South Florida real estate leaders confident about the market, despite pandemic
Despite the challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a panel of five South Florida real estate veterans said Wednesday they feel optimistic about the market.
The webinar, called “Lessons from the Past,” featured professionals who managed their firms during the Great Recession and are using those experiences to inform current strategies. On the panel were developers Adolfo Henriques, vice chairman of Related Group, and Masoud Shojaee, chairman of Shoma Group; Al Dotson Jr., managing partner of Bilzin Sumberg law firm; Bruce Moldow, CFO of Moss Construction, and Judy Zeder, Realtor-Associate with the JillsZeder Group.
The event was hosted by the Miami Herald’s RE|source Miami newsletter; a recording is available online at https://bit.ly/2KsJPZS. (Password: 7i*=$s7@)
Upbeat observations included:
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▪ Dotson:“The money will find the projects. There is always capital in the market.”
▪ Henriques: “People are moving forward. We have signed contracts that were in progress. We have continued to virtually close. The market has continued and we have continued to see demand...We believe we’ll see more people moving down from the northeast looking for the open space that we have here in Miami, even in our condominium residential buildings.”
▪ Moldow: “On the hospitality side, much to my surprise, we’ve had a number of clients who are eager to start projects in resort hospitality. I think business hospitality will be forever changed...On the resort side, we have several clients who are either starting projects or are trying to utilize what they anticipate could be shut down or slowed down to do renovation projects. There is an anticipation that the vacation market will recover. A lot of owners want to be ready for that.”
▪ Shojaee: “I am confident about the pricing and housing industry in Miami for a number of reasons...We sold one of our multifamily portfolios for $100 million. We didn’t give any discount; it was at market value. If the asset is good, the value is good, the location is good [then] there’s always a demand.”
▪ Zeder: “We have a lot of clients that are coming from the northeast and the midwest. A lot of these clients live in high rises. I will tell you that we are hearing from a number of them that they want green space and single-family homes. On the other side of the coin, a lot of them want to look at the condo projects once they reopen. The difference that we have compared to other parts of the country is that our developers here have used the balcony as becoming part of the indoor space.”
