Lessons - Building Miami | Gil Dezer - President of Dezer Development

In this lessons episode, you'll discover how to take bold steps in business, navigate high-stakes challenges, and turn innovative ideas into successful ventures. Learn about mastering crisis management, building confidence, and creating unique solutions to outshine the competition and drive lasting success. I see a lot of people that get into real estate, and they start very small, and they'll do fix and flips, or I'm not even a real estate guy, but I see what my friends do, and I see them operate at a certain level, or they do like Airbnb's, or they'll get so many multi-family. It seems like from the get-go, you really went for these home-run large projects. What enabled you? Was it the confidence? Was it the relationships? I'm not afraid to fail. I'll figure it out in mentality, because you went for these big projects almost immediately. You're building a build from the ground up. You're coming out of University of Miami at whatever, 25, 26. That's not a small thing. A lot of people coming at University, y'all buy my first house, and I'll fix it up, and I'll flip it any year and a half. You're like, no, we're going to do this enormous development. I got to say that a lot of the confidence came from my father, and he's confidence in me. And then when you sit there and do it on the job, it's not that hard. You figured out every, my job, what I learned is the developer's job is a problem solving slash putting out a fire's kind of guy. Everything that has to do with money comes to us because we have to pay for it. So there's a hundred ways to handle every situation, and I learned from, I also had great, I mean, great people working with me that I learned a lot from. I learned how to build from my architect, Charles Seeger. He taught me so much on the construction side. I had a construction manager, AC kid who was no longer with us, greatest guy ever. He also taught me a lot about construction. So I mean, you learn these things. You know, you see it. You didn't know how to identify it with terminology, maybe what you saw happening, but you see it. And so you learn, it takes a little bit to really become an expert. I'd say after the third building, I really became a construction. I still won't call myself an expert, but I know enough to be dangerous. I know enough where GC can't play with me, and they know that as well, because I've done this before. And so yeah, I guess I started with, they say the only thing harder to build in a hotel is a hospital. And so I guess I started with the hardest form of construction going, which it was difficult. There were nights and days and it was, it was, it was difficult. It was definitely difficult, but it was also figured out. You know, everything was a puzzle, figured out. I love playing puzzles. I love playing cards. I love trying to figure things out. And as a matter of fact, that's where my father and I, where we split, you know, responsibilities, you know, at the time, we would say that he's the captain of the ship. He'd say, hey, we need to get to here, but I'm the navigator. I was like, I figured out how to get there, you know? And so that's that's kind of where we did. He said, hey, we, he was one who started the, the condo hotel partnership with these guys. And then inherited to me, I never thought that the condo hotel constant was such a great business. Is it why don't we just sell condos? People want to buy condos. We were sending there in convincing people that they want to buy a condo that they're not going to use and rent it out. And then in reality, it's a great investment. It's a great thing to own. If you're not, if you're planning on coming to Miami less than a month a year, but, um, but it was just a difficult sell because it was a new type of product. And we got to teach people how it worked and explain to them the revenues and the splits. And then you always have these naysayers. Well, what if my room's not going to get rented? What if the hotel doesn't work? By the way, you know, knock on wood. The hotel's been running since 2002. So we're 21 years. And, and it's doing unbelievable. I mean, the rates that we're getting today are four or five times what we thought we're going to get back in 2000. And so, um, you know, all the stories we told people are going to rent for so much. And that, it's all true. You know, it all came true. And, and, and the rent will work. And, and, and people are happy. I got 398 owners over there. All happy. All getting checks every single month for the last 21 years. Um, it's separate. We go, but we had an issue, and we'll talk about it. Um, so we'll talk, well, we can, that's another crisis. We'll go, we'll go into that because that's obviously a massive shift in, in the South Florida environment, and the people that moved down here and the money that came down here. Anyway, yeah, go ahead, sorry. No, so, um, so, so, so I mean, it was selling your condo hotel back in 2001, 2002, which was a tough sell. We went into the condos. The Trump palace from rail now used, I was selling condos with hotel services. So I was the first guy to really sell the hotel lifestyle in these condominiums where you can order, you know, a bottle, a bottle of vodka from the hotel, and they'll bring it over three o'clock in the morning, or, or order room service to your apartment, or have your, your full apartment catered by, by the hotel chef. And, and so we were doing that as the first one, definitely for all these hotel chains, got into the management, the Ritzcrawl, it was the same region as the, of the world, you know, um, that's so before they even got in there, we, we kind of created that concept. And it, and it stemmed really from me being a New Yorker, and, you know, you need a pack of cigarettes in three o'clock in the morning, you can call bodega, it was there in five minutes, you know, and I said, how can we don't have that here, Florida? We'd have to get in the car, go to the gas station, if it's open, you know, so I said, Florida needs that kind of Miami needs that kind of, you know, New York, and it's like, well, and sell, we sold it as part of the package you bought in the, in the condos, your full access to the hotel, to the bars, to the beach, to the spa, et cetera. We still have a, and I still put spas in my buildings, but we didn't staff them with masseuses or with the, you know, the, the people who do the, the facials and all kinds of, the idea was it's in the hotel. When you want it, you just call them right over, they walk next door, and they're there. So they, they're not sitting there on the association's dime, swaddling their thumbs and costing money to the association. So the concept went crazy. Every, I mean, we sold these buildings out textbook, you know, where, um, I sold out even the Trump Royale 384 units textbook sold it out, but then we sold it out in 2006, 2005, 2006, built the building that was ready. I'll never forget this. It was 2008. The building was ready. I sent out closing notices on a Monday and on Wednesday, Lehman Brothers claps. And we're like, holy shit, what's going to happen now? And that's when the struggle happened, you know, and that's where I think really separated the men from the boys back then. I had 384 units at Royale that I think about 60 closed at 320 to sell. I had 890 units that Trump towers were like maybe 150 closed and we had to buckle down and start selling. That was it. I mean, I went and I personally got on the phone with every single one of my contract holders. A guy had a $3 million apartment with with a jet. That was the problem here. The real problem back then was everybody put 20% deposits. So he had a $3 million apartment with $600,000 deposit. I'd say to him, hey, buddy, listen, don't lose your deposit. I don't want to take your $600,000. Well, let me apply it to something for a million bucks, you know, we used to be a million five. We took prices down to a million. I applied it to the 600,000 and he would come in close. And that's how I was negotiating one by one by one by one with 800 people trying to get in close. A lot of them just said, screw you on and try and get my deposit back and went to a lawyer. Then I was negotiating with a lawyer and who, you know, I really learned what the term of of, you know, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. You know, I took the lawyer to lunch. I said, don't look, you know, you and I we're going to be here after the fact these clients are here and today gone tomorrow. We need to work together. And, you know, I'm not going to mention his name, but he was, I'm screwed. He was learning through his clients over the bus to make a fee. So good. So it all, you know, but this was about getting in there myself, not listening to a sales director, not listening to people getting in there myself and making the calls myself and meeting with the people myself. And I really got my hands dirty in the trenches, negotiating with the banks, negotiating with a, you know, I don't know if this is good to say on a, on a, on a public call, but negotiating with a bluff of, hey, take the keys back. I would have never given you the keys back, but I always had to say, hey, he could take the keys back as my, as my out. And so that's how we negotiated. We got good terms that were great for that. Listen, they got paid back, you know, nobody, I think I got paid back in full. So everybody else who was discounting loans, 50%, 60%, I walked on water when I got these guys back, all their money, 100% of mine is the interest because they offered it back to me if I paid them back in time. So long story short, I mean, you know, I was the only guy who paid back loans in 2001 when we, at that time, we're sitting there all looking at each other saying, I was selling at a thousand bucks a foot, I just lowered my prices down to 500 foot construction costs are even higher than that now, you know, post, post crisis, everything changed. How am I going to sell the same exact 2,000, 3,000 square foot unit in the same market when I got my own product competing at less money. So, you know, we all look at each other, say, it's just simply not going to happen, you know, so we said, let's change the game. And that's when we've heard that Porsche was looking for somebody to do something with and we were able to link up with them. As a matter of fact, we linked up with them already in 2007, we signed the agreement with them in 2007 when we saw the world was going to continue forever. And when the crisis happened, we agreed to put a stay on the agreement that bought us a few years. But in that time, we got to play, you know, we were playing with the architects, you know, we weren't rushing to do something. And that's what gave us the time to figure out how to make this elevator. Everybody was not busy. Everybody meeting in the construction world from the elevator departments in Miami, they weren't reviewing plans because nobody was starting new projects. So, I had everybody's attention and I got everybody's excitement and I got everybody's buying on this thing, you know, this car all of it was a real crew to get done because it was more knows than yes is to get it done. And so, I got everybody's buying on it because they weren't busy and they love the concept and we came in there politely and addressed every single one of their concerns, but by far more than they ever expected. And so, and that's how we came up with this concept. And then we took to the market and it was very interesting. We started, you know, that we went to the city to get the building approved as a site plan approval. And was there before the elevator concept or was that as we were figuring it out. We figured out more or less how to build it. We didn't figure out who's going to build it. It was in the plans. We had renderings done with some virtual realities done. And we were code naming the project was built on the site that was called Golden Nugget. So, we code name our projects by the old site just so, you know, it doesn't get out in the press, etc, etc. The architect left on the plans portion design tower when he submitted it to the city. And somebody in the press picked it up and it made front page of Yahoo autos on Yahoo at the time. I don't know who usually I won't need more, but Yahoo at the time. Look, and it went crazy. The phone started ringing. And I want to buy, I want to buy, I want to buy. And we went ready. All we had was a set of plans and then approval at the city. So, we went ready. So, my salespeople said, I have people. I said, your people just want to see what this is all about. They're not for real. They just want to show and tell. I said, if anybody really, really, really wants to buy it, you know, like this, it loves it so much. Show me that they're that interesting. Give me a check for 100,000 out. We'll put it in the scroll and I'll sit down with the personalings and show them. We got 34 checks. 34 people stepped up for 100,000 dollars site on scene. I had meetings with them. I had to run to the post design store. I said, I'm going to, I'm going to have a meeting with this guy and he's going to walk out with a, with a, with a, with a zerox. So, I ran to the post design store, I bought some sunglasses and pens to give him his little gift as they walk out. And, and, you know, and, and we sold 34 people's site on scene without even knowing they just love the concept of the owner. And then we opened up the sales office and that was it, you know, I, I thought it was very important to show how the cars communicate with the unit. So, we built these little dollhouse marketas, you know, like with little scale models, but they're a dollhouse scale models. And, and they really help, like, you know, show the picture. They really helped kind of place the client in the unit, show them, you know, how the car communicates with the living room, et cetera, et cetera. And we had some great videos on, on how the elevator was working. And our competitors were so scared. I'll never forget, there was this one jerk from the building next door who kept on telling people, oh, you're going to want to go to the opera night and the car elevator is not going to work and blah, blah, blah. And that's, and that's how they were trying to sell their projects, not, not by selling their project by, by scaring people into art. And, and then so this, the, the buyer would come back, oh, he said the elevator's not going to work. I said, well, you know, that's him. What it is, right? And then, and then I made a point because that really upset me during the construction. I made a point that when the building was open, I may, I, I, I had, we had our opening remarks and everything else. I had two thousand people there. We opened the building. Alicia Keys came to sing. It was a big deal. And I made a point to say, you remember that guy and everybody who was talking about, and I'm not going to mention his name here, but everybody, I just remember that guy who was telling everybody these elevators aren't going to work and this building is not going to work. I said, who's going to listen to that idiot now? And, you know, that was, you know, so it was, it was, it was almost like, you know, I got my revenge by, by, by building the building properly and making everything work the way I promised it to. And good. And discrediting, discrediting my competition along the way. Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.