirt and take it on the street and be like, "All right, how quick can I sell this for 20 bucks or something like that." So, I mean, every day we're we're coming up with new stuff. We try to get creative, you know?

Entrepreneurship, brother.

Yeah. I mean, it's still a question from from Eddie. Uh, top three shoes.

Top three shoes.

Okay. Um, we're going like silhouettes or like specific shoes.

Either way you want to take it, man.

Okay. Um, I would say Travis Scott's I would say at number three.

Okay.

Um, just Travis Scott Jordan one Lowe's. That's like my favorite.

The beige ones that they

Yeah, that the Nike check is backward.

Exactly. That Exactly. Yeah. So, they just came out with the reverse fragment one. That's a good one.

Um, number two, I'll probably go with some Rick Owens. Rick Owens is really popular right now. I like that.

And then number one, I got to go Air Forces. That's my favorite shoe by far.

I see he's got them on right now, you know. I'm from St. Louis where Air Force Ones are, you know, a really, really, really, really, really big deal. Um, so I appreciate that. That's a great

His are super crispy. You know, they're supposed to be crispy white.

Gota get a new new pair every month.

There you go. Go to hype and get a new pair of Air Force Ones every month.

Cheaper than Nike.

Oh yeah. How much How much are they going for?

That that was a big like promotion that we did a while ago actually. We did Air Forces for $99. Um, which is not It's 20 bucks cheaper than Nike, but that makes a big difference.

It is a big difference. And we were going to do it for a month and then it went so well that we just decided to keep it as like our thing that people come to us for.

Yeah. That's amazing. That's amazing. What's uh the most expensive uh you know I guess bag or ticket or or or or checkout you've had at the store so far?

Um I would say the biggest was probably Aiden Ross for sure. He uh he came in one day just randomly unsuspected and spent like $60,000.

No way. What the hell are you taking for $60,000?

The whole store?

Yeah. No, not the whole store. But you buying

he uh Chrome Hearts. Chro is like the most expensive and popular brand right now. And

he really I think he only bought like five or six items. Like there was a few there was two pairs of jeans that he bought that was like 15k each. So

I'm in the wrong business.

Yeah. So uh can you tell them your exact address and you know I think it's uh you guys are blocks away. One of the things we talked about with Nitten is some of the great art that's here. Nina Chanel is an amazing artist and she has a piece uh that is in the hallway of uh Miami World Center and definitely worth checking out. But she also has, I believe, two Jordans now, right? Two uh women's Jordans that are amazing. But their foresight to be able to bring that artist to Miami World Center. She has two Jordans. You guys are moments away from that. What's the exact address of the store?

So, we're in the Miami World Center in the Sweet D120. Yeah.

Yeah. We got to go check it out.

Yeah. Come check out Hype Sweet D120.

Question is, if I don't have to go by myself or go with my son.

Probably better for the bank if you just go by yourself, you know.

No, no, no. Take this. Take my buddy together with dad fashion guy.

Do you want to take your other adopted sons too or no?

That that will be paid.

Marcus, man. Thank you, man.

Marcus, brother. No, but way before Marcus goes.

Yeah,

Marcus got to get Marcus has to be Marcus has to give us his top three.

Yeah, we will. We got Marcus your top three restaurants.

Top three restaurants.

So, starting with number three.

Well, go for it. Go for it. I have another question for you, but go for that. Okay. Uh, damn. This is a tough question. I like this question though. Number three,

I did I did eat Yamashiro like the other day and it was it was actually banging. Like it was I'm not paid to say this. All right, guys. I know. I know. We just had them, but like

what did you like about it? Cuz everyone's everyone's hyping it up.

The sandwich. The Wagu sandwich.

The Wagu sando.

I literally I literally just went to Japan and I had the Wagu sandwiches in Japan and like I'm not going to say it was the same, but it was it was it was pretty damn close. Like it was it was close. All right, we got to go try it out.

Yeah, we got But they're not open for lunch. No. Or are they open for lunch?

Yeah, not yet. Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking

I'm trying to make this happen. Go ahead. Number two.

Um, number two. Damn. I don't know. Uh,

I'm going to go with another. This sounds like this is a paid advertise. I'm going to go with Earls. Earls is like I always say it's like the most versatile restaurant. You go there real quick for some drinks during the day. The late night happy hours is a bomb.

You're living life here in Miami. I bet. Huh?

I can't complain, man. I can't complain.

Where's King David?

Yeah. And number one.

Uh, number one, I'm going to go Uchchi. I love Uchchi.

That's a good choice. I love Uchi, too.

Is one of my favorites.

It's a big one. That's a big one. That's a big one. And what do you like about Uchi?

Uh, I think it's like it doesn't have that like crazy Miami restaurant feel where every the loud ass music and all the bottle service that it's calm, really good quality fish, sushi, you know, meat, whatever. And

good, man. Consistent. As as fun as that looks from afar, the bottle service, I think you should, you know, just try to stay away from that.

It gets It gets old. It gets old. I got to say,

it gets old. I It got old for me at 17 years old. Listen, uh

he's only 22,

right? Right.

Cuz here in Miami, you know, start early. You're you're 21. You're starting young.

You start early.

I was going to ask you

coming from Philly. Yeah.

I've been to Philly.

I got one of my boys, Jonah Smith from Philly. He played for the Dolphins. Now he's with the Steelers. Uh

oh.

And I tried a Philly cheese steak over there, which was from Shaes. I don't know if you tried that one or not.

Shayes. No.

Have you Have you looked around Miami for the best Philly cheese steak?

Pepes.

Pepes.

Pepes guy, bro. That's our guy. Ryan is the goat man. Ryan is the man.

Yeah. I met him randomly. He walked into the store one day and he's like he was like, "Yeah, I'm from Philly." I was like, "You didn't need to tell me you're from Philly." I could tell right away.

Yeah. I love the way Yeah, he's a good guy. He also claims I have the best chicken parmesan, too.

That I don't know. I can say he has the best cheese. I can't speak on the

But you talk about that. I think that that's interesting. Obviously, myself included. All these amazing entrepreneurs from around the United States, from around the world come to Miami and find success. And I think that that's what's extremely special about this place, mixing that in with the people that have been here for a lifetime. And so I just think that, you know, your story is great. I think the business is great. And we at the DDA are just extremely excited for the future of your business and to continue to partner with you and continue to support you, man.

Absolutely. I appreciate it.

Yeah.

Thank you, brother. Thank you so much, man.

Appreciate you having me on.

Triple there.

Oh, did you want to shout out the uh Instagram real quick? Yeah. Yeah. Plug the Instagram, man.

Yeah. Yeah. Check us all socials. Hype Miami. Hypamiami. Hypemiami.com. Check us out.

Hyp Miami.

Hyp. No E, you know.

No. Wow.

Keep it.

Hyp. Thank you, Marcus.

Thank you, Marcus. Appreciate

your time.

Awesome. So, now we are here with Danny from Maple and Ash, one of Miami's new favorite restaurants along with Eight Bar uh here in Miami.

One of Manny's favorite restaurants by the way, too.

One of Manny's favorite. Easy place to find Manny. Maple and Ash. Uh, I was just there last week. Obviously, just a great restaurant, great food. if you haven't been before. Danny, can you tell us a little bit about how you came up with the concept? I know you guys started in Chicago and now you're here in Miami and what do you maybe how did you start in Chicago and what are you most excited about being in Miami?

Yeah. So, it's an absolute pleasure to be here in Miami. Um, we opened Maple and Ash in Chicago 10 years ago and we were kind of at the forefront of, you know, modern steakhouse.

Yeah.

And here we are 10 years later,

every everybody's opening up steakouses now. Um but for us it was always our core was we had to cook with woodf fire

with that

and we kind of wanted to always challenge some of the the standards or the norm in steakous. Yeah.

Um and I think a great example of that is our fire roasted seafood tower.

True.

So often you go into restaurants and it's you know on ice and that's delicious.

But for us we have this Jasper oven. We load it up with king crabs, shrimps, clams, oysters and roast.

Trust I know it very well. It's unbelievable. So

yeah. Chicago knows how to eat, man. And so I think bringing that uh flavor, I lived in Chicago as a kid, first three Bulls championships, I'd like to say. Um, but bringing that to Miami, I think, is extremely exciting. What have you noticed as far as the difference in the Maple and Ash in Miami and Maple and Ash in Chicago, or are they kind of the same?

I think there's many things that are very similar. Yeah.

But um there's also just for me, anytime I'm doing a new restaurant, I want to look at how are we embracing the local market.

Yeah. Sure. So, we want to embrace Miami. Miami loves to drink tequila.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, I hear

shout out to tequila.

Um, so we sell a lot more tequila down here than we do in Chicago.

Um,

you do have a very good selection of tequila. It's very important. Not many people have a good selection of tequila, by the way. They still

We like to have a balanced one.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Gives you plenty of room to get into trouble when you need it. You know what I'm saying?

I'm I'm always going to get into trouble with tequila. But anyway, Danny, what what what what what what was what was the vision to set, you know, everything apart? Like you just said, we have so many steakouses, right?

What was what was that vision that you guys said? This is what's going to set us apart from other steakouses.

Yeah. So, for us, it's we need to have the complete package.

Yeah.

And a lot of restaurants you go and have an amazing vibe. Some have good service and food is maybe left behind where it's one of those three years missing. and my goal, the team's goal and Maple Nash, whether it's in Miami, Chicago, Scottsdale, we're opening up in Boston, and New York this year.

Nice.

Um, that has one goal in common, and it's, you know, we we need to make sure we're hitting all three of those categories of

and and that's that's how I treat people in my home. That's how I like to treat people in the restaurant. And that's the same kind of experience you shoot.

I can tell you what I what I love about it, and I'm sure it's one of your categories, the atmosphere. I mean, you get in there, the the lighting. For me, lighting is so key with the fact of of restaurants, the the wallpaper, the the seating, the chairs. I mean, it just gives you that whole vibe that you really can't wait to have your, you know,

can you talk about that? You picked Miami World Center, this new development in the heart of the DDA district, in the heart of downtown, but it's a second floor restaurant. I think a lot of folks, you know, would think about a restaurant and want to be on the ground floor, want to be seen from anybody driving by. You guys chose something a little bit differently. Can you kind of just talk about your process in choosing Miami World Center and then your location and being on the second floor in one of the buildings?

Yeah, you know, for us partnering with the Miami World Center was an absolute no-brainer.

Um, and for me coming down from out of state and looking at where this development was when we opened and where we are now, it's night and day. It's like a whole city has popped up right in front of our eyes,

which is impressive. Um, and for us to be so close to the stadium, you know, not necessarily locked into Bickl, we're, you know, up north, it really gives us flexibility of people getting in and out. Um, so we've loved that. And then the second floor kind of gave us this little bit of, you know, what's going on up there, a little bit of surprise and mystery of, um, when you go in the elevator and come up to the second floor, you're like, I had no idea this was here.

And so, it's kind of like a taking our guests on a little bit of a journey

100%. But once they get in there, and it goes back to, you know, talking about the vibe, it's that restaurant has a heartbeat

and that heartbeat really starts to hug you from the second you walk in.

And I think vibe can be confused with sometimes just loud music or dim lighting. That that's a mood, but a vibe is something that you can feel and you can feel the energy.

A vibe is when I sit down, I'm getting a complimentary cocktail when I sit down. What made you think about that? How long have you been doing that? Does that exist in Chicago or is it only a Miami thing? Kind of just talk us through that. So, you know, I think there's so many great entrepreneurs and operators in Miami, you know, really kind of learning from how you see things happening.

Yeah, absolutely. So, for us, I've always viewed it as how am I welcoming someone into my home?

Yeah.

And when I bring someone into my house, I don't just give them water right away. And you know,

Manny always welcomes people with a cocktail.

Yeah. See, me and Manny, we we have a similar we're cut from a similar

You may think, but that's the truth.

So, it's for us, we wanted to welcome people in the restaurant the same way we'd welcome someone's home. And that's starting off with generosity.

Yeah.

So, for me, when I get to a restaurant, typically I I want a cocktail pretty quick. Yep.

So, we kind of

took that we we we made a shortcut for that for that. Everybody that sits down,

I think they call that anticipating needs.

That's right. And we call that in our own internal langu language. We call that the swarm.

The swarm. the swarm. So when you sit down, our team is swarming you to give you some little snacks, to give you a little drink, and to really just kind of welcome you into our space and into our home. So important.

That is that is that that's true.

No, that's genius. And I think that that does make it you kind of um sit back and kind of take a moment to one enjoy the menu, really think about what you want, have a little bit of bit of a conversation. It isn't just like this instant, let me figure out what I want to drink, what do I want to get. It's kind of like, okay, you know what? I've got some time to sit here and enjoy myself. They say you just don't want to say I want to come once. I want to come back. Right?

You know what I'm saying? Because a lot of people have that. Some people want to explore restaurants and okay, I'm done. I don't have to come back.

Listen, I'm one of those people that I

enjoy. I can go back anytime that for me it's like a regular place even if I can just hang out at the bar.

Yeah. We're not trying to be transactional at all. We're building relationships and connections for sure.

And there's like and you brought up some a point of when you're coming in, you can sit back and relax. And one of the menus we offer is the IDGAF

and it's the I don't give an F menu. Okay, my hat is kind of alluding to it right here.

We're a podcast. We can say bad words here.

And for us that menu

we won't get beeped.

No, we won't get beeped. I like that.

Um but for us that menu is a kind of get in, sit back, let us take care of you. You don't need to care about anything.

I got to do that next time.

You'll be set up for sure. Absolutely.

We'll take a booth with that one.

I think that's a good idea.

That would be good. cap it off at that Sunday Tower like

Yeah. Oh man, I always, you know, my uh my presidential campaign is bring back ice cream sundaes. Um and so I'm all about that, man. I feel like people have forgot about the Sunday. I'm all about that. I never leave Maple and Ash without ordering the ice cream Sunday tower.

Honestly, me either.

There we go.

I'm I'm in I'm working there tonight. I'm like, "All right, how am I going to get a little uh New York strip? We put this grass-fed New York strip on.

Gosh,

that it is incredible. I was shocked on how well it ate. And I'm going to get that and then I'm going to finish it off with the Sunday tower. So I've got my evening scripted.

You and I might be one and the same.

We did the exercise already in the morning. Ready for this evening script.

Hope. Can you tell us a little bit about eight bar? So you've got, you know, two concepts. Yes. One right under the other. Eight bar is brand new. We're looking at it right here. Tell us a little bit about it.

So eight bar is our sister to maple Nash. Okay. Um, it's Maple Nash might be more of a once a month or, you know, once a once a week is a little bit of a stretch, but you know, I think that eight bar is meant to be somewhere you could go every day. Okay.

It's for the neighborhood. It's on the ground level. You can just walk by, pop in, be casual.

Don't need a reservation.

Don't need a reservation. It's a lot more kind of um sleeves rolled up and a little bit more casual. How long were you into the maple and ash concept and opening when you decided to you know what let me double down on the opportunity for a bar? That's one of the things that I think again following the smart money really excited about in the overall DDA district is to find amazing operators that are opening up their second location third location in the same area. I think that's a amazing green flag for the DDA district.

It it I feel like this whole area the development is getting busier each week. Yeah,

I can feel a new energy from a new business that just opened up and feeling different people around. So, that feels incredible. Um, and for us being able to double down for a bar, you know, we we knew that we were going to open up Maple just a little bit before AAR. Okay.

Kind of waiting for this ground presence to really take off,

take off and take shape.

Um, now that that's happened, AP Bar is open, we're full speed ahead. Um, and for me it's one of those places that's where I want to eat for like a casual lunch, easy dinner, something for everybody. Crush a burger, incredible sushi, light snacks and bites. So, it's um it's a really thoughtful, well-curated menu.

It is really thoughtful because also too, this is now which it wasn't you go two years ago. This wasn't a neighborhood. This is a neighborhood now. There's a farmers market here now. There's all of these opportunities, the gym behind us, the Apple store, all the activities that go on, but it's a neighborhood that also everybody in the world enjoys, whether you're going to a heat game or catching a cruise. And so, how do you kind of look at your business and not only think about obviously the people that are here in the neighborhood, but you know, you're in Miami World Center, the World Center piece is a key, you're sobering a global audience, correct?

How do you think about that in your business?

Yeah. So, I've been really fortunate. I've actually been staying in this neighborhood.

Oh, awesome. So, I'm getting a little bit to feel how it's like to live in this neighborhood, what it's like to do business in the neighborhood,

working, eating, playing in the neighborhood.

Yes. So, to feel all of that, it's kind of given me the the lens to how to navigate with, you know, the the prominade getting a little bit busier and all that kind of stuff. Um, but for us looking at being available for all those people that are coming in and some of those people are calculated and are able to plan ahead and make the reservation at Maple and Ash or book a private room at the studio

and then you know a place like Apart it's easy like you didn't plan ahead you're just walking through the heat game we're open ready for you and we'll make it a great time. Miami World Center is a great partner of the Heat and really focusing on people spending great time with their friends, family before and after the game. And both of your locations are amazing places to eat before or after the game. But then also the speak easy.

Yeah.

Tell us a little bit about that. That's going to be me and Manny's new favorite hangout spot, right? You know, so tell us a little bit about, you know, was that always in your plans?

Yes,

it was. Okay. Okay. Awesome.

So it was it's so the the speak easy, the lounge, we call it the studio. Um, it's an extension of Maple and Ash. It's one of those spaces where you can come in and get incredible cocktails. Yeah. Some light bites,

but the room is just feels so sophisticated.

I got to go check that room right now.

What I love about it is like it has the energy, but you still have some space where you can kind of relax and enjoy rather than kind of being jammed in somewhere. So,

I like the where it's located and how it's hidden. I enjoy the room and the vibe continues on with the rest of the vibe that's in there. Maple and Ash, but then like you said, there's space and you can kind of just relax, have a conversation. And I love how um inviting people are and not necessarily pushy to get over and flip over the table. Right. I think it's really nice to bring people there and to be able to have a conversation and enjoy the person you're with as opposed to being on this timer and now I've got to get out of this booth, this seat or whatever, so you can turn it over. And I think that that's really just awesome that you guys, you know, set it up like that.

Hospitality first.

Yeah. My brother, that's key. Let me tell you, I really congratulate you guys because what you guys have done here and I really all of our viewers and everybody is going to be listening to this. If anybody has not been to Maple and Ash, I mean, you have to come out here. You have to experience this place at least for one one time. I mean I mean for me it's one of my favorites. One of my favorites

and eight bar. But on top of that, top three restaurants.

Oh boy.

That's not Maple and Ash.

Yeah, that's not Maple and Ash.

Not Maple and Ash.

And also too, you're new to Miami. So, I'm interested in what you're trying since you are somewhat new to the area.

All right. This is good. So, I ate surprise. I found this place, Acabuko.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, sure.

Randomly stumbled on that one night. Was blown away by that. Great attention to detail. Food was really solid.

Great attention to detail. Yeah.

Yeah. Um,

so that's number three.

That's number three.

Number two.

Number two. Joe Stone Crab like on the beach, man. Like I can't.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When I'm down here, I need to find time to get there, right?

And whatever.

House put on the calendar.

Yeah.

I take my dad there every single time he comes to town.

It's undefeated.

It's special.

And give us your number one.

Number one, hands down, Maki Elena on the beach.

Really?

Ethan Alton.

Okay.

I know Mike Pillo very well. We grew up right by each other. Okay.

It holds a special place in my heart. When I first moved down here 15 years ago,

love it.

I lived south of Fifth and I drove past Maki Elena. I'm like, "What is that?

What type of food is I actually haven't been there."

It's a small Italian little spot right on Aan Alton. Handmade pastas. They've expanded now, so it's bigger. Every time we talk, you need a week. You need a week of just going every day to some place. I mean, you just got to, you know, ask for a whole week off. A lot of this show obviously is about the rediscovery of downtown, but Miami and the transition that Miami has been in is an awesome rediscovery moment for all of the areas in Miami. So, I really appreciate you bringing that up as a place that I haven't been to, but I need to check out.

Listen, we learn about restaurants here every time. And the one of the biggest things that we get from everybody, our viewers, is like, I tried that restaurant. I tried that because they like to get recommendations,

especially coming from a restaurant tour.

Coming from a restaurant tour,

that's one of my joys of when I'm down here. It's like, all right,

that's it. kind of jumble it up of where should I eat tonight? Yeah, there's so many options. It's amazing.

Danny, thank you so much, brother. We appreciate you coming on a day in Miami. And let me tell you, we will be there again in all your restaurants and all the speak easy. I uh start putting me down for next week.

Done and done.

Thank you so much, man. The happy hours are great. Please come to Maple and Ash. Come check out Eight Bar. We appreciate you coming down to Miami. More Midwesterners and New Yorkers in Miami, the better. We welcome.

I got a feeling he's going to stay here a little bit longer. Hey, the t-shirt is telling me he's liking it a lot, right? Can't wear that in Chicago right now. Uh, thank you so much.

We'll be back with our next guest.

Awesome. We are

And we're back, MJ. We're back. And we left the sweetest, what did she say? The sweetest for last.

The Pina Colada from the worldrenowned Museum of Ice Cream. A day in Miami, a day in Miami World Center. Pina Galada.

Hi. Thank you for Can I sing a little bit of the song? I don't know how she does it. keys. We keep that going for the keys.

Okay. Okay. All right.

So, to to my knowledge, uh, in Miami World Center, uh, the Museum of Ice Cream was one of the first kind of real ground flooror retail places to open. Can you just tell us a little bit about how successful you guys have been, a little bit about the history of the Museum of Ice Cream, and how you decided to get to Miami World Center?

Yeah. Well, the mis of ice cream started in New York City with a popup in 2016 and then we have been uh moving forward with different popup uh museums in the different cities. Now, Miami Museum is the museum number four and prior to that there is a flagship location in New York City. Yep.

Another one in Chicago and then Singapore.

Wow.

And then Miami. Yeah. And we are rocking and we're going to be opening three more museums shortly.

Okay. Awesome. How many people are you guys seeing a week, a day, a month? I know when I walk by there's always uh lines.

So, normally we normally we get around easily 17,000 people per month.

Okay. Wow. 70,000 people per month.

17

17 one about

I I was going to say I mean 70 is like Yeah. But but still 17 is 17.

Still 17 is a lot. That is a lot. A lot of people. It is a lot of ice cream to be

Yeah, it is a lot of ice cream.

Tons of ice cream.

I was going to tell you how's those people hands in that second. There you go. That's

But I feel like ours are really loud. No,

no, you There you go. That's what you need. That's it. Perfect.

One of the things that we talked about with Nitten and also obviously with Russell is all of the cruise ships and the travelers.

How what do you know what uh portion of your business is? People that are traveling. You know there's more families down here. Can you do you know anything about the breakdown?

We do. We do. Absolutely. We do receive a lot of people for the cruise lines. Yeah.

We do have a lot of local people especially when we open we were the new thing in town to go and see. We did have a lot of people. Not only people from Miami, people traveling from Tampa and Orlando to come and visit us. Wow.

Because of the name of the museum. And I will say that it's not only for kids. It is for kids and for adults guys. We have a full bar.

Oh yeah. with very timid uh drinks all about the environment of the ice cream.

What is this? Where I mean what's going on here? What's going There's a full bar there too.

Yeah,

absolutely. We do private events. We rent for companies.

I heard you have like a happy hour for later in the evening coming up.

We are having what is called the back backlisters. We are going to be launching that on February 12th this Thursday. And it's a pairing between alcohol, wines, and ice cream.

Oh my god, that is awesome. That is just

take me back to where did the idea for the museum of ice cream come from? You know

the museum live stream came from the idea of nowadays in the world we are all very connected to our cell phones and what we want they wanted the owners is to have that connection with the rest of the human beings. We are not only trying to connect you know the our scopes which is our staff with the visitors. We also try to strip between visitors and visitors. It's a connection place where you unleash your inner child and you have two hours of fun.

Right.

So, what is there to do for those people who don't know? What can you do in the inside the Museum of Ice Cream?

Well, you can learn about the

because you have a lot of like little activations, photo shot, photo spots.

We do have 14 rooms. All those 14 rooms are interactive. Sometimes they're animated by one of our staff members. Other ones they are self animated. And then you can learn facts about the ice cream or you can fly in a plane to a magic city called Frosty Land. There's a lot of There is a full carnival where you have all those kind of carnival games, all manual games which is pretty fun. I mean

So do you do you have that for like birthday parties as well?

We do have birthday parties. You can rent partially the museum for birthday parties. I mean and again not only for kids, we welcome a lot of adults. Yeah, it can be a lot of fun. I mean, I think that that's one of the interesting things about this area is that in Miami World Center, there's truly something for everybody. Families, kids, adults, uh, partners.

It's called the World Center for a reason there, MJ.

Everything is in there. And I think you also see that in the Museum of Ice Cream. I think, you know, I see a bunch of social media influencers taking the time to go there and take pictures.

We receive a lot of them.

You have families taking their friends. It's also a really great date night spot.

Absolutely. Come and spend the night at the museum.

Yeah. No way.

Uhhuh.

You can spend the night at the museum.

We don't really spend the night.

No, not the whole night.

We have some restrictions by the city.

He's already making plans.

Maybe I'll be the Valentine.

She has liquor. She has everything. I was like, you know, you have a little mini.

We have a special cult for Valentine's now, too.

Oh, there you go. What do you got?

I have a loveini.

Lovey. It's like a martini with love.

With love.

Love. Gentlemen, do not be like Eddie and not have your Valentine's Day plans already planned out. But

we will help him out with maybe something at the Museum of Ice Cream.

Okay, MJ just put on the tires and ran over that one.

He's going to help me out though. He's going to

Yeah, I'm going help him out though. I'm going to help him out.

Listen, you can go to the museum. I think

Come and visit us. Bring him.

I think I'll get a divorce if I tell my girl we're going to museum for my birthday. Sorry for for Valentine's Day. Have you been? You will be surprised.

I haven't been. I haven't. You got to check it out.

No, I haven't. I I know my wife. Well, everybody loves ice cream. There's a great opportunity to take photos and connect there. It's a really cool spot. And I think that, you know, as more people come to Miami, more people travel. We've uh done some studies at the DDA, there's more families that now live in the DDA district and live downtown than ever before. And this is a really, I think, great place and a great opportunity for them to spend some time with their little ones and their family, but also connect with other families.

Absolutely. I mean the goal here is to connect and have that closeness to all the human beings.

At what time do you guys open? And you say it's a 2-hour session?

No, we do. Well, normally the experience it takes between an hour and a half to two hours depends on interaction and then we open every day by 11:00 and depends of the day of the week. We close normally by 7 or 8:30 on weekends or sometimes we're going to be closing later on. Depends of the party that we are having.

Just depends what's going on. Let me tell you, I can I cannot wait to go. I have not visited, but I am going to go and I am so I love these things.

I've seen it all over social media. A lot of this is awesome. And again, this is what we bring to this podcast. We love because I'm sure and I and please comment. I know a lot of people say, "Oh, you're the only one who hasn't been. I've been there."

I want to know who hasn't been there. I really want everybody to go and visit this place because we love to get the feedback. I think that's so imperative that everybody comes and visit these places, especially down here in this whole Miami World Center.

A day in Miami, a day in Miami World Center. You can spend the whole day here. Spend a couple hours at the Museum of Ice Cream. Grab some food from one of the amazing restaurants that we've had. We talked about there's nighttime activities at not only obviously the Museum of Ice Cream, but also uh at the bowling alley. I think that you can really spin.

Where is the buyer on here? Where where to left?

It is here right in front of the Apple store. 851 Northeast First Suite 134.

You guys have a great location. That's a beautiful spot.

Listen, thank you so much. I cannot wait to go. I'm going to I'm going to go pass by now a little bit. I'm going to go and check it out. I'm going to go take a picture. Wagu ice cream.

No, not yet.

Working on it.

We're working on it.

But we have pñak ice cream.

Okay. So, our producers asking us, our our spectacular producer, Justin,

why don't you name us maybe your three top maybe dessert places? My goodness, these are places,

you know. Or maybe

can I say m of ice cream?

Yeah, sure. That could be your number one.

Okay, that will be number one.

Number two.

Number two, um I will say Balloon Bakery.

Okay, that's a good nice.

Yeah. And then I will go for you know the deserts at the buffet in the breakfast. No, lunch buffet in the Zuma. Oh, those Japanese. Yeah, those Japanese fetss are amazing.

You can never go wrong with Zuma. You can never go wrong with Zuma.

It's like a Sunday brunch or something or Sunday. Amazing. Yes.

And they have a great pairing of sake or wine. Champagne.

I like I like the sake.

Yeah, the sake. It's a good option.

Right over. Yeah, I know.

Zuma in the DDA district as well.

There you go. Thank you so much. We appreciate you passing by and we are definitely Stay tuned. I'm going to post a little picture over there. I'm going to go to the museum right now.

Okay.

And about and we'll be back. Thank you guys.

Thank you so much.

Okay. MJ, we got another one.

Yes. Welcome back. I'm excited about this one as well. We've got Ash uh here from

Timeux. Time Lux, which just opened. I was blessed and lucky enough to go uh

no relation to Maple.

Okay.

No relationship to Maple and Ash, but another great business in Miami World Center. I was blessed and lucky enough to go to the uh grand opening. Uh man, and it was just really beautiful. All the people you had out, but the part that really got me is your whole family and talking about this being a family business and your family coming to Miami. I thought that that was just a super cool story and I just want to give you your kudos for doing that and keeping the business in the family. Man,

before I say that, why was I not invited to this opening of this watch store?

I cannot invite you to every place that I go. Uh but I was a friend of a friend watching. We have a mutual friend who brought me along. I was the plus one. Yeah, I was the plus one. But Ash, could you tell us a little bit about Time Lux and a little bit about your uh family story and the business?

Yeah, definitely. Thanks for having me guys. Uh so just to tell a little bit about my family, I mean it's it's really interesting. So my family start is from India which is now became part of Pakistan. So they left and then moved on. Um so we've moved a lot of our life like my dad was born in Singapore. I was born in Africa. Um, we had to leave when the Civil War broke out. Moved to the Caribbean, started our business there again from scratch in 1989. It's been a lot of moving. It's kind of nice to be here in Miami now. I wasn't really looking to start a business here in Miami. Um, but what a great opportunity here at Miami World Center. I couldn't uh resist on it. So, we decided to start our family business here again after I've been in the business 26 years. My family 35 years in the jewelry business. We're starting with a brand new brand here, Time Lux at Miami World Center. What a great place to start in the city of Miami, uh the the heart of Miami, I would say, downtown. So, it's been really amazing to get this opportunity with some of these brands here that we're working with.

Um yeah, it's been a great start.

Yeah, man. You you you dropped a lot there uh from from your life story. How was that moving around so much and like leaving a civil war? I mean, that you know, usually people have one immigration story. You had multiple immigration stories to different countries.

You know, living in Miami, you kind of get that same type of story from I mean a lot of my Cuban friends. I have a good Cuban friend that actually his family moved from Cuba to Venezuela. He never thought he would have to leave again and then to Miami. So sometimes he goes,

"We may be back on both soon."

But he goes, "Hey man, your story is not that interesting compared to mine." I was like, "Really? I was born here, moved here, moved here, and I'm hoping this is it."

Yeah, man. You fled a civil war, which is that's that's what part of the Caribbean did you go to? So my parents still live in St. Martin. That's where we started from. And then of course we expanded to open businesses in Ruba, Bahamas, Cayman, St. Kits.

Yeah. Huge watch area. I mean a lot of people all for those watch people out there, you know, everybody tries to go and see they what can they get in these in the islands. You know what I'm saying? With the whole craze of the watches, everybody. My my fascination is is like um So your dad's the one that was this from your father or father's father?

No. So my dad and my uncle started first generation with $10,000 in the bank.

Wow.

Wow. And what what was it? All jewelry or just say we want to do watches?

No, actually it was all jewelry.

All jewelry.

Yeah. Watches has always been my passion. Not so much the

India. In India.

No, it actually started in St. Martin.

In St. Martin. Okay. But now at Time Lux, you could possibly go get a great Valentine's Day gift at Miami World Center because not only is there watches that clip now.

Yeah. Correct. So our our strength is is definitely the private label jewelry that we do. Diamonds, tanzanite, emerald, ruby, sapphires. That's what I saw nobody in Miami doing. Of course, the watches are a great addition. It's uh I would say 50/50 in our in our business. We do great brands. Omega, Brightling.

But you have all jewelry here.

We also have jewelry.

Oh, okay. Okay. I thought it was just watches. Okay. So, it's watches and jewelry. Yeah.

Watches and jewelry.

You need diamond sets for your wife? We're the guy.

Okay. All right. All right. I mean, I think, you know, can you talk a little bit about, you know, choosing Miami World Center for your business? You opened up, you've been open now about a month or change.

Two months.

Two months.

Oh, wow.

How has it been? How is it going? And, you know, who are you seeing coming into the business?

So, we see a lot of locals from the ones that live right here. Of course, I've also noticed that most of Miami still doesn't unfortunately know Miami World Center or hasn't been here. They've heard of it. We really got to get them to come down and that was the reason we had our grand opening event. I've had people that are true Miamiians that are born and raised here that were coming for the first time. Um I would say about a couple years ago I heard about Miami World Center and I I did a walk down because my office is at the Seabold building as well. I I did a walk down

after the Seabbo building. We did a podcast there.

Yeah, we were there maybe about two months ago. We were at the Seabol. But I mean also too another great hidden gym within the DDA district that's

due to be rediscovered and enjoyed over and over and over again. So I'm glad that you bring that up. Yeah, but that was I was there two years ago on the eighth floor. I heard about Miami World Center. I said, "Hey, get off your lazy butt. Go take a walk and see what's down there." Came here, there was Lululemon, Sephora, and Rayban. Apple wasn't even built yet. It was just a vision. And I got to give the guys credit that put this vision together. I think it's amazing right now, and I think it's going to be huge in the future. And I made a couple calls to a friend that knew uh the Moani family, got us connected, started the leasing process, and I mean, look at what it is today. I I think this is where I wanted our flagship to be.

And now you're here with a day in Miami in the podcast. Talk about

the day in Miami day in Miami World Center. And I'm glad that you bring up the the flagship because I think that that's, you know, just an important note that you decided to plant the flag here in Miami World Center, right? And I think that your story of entrepreneurship is a story of Miami, but also it's such a worldly story in the World Center. I think that that's again what makes all of this and hopefully what we're trying to get across so special and so unique from many other other places in the United States is you know all of these amazing visionaries, entrepreneurs coalesing and coming together in the DDA district at Miami World Center and I think it's something that for people to really come enjoy and hope that they come and shop you know at your store.

Yeah, definitely. I mean most of my career has been in the Caribbean where of course downtown is always where retail takes place. Yeah,

here it's different. You got a lot of areas, but of course this was the last I would say area that needed to be developed and this is the center now. Like I think going forward people are going to think of shopping. It's going to be downtown. I was on a plane coming back on uh Sunday and the lady in front of me was searching Apple and she was putting Apple Miami World Center as her Uber destination and she was still on the flight.

Wow, that's pretty good. I was going to ask you, what have you seen people come in and purchase? I know you've only been open for two months, but is there like some a type of product that people are asking more about that you see? I just curious to know the the the purchasing habits of people in this area.

So, definitely the brands pull people in. People come in for Omega, Brightling, uh Lon Jeans. We'll be adding Tag Hoyer in the future. We have a few other watch brands, Tisso, that's the NBA sponsor. People do come in for that. And once they walk around and see our private label, the Flexi collection or just our diamond studs, uh rubies, sapphires, a lot of them go, "Wow, I didn't know this. like I can't find this usually in Miami because you go to a lot of our competitors and it's just the similar watch brands or jewelry brands or you go to Design District, but now we have a variety of everything. So, a lady can stack her wrist with bracelets, uh, necklaces. So, we're starting to see that kind of flip a little bit. They're coming in for the watch brands, but they're also starting to see everything else that we do offer. I wonder I would love to know where else in the world within less than a few blocks can you get a burger, some coffee, your phone fixed, go to the Museum of Ice Cream Bowl, and get a brand new watch or a piece of

In what order are we going to do this?

In what? I think we got to go first to the watch place.

First to the watch. I would say I got I my money's I'm dropping it first in the in the jewelry store and then from there we can go to the rest.

We can go to the other place.

I'll take that. Don't worry.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Watch me eat.

Can you talk a little bit about maybe your future vision for the store? You mentioned some of the brands that you have in there. Maybe give us a little uh knowledge about maybe watches or jewelry that most people don't know. When we were at the Seabbo building, I think a lot of people really appreciated that kind of insider knowledge on the business, you know. So, what maybe hidden gems about the watch or jewelry business do you have for us that you think most customers don't necessarily know?

Like I said, I think this is a great opportunity. So, I definitely think we can add more brands, more jewelry to our mix. Um, I would love to see maybe about putting in some mono brand boutiques here in the future that can also tie into our our primary business, Time Lux. Maybe giving some of the brands, some storefrs. Uh, like see what's going on around in the area with the amount of buildings coming up. The population is only growing. Of course, I travel a lot of the United States. I think this is such a great opportunity coming up for all these brands to be represented here in downtown Miami. So, there's there's a lot of um I think there's a lot of opportunity. I have a great vision. I think 3, five, seven years this is even going to be much bigger.

Yeah, a thousand%. Uh, you know, obviously I'm not in the jewelry business. You being in the jewelry business for so long. I kind of wanted to get your thoughts on what you see with the lab grown diamonds. You know, that's just, you know, a lot of people are opting for lab grown diamonds now, especially for like engagement rings and things along those lines compared to uh real diamonds. you know, just kind of want to get your insight on that and what you see in the public.

So, I think that definitely comes down to the clientele. If you want a natural diamond that's taken hundreds of years, millions of years to form in the earth, uh, or you want a lab grown, there's I don't say there's a right or wrong. I think it definitely comes down to the consumer. It's it's like a watch brand. Do you want X, Y, or Z? Like it do you want a Brightling? Do you want an Omega? It's it's up to the client to finally decide. Our job is to definitely educate them on everything. It's similar to the natural in the lab.

Also, the value also of the

Yeah. Our business doesn't do lab grown diamonds. We only do natural higher quality 18 14 karat gold. But that comes down to each business is deciding how they're going to go forward. But at the end of the day, as long as the client makes an emotional purchase that they're happy with, Natural Lab doesn't really they're not going wrong either way.

Oh, so you don't see any difference in

No, I I think it comes down to the client. It comes down to

preference. I've been told I've been told that you can't even tell the difference, you know, like you need like a special machine to to see.

You can't tell the difference. You can only see it through machine. But I I tell people like you can eat lab grown meat or you can eat natural meat.

That's a good one. Comes down to that's a good comparison. I'm sticking with the natural meat not the lab grown one.

But at the end of the day it value also because what people understand that with the natural stone I mean listen

uh you have that you have an investment correct? you know the day tomorrow you don't know how life turns and you need to go ahead and and and

you get divorced

and and and well but you you have it you have the money the lab grown going to get you diddly

no the lab grown's fallen about 90% from what the original value first came out

hold this value so there that that's my personal view and I'm not I'm a frustrated jeweler but at the end of the day but um but that's a good that's a good question Ed and that's the fact of of of I think that a lot of people have that in their mind and I think A lot of, you know, the first time marriages, you know, wives want to, you know, you're going to propose to somebody, they don't want something that's lab grown. They want something that's natural.

No. I mean, a lot of our clients tell us, they tell their husband, "If you don't love me, don't buy, if you love me, buy me natural."

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you see a lot of people are like, "Are you on social media? I see a lot of these skits. I'm not sure if they're real or not, where people come in with a watch and they try to negotiate with you and say 10,000 or 12,000 or 125. Are you guys accepting? Do you guys take watches? Do you buy watches or

No, we don't buy watches. We actually only do new products. So, everything and we're authorized retailers for everything. So, we have MSRP.

Um, a lot of times what you're seeing on those skits are like uh from someone that might have bought a watch and then they want to they haven't worn it, flip it. Uh, I mean, that's a whole different ball game.

Yeah, that's not your business model.

No, Bris is brand new. Come by, be the first person to wear it, be the first person to own it, visit Time Lux. What's the uh Instagram?

It's uh Timelux Jewelers.

Awesome.

Are you getting people from social media in there or?

Uh yeah, we're getting social media.

Okay, good. Perfect. Well, I'm going to be passing by the store as well.

And being that you've been here, I guess now kick it to to Eddie, you know, if you want to ask him his, you know, favorite three restaurants while you think about that.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah. So yeah,

Ash, you know, they remind me from my show Pokemon, you know, used to be Ash Catchum,

you know. So, uh,

get them all watches.

You got to get them all. You got to get all the watches, you know.

Well, let me ask a question first.

Do you have a favorite watch that you own?

Uh, my favorite watch? Yeah. My Brightling guy that's in the store right now probably won't like me saying this, but it's it's Omega. I love the Omega Speed Master Moon Watch

because I mean if you hear the story of how they save those astronauts like uh I mean it's just a great made watch like you can't I love wearing that watch.

So the Omega save the astronauts. Can you give us the cliff notes on that story?

Oh yeah. Yeah. Tell me this tell people the story about that guy. They had to shut down all the the engine and the only way to

start from the beginning. There's a story that the Omega a specific Omega watch saved the astronauts. All right. So lead into it. What Apollo was that?

I don't I I don't want to give the wrong number. I think it's Apollo 11, but again, I don't want to speak.

Listen, at this stage, half of the people don't know which even it's Apollo. So, trust astronauts.

Yeah. So, there's no astronauts.

Yeah. But the basically they they had a malfunction and the only way for them to enter the back into the the Earth's hemisphere was through the watch timing and had to be exactly accurate and that's the way they got back in. And actually Nassau awarded them with the Snoopy uh which is the the Nassau's mascot. So the Omega is the only brand that can actually use a Snoopy in their watches which is one of their hardest watches to get. I mean we barely get one or two allocated a year. Yeah.

And how much does the watch like that go for?

Um the Speed Master the one that I have the the White Face Speedy they call it was 90 is 9500 but you can buy the the original one which is the Hesselite because they couldn't use sapphire crystal for the moon. That's like 7500.

Wow man that's a good that's not bad. That's a super story.

It's a James Bond watch.

The Omega is a James Bond watch.

Yes, sir.

I mean, Omega is James Bond.

Best things come out of that Omega watch.

I love it.

Thank you so much, Ash. That's

Oh,

you got to give us your top three restaurants.

Top three restaurants. Starting with number three.

Uh, Saraphina.

Saraphina. What do you like about it? Hey,

I mean, I just love the casual atmosphere. So, I'm I mostly go out a lot with my wife and two kids and my kids are younger. So, the three restaurants I'm going to pick are probably Yeah.

Number two,

uh, 60 Vines.

60 Vines. Keeping it in Miami World Center. I like that.

I like those. It's a nice experience in there. They're super nice experience. What do you like about them?

60 Vines. Great atmosphere. I mean, to be honest, the the help are just great. They're always super friendly.

They have great food.

Yeah. People don't People don't acknowledge

people think it's the wine, but it's actually the food.

It's very good food. And number one, I

I love Earls. Next door.

Earl is awesome. going you went all three world you've been working here

that's my team

that's your squad keeping with the home team Ash thank you man thank you for bringing your business down here thank you for keeping your business

a family business time Lux we really appreciate you man

thank you

thank you guys for having me

okay MJ we got another one this is this is this we're saving the best for last

I think we can we can say that we're saving the best for last

saving best for last

with my initial brother JC from Saraphina you know has uh many people from New York moved down to Miami. We've got a brand, a great restaurant that has opened up in uh Miami uh Saraphina. Truly enjoyed. They're here in Miami world tonight. So, a day in Miami, a day in Miami world. We got JC from Saraphina with us, man.

He brought us some pizza, but guys, we were hungry and we already ate that pizza. We would have shown it to you, but just know it was delicious. And if you bring your ticket from a Heat game and eat at Saraphina before or after the Heat game and order some other food, you get a free pizza. That's a great deal.

That's amazing, actually.

Win-win.

Well, listen, I want to welcome JC to the podcast. I mean, I I've had the pleasure of knowing JC for a while already. And he is one hell of an entrepreneur, one hell of a restaurant tour. So, you know, I'm I'm glad that he's in Saraphina. I know he's going to crush it over here because he's he's awesome in what he does and um I'm I'm just glad so I can finish this podcast and then go eat over there.

Keep it moving. Keep it moving.

So tell us about

the best dressed guest, too. No offense to a man.

You're making me blush, man.

He's a man, bro.

Making me look bad, man. Uh tell us a little bit about Saraphina.

Well, as you just mentioned, uh MJ, thank you for for having me. It's a it's a real pleasure and always hanging out with you. Uh it this is a concept that uh it made sense for where it is now and what who we are, right? The DNA of Saraphina is not I'm not looking for a Michelin star, right? I don't I don't need that. We we we need honest food. We need uh consistency. We need whether if it's Tuesday afternoon or Sunday brunch or Friday night. uh you can go with your lady or with your boyfriend and and and experience something that you know what you're going to get and I'm not going to break the bank. You understand? So that's the concept more or less of what we're doing right now. You know the obviously we have uh our sister restaurant in Aventura who's we've been there for about six seven years. It's been steady been consistent.

So we wanted to expand uh and really show this area of the city what Sarafhina is. you know, this is this is the second one, but we're thinking about the third and the fourth in your neck of the woods. Uh, and it's just something that made sense. You know, it this is we are the pioneers of this area. So, so there was nothing here as we all know a year and a half ago, two years ago, this was deserted, right? Uh, so we took the chance. We we know what we were doing as far as the the concept and the menu and the pricing and the beverage program. You know, these are things that we got to listen to to to your local residents. We have to listen to what they're looking for in order to to cater for them. And and what been what we've learned is that uh you know, these residents that were here that are here, they used to drive or take an Uber to uh to Bickl.

Yeah.

To dine out or to go to happy hour or or to enjoy something different and more. But now they now they can walk down the street. that could walk two three blocks and they have Saraphina, you understand? So, so that's really the niche and this is just the beginning. I mean, of we've opened Saraphina downtown seven months ago. So, still a baby, you know, it's still a baby. We we we have a good great relationship with with MJ and and the the the developers of the the complex. So, we're here for the long run.

We really appreciate that. I mean, I think that uh such a great business and great food. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, who you're seeing come in there? You talked a little bit about the residents that live around here. And now the DDA district and Miami World Center, you know, Nitton was on here and they've got a thousand, 2,000 more apartments and units coming up in this area. Over on 11 Street, there's probably another thousand some odd folks. So, you've got a lot of residents, but you've got a half a million people that get off cruise ships every single month in this area. And so I think that you talked a little bit about serving the local Miami community, but you're really serving the world being here in Miami World Center.

Uh 100%. And 100, you know, it it's uh it's an influx of tourism that again is just the beginning of it. We're just getting started in this place. So So with the hotels, what you know, we created relationships with the concier programs with the uh with the cruise lines that we have. So this is just the niche of it. This is not only this is the beginning. So, we're really excited. Uh we're going to be like I said here for the long run. All these towers and the the luxury residences that we have. Uh so, it's a win-win. You know, we just got to keep it, you know, our responsibility is to keep it consistent, make sure that when you walk in and the and the guest uh and the hostess greets you and you feel special, you feel at home, you feel warm and you get a good pizza, good pasta, a little truffle, a little caviar on the side. Uh, but you know, day in day out, we just got to be consistent cuz you

JC introduced me to this. What is the talked about this lemon pasta with the shrimp? That's my favorite, man. I don't know if you guys have had that. Well, you know which one I'm talking about. Yeah.

Yeah, of course. Yes. That's the farfalia alimmonia. Farfalia. Love that. Oh, anything with lemon, you know. Squeeze the lemon, baby.

Yes. It's got shrimp in it. Man, it is to die for.

We'll try we'll try it in a few minutes. But, uh, this actually that's a recipe that comes from New York.

So, if it's not broken, we we're not going to fix it. So this is just consistent on what it is and it's a beautiful al dente pasta.

What are the top three dishes you have right now selling?

Oh man. I mean honestly I mean

for appetizer it has to be that pizza.

Our you know I have some dishes that that are considered Italo American. You understand? So so you know we have that people are saying we have the best chicken parm in the city.

Oh gosh.

Here we go. Here we go. Tell me about that chicken parm because everybody tells me they have the best one. Talk. No, no, but this is I mean I I mean I'm saying this because I'm repeating what I hear.

Yes.

I I I'm humbled and I you know I know that we have a good product but uh the chicken parm is number one. Um after that I have a beautiful brand known pan seared uh very nice sauce delicate. And then I have uh the paparon is the number three.

One of my favorites.

So those three you can't go wrong.

No you're telling me the lemon pasta is not the not the number one.

Sorry to disappoint man. Sorry, that's that.

But it could be your number one.

It is my number one. That's what it is. Uh and we also have a great uh pastry program. So we we have homemade desserts.

Um you know, I put together we put together a great culinary team that is consistent, hardworking people.

Uh and they just do the best that they can. You know, it's, you know, a restaurant is, you know, we may be the face of the restaurant, but there's a whole team that's there to support. You know, JC, what I like about that is what you started talking about this, which is I'm not looking for a Michelin restaurant. You're looking for everybody and not everybody's looking for a mission restaurant either. Some people go to the mission restaurant, they stay hungry, but

yeah, that does happen,

but that's another that's another podcast. You know, um people are looking for the fact of, you know, date night, friends, uh uh family. I think Saraphina equals all those in in in one parenthesis. It could, you know, everywhere you go with Saraphina. I mean, I I enjoy I love Aventura. I love the one Aventura. Um, and the ones all over the places, too. I mean, I was in in in in Spain and there was I was just up in Marba. It was spectacular.

You know,

it's a strong brand. It's it's exactly that, Manny. It's it's it's you can go on a date night and and you know, you can be a big boy and order some nice wine. 100%

or you can do whatever else you want.

And you guys have a spectacular selections of wines as well, you know. But on that part, I know that you guys How important is it also to have the the the right produce and the and the right stuff for that those Italian meals?

Well, you know, it's uh

Where are you sourcing your your your your produce? And

Okay. Where where are we getting that tomato from?

That pizza was amazing, though. The pizza.

But you see, that's pizza. Not I'm not going to say the other people which you know what I'm saying. But that's that's pizza. That's that's that's that's that's

you're going to meet Jario in a few minutes.

That for me is all day.

The guy who's making my pizza has been making pizza since he was two weeks old. I'm telling you. Or from Napoli. He doesn't speak English that you said it from. Yeah. You said it all looking for.

But tell me continue back secrets. Wait, let me the ingredients. How important is that? That's that's 100%.

That's that's you know it it um competition. And especially in Miami, it's so aggressive, man. Like you if you mess up one day, it's going to cost you three weeks to recover.

You know, just from one day that maybe you service was slow and we overcooked the pizza or the drink,

especially with social media.

Exactly. No, everybody's a foodie. Everybody has power to go and you know, break.

I say that. I say all the time.

So, we have to be alert about that. And that's why I tell my service bartenders, my bosses, if you see something that doesn't belong or if you see something someone that is not enjoying themselves in any any type of way, we have to rectify it in real time because otherwise that's going to go on and you know it stays forever, you know, in these things. But um so we just have to match the produce. Uh I get the flour from Italy, we get all this handmade pastas, you know, because pasta is a pasta dish, right? like you know when we talk about opening another Italian restaurant we're thinking you know who needs another Italian restaurant but uh we do make a difference uh on the quality of the produce the quality of the pastas you know

even if you go there without me you're going to get a beautiful meal I don't have to be there just to you know

so so everything is well taken care of uh there's a sue chef there's executive chef there so there's a lot of eyes and hands on one plate you know and there's somebody there making a sauce at 6:00 in the morning, you know, and that's that's really the consistency. I don't buy anything made. We make everything in house.

That's that's the the restaurant business. There's an aggressive grind, you know.

You can't you can't you can't fool anybody anymore, man. You can't fool anybody. Everybody,

you know, for whatever it's worth, everybody has an opinion. Whether if it's bad, good, or ridiculous, you got to have to take it. You have to adjust. That's a business. You know what I'm saying? In your case, I think it's great that everyone who's been on here today has put you in the top three of their favorite restaurants. They have great opinion.

They better. They better. And we get discount.

I like you've been here for what, seven months?

We opened last week of May.

Last week of May. So curious to know how was the summertime? How was the end of the year? You know, cuz you're right in dead center of, you know, downtown Miami.

Right. Right. Right. Right.

So you have the tourism coming in and out.

Yeah, we do. We do. and we open purposely at the at the worst time of the year, right? Cuz we wanted to get all the uh

the kings

all the stuff that we needed to go sorted out. Uh so that was that was tough. That was hard. I'm not going to lie. But uh we made it through. We made it through. We went through a team and maybe two teams from front of the house. And uh I think it was the last week of uh of September where we got into a rhythm uh and seeing the same same the regulars at the bar and seeing people come back and calling us back or texting me, hey, are you in tonight or is this the girl working tonight? So we started building traction. We started creating some traction around the neighborhood. And uh eventually I mean I started uh because we have a beautiful PVR which I'll show you. So we started booking events right because the restaurant uh is for that the restaurant

you have a space for private events beautiful private room I have a you'll see but uh it's it's it's not a it's not a small restaurant it's a medium large size restaurant so I have to I have to keep busy because uh you know we just have to create momentum but uh after Thanksgiving the restaurant thank god has been doing very well so right now we're at the very good position

so I've been on a mission this whole podcast this whole morning to find a place to take my wife Saturday for Valentine's. Oh boy. Do you have space available for me this Saturday?

Do you have space? Yeah. Yeah.

I really want to say no. But yes,

you got a customer.

Of course, man. Of course. I got it.

There goes the surprise. Resolve it. Bro, you left the best for last. Surprise from

But listen, talking is Valentine's, by the way. Come on. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not I'm not I don't usually go out on Valentine's. Well, I

I cook I cook at home.

You cook at home?

I cook at home.

That's the way to go.

That's the way to go.

I may just go ahead and join Eddie and M. Let's see.

That was a beautiful night out. Night out.

Beautiful night out.

JC, so we we'll probably go.

We'll check it out.

Go ahead.

And the thing is, if I go in Mania, I can order the expensive wine, too.

And send that back.

I was gonna But beyond that, there's all these buildings here you're talking about. I'm curious to know, do you have these buildings ordering Uber Eats or do they actually walk down come pick up the food? Are they is that like ordering concept culture so crazy that they're ordering Uber Eats to this right here?

I'm I'm going to do you one better. You know what we've done? We created a QR code

that they can order directly from me without going through Uber Eats.

Wow.

Like New York style in New York. In New York delivery pizza, you call the restaurant or you and you got your guy right there. Nobody, right? Everything is QR code. You don't have to talk to anybody.

So, I'm doing that with the residents around. I like that.

And in the three in the three block radius, you can go into the art code and order whatever you want.

This is why Saraphina did good in bringing you here.

Thank you, man. Thank fee or there's no delivery fee or does that include a delivery fee or

dinner? Delivery fee. Delivery.

No, I don't do that. No.

So, you don't charge a delivery fee. No, you guys.

So, if you live in the 300, I can order online. a line straight through my system and then the the runner will wow man you're saving

when this guy comes out it's amazing the radius that's pretty smart but I mean I think that's about taking advantage of the opportunity that's about being a a forward thinking we had Russell Galbad on he talked about change right that's looking at the changing of times being a good entrepreneur and meeting that moment and saying we're going to take these orders we're going to deliver make it easy for people and connect with the community that everybody has built around here so I mean I really commend you on taking that on you know Russell mentioned everything is about change that's about changing to meet the demand of where the customer is which is hugely important in business maybe not even the most important thing

uh and it's really what you just said is the way my thought of of thinking is going back to basics you understand we we've been so you know like I'm not bashing anybody and I love all the other restaurants and I don't have a problem but we went too far like Miami the last two is it was out of control a little bit in what sense in what sense

in the sense that

I mean granted everybody wants to take a picture everybody wants to do this and okay cool that's the culture

right but so to go into those type of restaurants it's not for everybody not everybody can afford $800

but that's what I'm saying those are restaurants that people are just going to go once and done you don't want that you want people to come back you want people to come back

circling back to why we succeeded% so so that's what it is that's what we're doing it's simple I'm not I'm creating it. Nothing, dude. I'm going back to basics.

But, you know, now they say that Miami is the capital for the most expensive restaurants. You can't you can't go out here and eat and eat a good meal for under $250, you know?

I mean, that's a shame.

That's a very shame. Luckily, a day in Miami, we'll be doing something with the DDA that will show you where you can get lunch for under people complain about that. You can't go out and get a nice meal for under $250, you I mean, you know, and but I'm sure there's somebody, you know, mom and pop restaurants and things like that. Those I like to I like to People always ask me, "What do you like to go? What do you want to do?" Like, "What's your favorite restaurant?" And and it's the simplest things. Those are my favorite restaurants.

What do you think? I'm curious to know cuz you seem like you're somebody who's very in tune with what's going on. What do you think about the influencer foodie culture? Foodies coming to restaurants, taking pictures, posting.

Really? I want to get your

as a restaurant double edge store, bro. I mean, what can I say?

Turn off the mic.

That's all I'm going to say.

All right, we'll pass.

It's Listen, it's an adjustment. I have to go through an adjustment.

And if I if somebody's paying for this guy or this woman to come in and take a picture, make a video. If my reservations don't impact my reservation, then it's no good for me.

Yeah.

So, how do I monitor it? I monitor it because when I know where the post is going to come up and the story is going to come up and then I look at my reservations if nothing changed then what did I do

right

I mean but still I you know I still do it you have to do it have to do it I think it's good you know

this is why when I go I go to I'm not a food critic I just I like food I like restaurants and when I go and I do a video it's because I really like that restaurant I didn't get paid for it I didn't do anything for I just go and I post it if I like it I don't post it if I really like it I'll go ahead and He's not lying.

And I will go ahead and give you my double esses if I really like it.

He went to a new restaurant the other day. I just opened.

Oh yeah.

He he he did he loved the food, but he did not like how we were treated. And he goes, "I'm not doing anything here." He goes, "Let's go."

Well, because it's I'm not going to say the restaurant, but anyway, the it wasn't treated. It was just It's just opening, but they were like, "I don't know. It's so important to have people. I'm not saying it because I know JC and he's a great guy, but this is what you want in in in in restaurant, you know, ownership management. This is what you want. You want I've always said it's so important that when you get into restaurants that people, you know, come out, hey, how are you? How you doing? Even if you know them, don't know them. It's it's part of that is also the experience to the restaurant. Let me tell you, the food in this place was phenomenal. I I may go back. I'm going to have to. But it's phenomenal. But the the the manager person was like, you know, just

oh what? No, I don't think this and that. And I'm saying, you know what? Or Eddie goes to me, you you want to do I'm not doing a review. It just it's not in me. You know what I'm saying? You when you want to do something, you want to be happy with it. Natural, you know, natural. Everything that I've done in any restaurant, I've just done it because we're eating or was, "Wow, this is this is good stuff." and and you and you take pride in that because then when people come up to you and they tell you, you know, I know how you are. If you like that restaurant, it's because I'm going to like it. I'm not one doesn't do it because to your point, you know, the the the ones that you're paying the foodie people have to go out and do, which all due respect, it's great. But now all of a sudden, you know, all these people, you don't know what school they went to to be food critics,

right?

Yeah. Well, I think that that's, you know, why, you know, we we took the opportunity at the DDA to partner with you guys as trusted adviserss and people that are, you know, introducing people to Miami and having uh topics and the conversations to educate the viewers and people here in Miami that you really do care about. And so, I think that that's the importance and times have changed where everybody is a bit of a critic, but information gets out in a different way. and being able to give great entrepreneurs, great places like Miami World Center, like Saraphina, uh, the opportunity to, you know, introduce them to an audience that maybe hasn't come down yet. It's something that we want to do as a DDA because we think it's important for people to come and rediscover downtown, discover Miami World Center, spend some time at Saraphina, make it your new hometown kind of restaurant. And so, you know, we thank you for taking the opportunity to kind of talk to us and also the way you engage with the audience and how that's important to you. Customer service first type of uh vibe.

Yeah, absolutely, man. This is uh you know, the restaurant business is a it's it's a package deal.

So, I'm happy to be here. Happy to see you, Manny. Happy to see everybody.

JC, before we go now, everybody's going to want to hear this one with you, too. You got from the foodie guy, from the the management perspective,

I hate to put you on the spot, but what are your top three restaurants? Starting with number three.

Starting with number three.

I'll pick.

Listen, we know Saraphina is you. It's you. We got it. But let's say that you know you're somewhere else with the family.

I know my first my first my Oh, number three.

3 2 1 3 2 1.

Oh, got it. Okay, let me think about number

your go-tos.

I know, baby. I know. Hold on. Uh, all right. So,

so we can go eat.

How do you call this guy?

Mandolin.

Okay.

Mandolin is solid. It's It's always been something where

Over here somewhere.

Oh, Mandolin. Okay. Yeah, Mandolin.

Downtown.

Yeah, downtown. Um,

what do you like about Manderoline?

Mandolin is just the simplicity. The simplicity. They're not trying to do anything that they can't do. The presentation of the They have a They have a ice cream gelato dessert, which is just it's a fig homemade gelato, which is out of this world. It's just

number two. Um, number two is gonna is gonna is gonna shock a little some some people, but we've been shocked. Humos de ala.

Humos.

Humos de a. Is that per?

Never heard of this one.

Never heard of it.

Yeah. Yeah. It's in Hollandale.

Okay.

It's a Hollandale. And And it's one of those places that if you don't know what to order, once this dude is in your face, get out of here.

What type of food?

Middle Eastern.

Middle Eastern. Okay. I like that.

The Israeli Iraqi family.

Wow.

You go there often or?

Yeah.

I love that. You see, we're everywhere.

You always get something new.

And number one,

listen, I I went, you know, it's I got to go with Sunny's, man. So,

okay.

Hometown favorite.

Hometown favorite. That's all right, though. They do a great job.

Wagon, man.

The rolls, the location is beautiful. Sunny's does a great job. They used to be here in the district, you know, we were happy when they were here. Uh, but we wish them, you know, as much success as they have gotten. They deserve as they moved into the new location. And I I love that spot. I love that huge uh big tree, man. I love

Maybe you can help us cuz we haven't been.

Ah, I I got you. I know a guy.

I know.

He knows a guy.

Well, listen guys, thank you, JC. Thank you for coming on the podcast, my brother.

You're the man, man.

And and and stay tuned.

We're going to see if I'm going to set a now a trip, a day in Miami world. Thank you, guys.

Start happy hour early today.