Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Lessons - Building Miami | Gil Dezer - President of Dezer Development

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Lessons - Building Miami | Gil Dezer - President of Dezer Development · Success Story with Scott Clary

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