Why New Yorkers Are Flocking to Miami This Week for Art and Real Estate
It must be more than mere coincidence that this year’s Art Basel coincides with Bisnow’s 4th annual South Florida Residential Forum on Dec. 3, this Thursday at the Miami InterContinental, starting 8am. Among our panelists will be some of the staunchest supporters of intermingling art and real estate, including keynote speaker Related Group president Carlos Rosso.
Carlos tells us that Related is working harder than ever to turn sculptures, paintings and other art into centerpieces of its burgeoning portfolio, which most recently has included the Auberge Beach Residences in Fort Lauderdale and a Paraiso Beach Restaurant in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood.
“We’re trying to do whatever we can to incorporate great art into all of our projects and there are a lot of different elements that go into the selection process depending on the scale and price points,” he says.
“When it’s outdoors, it’s a way of giving back to the city and for residents it’s a way for them to add meaning to the building because when you pass through a lobby and see beautiful works of art it helps get the day started on the right foot.”
Indeed, Related—which is headed by veteran collector Jorge Pėrez—has significantly bolstered Miami’s recent groundswell of real estate interest among art lovers, particularly foreign buyers and New Yorkers who have long had close ties to South Florida.
In addition to owning a collection of around 2,000 works of art, the firm two years ago hired Patricia García-Vélez Hanna, formerly director of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in Miami, who now oversees efforts to commission and purchase site-specific pieces for Related’s projects.
Another major catalyst, meanwhile, has been Jessica Goldman Srebnick, who became CEO of New York-based Goldman Properties in 2012 after her father Tony’s death, and has helped transform Miami’s once-neglected Wynwood neighborhood into the world’s largest outdoor art museum, where she’s curated artists like Kenny Sharf and Shepard Fairey.
“People look at Wynwood as almost a case study on how to integrate art and community and using art as an igniter,” Goldman told Bisnow in May. “Everyone wants part of the action.”
And that’s precisely what panelist Scott Leventhal— fourth-generation developer and co-founder of the Trillist Cos in Atlanta—is planning to do with YOO at Metropica, a 28-story, 263-unit condominium in Sunrise that broke ground in late October. He says that art will be front and center as his company makes its first foray into the South Florida market, which is already 50% pre-sold and slated for completion in summer 2017.
“It’s one of the primary points of connectivity where we seek to blend international and local design,” says Scott. “While it’s a little bit early in the process to have made final selections in terms of specific pieces, I can tell you from a big-picture standpoint that we’re looking to support up and coming local artists.”
Of course, not everybody agrees when it comes to the importance of site-specific art. Dezer Development CEO Gil Dezer, who will also be on the panel, says amenities like the Dezervator—a state-of-the-art automobile elevator system that parks residents’ cars next to their condos at the almost completed Porsche Design Tower on Sunny Isles—will be the major draw.
“We said let’s make it about cars and giving car lovers an extra level of security by bringing residents directly up to their apartment so that the owners can see them from their living room. The glass partitions will be works of art themselves.”
As Scott sees it, there is still plenty of room for both. “I don’t know why a building can’t have it all,” he says. “Art has the ability to leave lasting impressions that are otherwise typically forgotten in your typical garden-variety amenity.”
To hear more about art and real estate, please join us this Thursday for Bisnow’s 4th annual South Florida Residential Forum at the Miami InterContinental, starting 8am. Register here.
