He backed the Tory Burch fashion label. Why is Chris Burch investing in Hialeah?
.jpg "Chris Burch, 68, founder and CEO of Burch Creative Capital, agreed to become a key financial backer and partner in Factory Town in east Hialeah.")
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Hialeah gets hip
Buoyed by developers such as Arva Jain, who is converting warehouses into an entertainment venue, Hialeah is becoming a place to see and be seen.
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Christopher Burch, the uber wealthy entrepreneur who helped launch the Tory Burch fashion house and one of the world’s best and remotest hotels, early on recognized the value, potential and undefinable allure of a place possessing history and architectural rawness.
For his very first venture, Burch, who grew up outside Philadelphia, bought and renovated an old warehouse in the nearby decaying mill town of Conshohocken with his brother, to serve as headquarters for their Eagle’s Eye sweater and clothing brand, a startup later sold for $60 million.
In the early 2000s, Burch backed Argentinian artist and designer Alan Faena in converting a dilapidated grain warehouse on Buenos Aires’ abandoned Puerto Madero docks into a luxury hotel designed by Philippe Starck, paving the way for the district’s transformation into the city’s vibrant nightlife capital.
Then, in 2012, fresh off selling his share of the apparel brand he had launched in 2004 with then-wife, Tory, for $650 million, he bought a rustic surfing lodge in the far-off island of Sumba, Indonesia. He and a partner spent $30 million to turn it into a laid-back yet luxurious resort, Nihi, recognized by Conde Nast Traveler and Travel and Leisure magazines as one of the very best in the world for several years running.
So when Miami developer Avra Jain, known for her knack for identifying and revitalizing undervalued historic properties, told him about her latest and most ambitious venture — the conversion of a six-acre former mattress factory in an old Hialeah industrial district into a music, arts and entertainment complex called Factory Town that would preserve the site’s weathered, ramshackle bones — Burch listened. And he liked what he heard.
Burch, 68, founder and CEO of Burch Creative Capital, agreed to become a key financial backer and partner in Factory Town. He told the Miami Herald why in a phone interview from the Caribbean.
Q: How did you connect with Avra Jain and her partners in Factory Town?
“A guy in my company introduced us. I met her and talked to her. She’s incredible, by the way. You could just tell she’s full of creation and vigor and passion and integrity and hard work. She understands budgets and collaboration. I hope to be a great partner to her.”
Q: It’s not easy to explain what Factory Town is. There is no master development plan. What appealed to you about backing it?
“Whatever project I get into, I don’t want it to be normal. I looked at that Factory Town and thought that could be the start of something very unusual. I can feel the energy of it, the way it’s constructed, the people and the location. I don’t know of another place that’s quite like it.
“When you walk into Factory Town, it feels like you’re taking a bit of a journey. When you walk through those gates and half the buildings are half torn down, you are going through a piece of Hialeah’s history and you feel those walls. We live in a world where buildings are so often just buildings, so how do we elicit an emotional response?
“I attended a music event at Factory Town ... and I was just blown away. I thought, this is such a great feeling.”
Q: How do you see the future evolution of Factory Town? How can you redevelop without losing the raw, open feel that attracted you in the first place?
“We look at it as a kind of experience. My vision is a place where people can go, where the entertainment is amazing, where we can build office space for all the people coming in, and we can bring in restaurants and music and do it in a different kind of way where we’re part of the community. A cool space with cool people.
“I’m also very obsessed with this idea how we work out and how we think about cities. We can have gyms and outdoor pools and have industrial uses and bring in jobs.
“How we think about what the future of Factory Town is, it has to be organic. Just bringing in those trees (Jain has brought in a range of mature trees rescued from development projects around South Florida) has made the place come alive.
“It has to be real, it has to be authentic. It doesn’t have to be programmed. Creativity comes out of a group of people. It has to be done with integrity and taste.”
Q: How long do you envision being involved in Factory Town?
“I work with my projects in 10-year spans. We’ll move as fast as we find interesting concepts. We’re just getting started. What we’re doing there is kind of crazy. It’s weird. It works. This one, it’s very important for us to stay pure. I think what we’re going to do will make the neighborhood a better place.”
