Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Luxury Living Redefined With Gil Dezer

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

In this powerful episode of The Determined Society, Shawn French sits down with Gil Dezer, the visionary behind South Florida’s most iconic luxury towers. From Porsche Design Tower to the new Bentley Residences, Gil shares how determination, disruptive innovation, and fearless thinking shaped a real estate empire. If you love luxury, grit, and next-level living, this conversation is a must-watch. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Message privately with everyone. Learn more at WhatsApp.com. We were actually approached by Porsche Design. At first, we said, well, what does Porsche have to do with real estate? So we had a few think tank sessions, and we said, well, let's make the building for guys who love their cars. I'm the only guy who can actually bring in passengers in the car. What I've noticed when I did Porsche design tower, people are afraid of new things. The reaction to the car elevator then, it was strange.

It's amazing how the human automatically goes to the negativity. It's a freaking elevator. It goes up. He goes down. Sean French, what up? Let the pain inspire me. I put my all and everything I'm doing. Up until it's done, I'm me for the entirety.

I'll put it in overtime. I'll be working. Just know I'm a go for mine because I earned it. They watch and I know it's time. I confirmed it. A whole society determined. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode.

I'm your host, Sean French. Today I have with me an amazing man, a businessman that's changing the face of South Florida of Living, the president of Desert Development, Gil Desert. What's up, baby? Hey, how you doing? Good to be here. Hey, man. Good to have you. You're doing so many amazing things. It's like, you know, I live in Florida, right, on the West Coast and go to Miami often with the family. See, all these beautiful buildings, right? All these cool things on the ocean front. And I never really know who's behind him. But now I'm sitting with the guy, the man that is responsible for these beautiful things. So I'm super excited to have you on the show.

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Hey, heck yeah, man. Heck yeah. So listen, for the audience listening that may live in Iowa or California, that doesn't know much about you or desert development, can you give them a little background on what it is that you do? Well, desert development is we like to consider ourselves the foremost best real estate developer here in South Florida. We are not the biggest per se, but we build the highest end quality products and buildings primarily on the best locations in Miami. from anywhere from downtown to the ocean front, including Midtown, several other sites, where our niche was that... So, you're about to make a trade based on a friend's text. But which you do you listen to?

Is it, we could buy a house in Toulou? Get optioning those options. We could lose everything. Or let's do a little research. Get your head in the trade and make the investment decision that's right for you. Learn more at finra.org slash trade smart. I'm one of the few developers who don't have the ego that needs to put his name on his building, so I don't mind having other brands on my buildings. And we started that off in 2001,

with our now president, Donald Trump. We had a tremendous success with Trump towers. I built six Trump buildings here on the beach. Over 2,000 units, Trump units. Between 2001 and 2007, 2008, we got caught in the crisis like everybody else did, but we were the first ones to be able to pay off all of our loans through selling units. And that really paved the way for us to do a lot more new business and everything worked out. I mean, if you Google it, you'll see in 2011, we paid off $475 million of construction loans by selling units naturally. And we invited Donald Trump down and we did a mortgage burning ceremony at the Trump Royal. building. It was very nice. The mortgage burning ceremony. That's pretty wild, man. At that time, I mean, if you remember 2011, it was a disaster. And everybody was dying, left, right and center. And we were the only ones who were doing well. So we wanted to make it known. And we made it known. And what that did was open the door to many, many other opportunities for us. We had banks started calling us to help work out some of their bad stuff. And so we were able to take that over

and made money with those things. But it also paved the way for me to get the first construction loan post-crisis on the Porsche design tower. That was in 2012. So we started that in 2012, finished it in 16. And then I did the Armani Casa afterwards. In between, I'm doing Baccarat Tower downtown. We did the, what's it called the, in Midtown? We did the hide in Midtown. Right now have a project up in Hillsborough with Rosewood. So we're doing a Rosewood Residences in Hillsborough. So we have a lot of plate and we have a pipeline of many more oceanfront projects to go as well as we bought the intracostal mall here in in north manoe beach which we got zoned for 2,000 units eight buildings

500,000 square feet of retail massive projects so we've been working on that daily that's that's that's a big logistics thing so um so the answer is if you don't know who i am now you do i love it no thank you for that you know always like the guests to go through a little bit about their background and what is they're doing to give the audience more context coming from my guess. The one thing that there's many things that as you're going through that are that are hitting me, but the one that I really want to focus on is your ability to, like you said, drop ego, right? And these brand partnerships are massive. So how, there's not a lot of developers, like you said, that are okay with not having their name on the building. So how did you

how did you work your way through that? Because to me, that is genius and it's disruptive, but it is also necessary. Well, we started here in Sunny Alice Beach in 99 ourselves, meaning our own project. And it was taking a bit to get some traction. Sunny Alice Beach was not the desired spot back in 1999, 2000. There were still lots of hotels here. There was a little retail to speak of. It wasn't the greatest place in the world like it is today to live.

Don't forget 25 years of best, so everything's changed. So when we started, we needed to kind of put our mark on the map here, and we found that the Trump organization was looking to do something. Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door, expertly cleaned and folded, so you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you. Like T-time U. Or this T-Time U. Or even this T-T-Time.

you said you hear about Dave or even tea time, tea time, tea time you. Hmm. So update on Dave. It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rince, it's time to be great. They were actually about to sign a deal with what is now continuum on South Beach. And we stole them away from the continuum project saying, look, we could do more than just two towers here.

We can do all these extras and Sir Trump like that. And he loved the location. And so that's where we sign up. with them. And what I realized was branding brings you a level of, of awareness that you cannot buy. You know, we were getting, we were in the press everywhere at the time. Trump was on television every Wednesday night as the apprentice. So we had our own, basically our own advertising Wednesday night for an hour. And it was, and the press and all the PR that we got out of it was something that we just couldn't have bought, you know, and if we would have tried to buy it, it would

It cost, you know, tens of millions of dollars. So it was easier for us to go to this licensing route and getting all the attention and credibility from that way and really putting Sunny House Beach on the map when Trump came down. And like I said, we did six buildings, it's 2,000 units and it worked well. And so when I saw that that was doing well, then, you know, brands started coming to us because we were the only ones doing it at the time. You know, Trump was the only brand on a condo. Hotels were starting to get into it, but they were, they didn't know how to. Each conversation I had with the hotel brands was difficult. They wanted to create their brand standard, and they didn't know how to do that in a condominium.

But they've since figured it out. But so when we started talking to other brands, and we were actually a Porsche approached by Porsche design. And at first we said, well, I'm a Porsche fan. I love it. It was my first car. I had a Porsche 944. But I also didn't. It was a big disconnect for me.

What does Porsche have to do with real estate? So we had a few think tank sessions and we said, well, let's make the building for guys like me, for guys who love their cars. And my personal apartment, I built in the Trump Palace building. I did something that nobody else does. I took the first three floors of the building and I made like a townhouse there in the building. And I have connected to the garage. So I have 29 car garage attached to my town home in the building.

Everybody who comes to my house, they drive in through the garage. I walk right into the apartment. I don't go through the lobby. I don't go into an elevator. I don't. And everybody's like, oh, wow, that's amazing. The level of privacy you can have, pull me into your own house without having to see a valet, security.

So that was the inspiration of the Porsche Tower. I said, let's bring away for everybody to bring their car up to their unit, not have to go through valet, not have to be in the elevator with people. And that's really what the net result of it. We did it initially because I said, how cool it would be to have your cars in your living room, right? And that was the initial concept. But the buyers bought for the privacy aspect, believe it.

A lot of the buyers said, oh, we can come and go without asking for assistance, just like a single family home in the sky. So, yeah, I mean, that tower, you know, what for the audience, he's referencing the deservator, right? So literally, you, you, you, you, it's, it's registered with that deservator. So it'll read your car plate, correct. And then it brings you in and then it takes you up to your residence and parks you in the living room. And the reason why that's important is, as you mentioned, the privacy, there's some

high-profile people that live in this building. And like, look, if they want to go get a coffee in their robe or whatnot, they get in their car and they just go. They don't have to deal with that kind of stuff. So that's, that's disruptive thinking. That's amazing. And Morton's rather, specifically coffee, you can have it delivered to your apartment room service from the restaurant downstairs. So it's exactly it. You know, who wants to get dressed up to just have to leave the apartment for two seconds or whatever the case is to run outside. You know, it's, it's like a single family home. You just jump in the car.

You go out. You don't have to ask anybody. You don't have to call a valet. You don't have to wait for a car. You know, anything that stuff. So it's, it's, we change the way people live. And we did it with a cool factor in mind. But really what the net result was that people really enjoy the idea of being a little

come and go as it is. And of course, you know, with making these, these apartments being sky homes, we have everything that you would have in a typical single family home. So I'm the only developer who puts swimming pools on every single balcony. Nobody else has done that in Miami. I don't know why. But I'm the only one who's done. They're expensive.

That's probably why. Probably. Yeah, probably. I mean, if you think about it, it adds another almost $100 a square foot to the unit in cost. But it's worth it. I think it's worth it. It makes the product that much better.

So, you know, we're not selling, we're not the cheapest guys on the street, but we're also not the most expensive. but we give a lot of value for what you mind. It just seems like there's more of an experience, right? I mean, if you're going to live premium, isn't it the largest oceanfront property in South Florida? Well, this one, no. I'm the largest oceanfront owner in South Florida. But this is one single property is a two and a half acre site.

It's big. It's not tiny. Yeah. The thing that I really enjoy about this is from an outside perspective, Gil. Like, you're in it, you're building this. You understand why. but for somebody like myself that's on the outside, there's so much value that is built in

and really kind of points of like in awe of what you've created with that Porsche Tower now doing it again with the Bentley residences, right? Because there's going to be a deservator in there. Like that experience to me is just, I look at it and I'm like, does this guy really understand what he's doing? Like, and I don't mean that in a condescending way.

I mean like the, like how big it actually is. I understand. My question is how come the world hasn't seen it yet? You know, I went and spent millions of dollars patenting this system. I'm the only guy who can actually bring in passengers in the car because I took, I did take an automated technology, something that's been automated parking technology, which has been in existence for many, many years, but I adapted it to have a human inside the vehicle. And so there's a lot of creature comforts and safeties and things like that that have to be done.

And, you know, and from all those people out there on the business side of things, if you want to understand the business model of it, because the elevator does cost almost $100 million to put in. But at the same time, now every parking space you can sell it. And so that's what we're doing. We're selling the parking spaces as part of the units. And so that's how we're recovering our costs. And so it's not just a cool factor, but there's also. a business model behind it. And that's why I went, I went ahead and patented this concept, because once people understand that you can actually sell your parking instead of giving it away,

which every developer gives it away, right? They have two spaces per unit or whatever cases. So the only difference is that the buyer here actually appreciates that, you know, and they want the car upstairs. Some other people say, I have one car. I come here three months a year. I don't even have a car. I rent the car. Then this is not for you. It's not forever. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. And let me ask you a question, because you said, you know, why hasn't the world seen it in? What do you think it is? Like, why do you think more buildings aren't adopting this?

Where do you think the hang-up is? People, what I noticed when I did Porsche, did the Porsche Design Tower, people are afraid of new things. And the reaction to the car elevator then was, like, it was strange. Oh, this is never going to work. Oh, it's going to be broken. Oh, it's going to this.

Oh, it's going to, oh, how do I get my car down? I'm like, guys, you know, everybody was worried about it's, it's amazing how the human automatically goes to the negativity, right? Yeah. I'm foolishly optimistic on all my thought process, but at the same time, and I tend to oversimplify things, I do. But I said, oh, guys, I said, guys, it's a freaking elevator. It goes up, it goes down.

It goes up, it goes down. So it has a little dolly on it that shoots out a car. Okay. That thing's been working for 100 years or not 100. We're working for 20 years, right? We didn't invent anything. We bought off-the-shelf parts that just combined them in a way that everybody's ever put them together. So all those naysayers, I remember my competitors at the buildings next door telling the buyers,

oh, you don't want to buy it, Porsche. What happens if you need to go to the opera and you can't get your car down from the elevator? Like instilling stupid ideas of fear in people, guys, it's an elevator. Goes up, goes down. Yeah, like, do you get an elevator at the mall? Probably. Right. I mean, it's a cool-looking elevator.

It goes 800 feet per minute. It carries a car, but it's an elevator. And so once people actually started using it, and then now the building's been working there for like the last nine years, eight, nine years, and the elevator is not broken, and people are not late to get their car down. And so I said to those salespeople over there in the other projects, who's going to listen to you now?

You know, you talk so much nonsense that, you know, and none of it came true. Who's going to pay any attention to you today? So that's where we are. And that's why I think why we're outselling our competitors, because the same people who are instilling fear to potential buyers are now realizing that they're all wrong, you know? What people don't understand is when they do smear campaigns,

like don't buy it in a Porsche building because you're never going to be able to get to the opera. All they're doing is saying, go look at the Porsche building, go check it out. It's almost your best marketing at that point, especially if it's next door. Like, well, we're here. Let's go check it out over there.

And also to your point, the human mind, and I'm like you, I'm an internal, optimist, like probably too optimistic. If I say I want to do something, I don't tend to think of all the things that can go wrong. I'm intentional on what can go right. So I stay in that frequency. But so many people, entrepreneurs in general, right, they go through this thing. What if it doesn't work? What if this breaks? What if it's not seen? And so I like for you, dude, because like you've done so many amazing things. Tell the audience how they can get through that thought process because this show is based on the premise of being determined. And everything

that you've accomplished in your company and the buildings you're building, like, there's a, there's a massive amounts of determination involved because it's not always easy. So how would you help them? It was more than not easy. It was close to impossible. But my, my answer is every no gets you closer to a yes. And that's really what happened. I mean, determination was exactly that. We went to the elevator department with this whole concept and to the fire department. And they said, this is cool, this is great, this is amazing, we can't approve. And we said, well, why not? It's an elevator. It goes up and goes down. They said, yes, what we can approve is a box that goes up and down and with a door that opens side to side and people walking in and out. This is,

yes, it's an elevator goes up and down, but it's not a box. It's carrying a car full fuel that can light up on fire. That's what the, the fire department said, when you have a car full of fuel, every time you start the car, you have an inherent risk of explosion, which I can Yes, they're right. I mean, the car is combustible. And I didn't want to argue with them. That's where we came up with this dolly piece that picks up the car. The engine is off. The car is in park. So it picks up the car, slides it into your garage and drops it, right in your garage, pulls out.

So that's how we did it. We said, okay, well, what happens we don't start the car? And so, like I said, every no got us closer to a yes. And that's how, you know, like you said, determination, we didn't know if this thing was going to work. We didn't. And there were a few nights where we said, well, what happens if it doesn't? And what happens of this? and my contractor said to me, what happens if this elevator doesn't work the way you want?

I said, well, we have a bunch of garages there that will turn into an atrium in the middle of the building and create a way indoor balconies. I said, if that's the worst, as a joke. I said, what's not going to work about it? It's an elevator. We're going to make it work. Whatever is broken. We can fix it.

It's, you know, from the design standpoint, it was properly designed. And, you know, there are a lot of unknowns. And there were some things in learning curves after a couple of years, for instance, We put in the wrong wheel type for that system that slides in and out that we put in these rubber like skateboard wheels, if you will, and they were wearing out really fast. So we had to find a higher compound, but like nothing that's impossible. Yeah. Everything you get fixed.

So, you know, that's, that's our, that's my philosophy. As there's, you know, and unfortunately you have to throw some money at it and to every single thing. But, and to go into this thinking that is, you know, it's 100% is also foolish. You got to, you got to protect your downside. But I also picked some of the best people in the world to do this, some of the best contractors to build these things. I looked at what they've done. The guy who built the lift at the Deservator at Porsche, he's done some serious specialty lifts all over the place, anywhere from lifting up Mack trucks to, you name it.

Yeah, so he was the right guy. And we wanted to use them again, but then luckily enough, fortunately enough, I was approached by Otis elevators to, to come in and potentially even buy the patent of this thing and do it for the Bentley Tower. So we've signed up now with Otis, which was a big coup for us because they're the biggest elevator company in the world. And not just that, but based on this patent that I have, they have the ability to go and sell my patent to other developers around the world and build it around the world. Come on, man.

You know, that was the other thing. You can have a patent, but if you can't execute on it, it's kind of worthless. So now I'm going to teaming up with Otis. We're going to be able to build these things everywhere. I love the expansion, right? And I love the fact that you're talking about, you know, really the team that's built around you, the best in the world, the best in class. And then the most important thing that I want the audience really to dial in on is, you know, there was a lot of adversity at the beginning stages of the deservator constantly getting denied. But what they did is they found the solution on starting it, right?

So there's always a solution, right, Gil? It's like, okay, if this is the issue, how do I calm the mind? down. How do I take the emotion out of it? Okay, if they're worried about it starting there and combusting and starting a fire, well, how can I remove that from the equation? So that's not the argument anymore, right? And I just think that more entrepreneurs really need to rewind back and listen to that portion of this episode again, because it's not about convincing people that you're right. It's about finding the solution to take that one part of the equation completely out. When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the

expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at good to know facts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit good to know facts.org. you'll never be able to convince people because there you know it's go go talk to a to a democrat and try and tell them to Donald Trump's great right never going to happen but but you never be able to convince people but at the same time if you if you work to to their format and and to the way they want you to do it then you just got to fit fit in their box at the end of the day these guys are

just doing their job you know so you when they explain say to you hey I can't approve this because it's out of my wheelhouse I said well okay well how does something like this get approved. I actually went to UL, you know, the UL Underwriters Laboratory, that little circle on her. Okay. Yeah. I said, hey, I understand you guys do one-off elevator approvals. And so we were able to sign up with them and they were the ones who did the approval system on behalf of the city. And it cost a couple hundred thousand dollars extra, but it's UL. It's like the real deal. You know, now from now, so now insurance-wise and everything else, I got our proper system of the building. You know, so, and everything is, you know, you just have to ask the question.

And every no gets you closer to a yes. Yeah. I used to philosophy my whole life. And that's important, right? Because we can say every no brings you closer to a yes. But until it's articulated, just how you articulate it, people listening, they can't really connect it. But it's like you literally went through multiple stages to get this thing approved.

You found the people that you could team up with. You found the right solution. Because if they would have said yes, maybe something would have happened, right? They said no, and you put a bigger team around you. Yeah, it costs, you know, not literally a few more dollars, but you know what I mean, a couple hundred thousand dollars more, but now it's right, right? And now you sold to, you know, the elevator company. And now you can go throughout the whole world and sell the patent.

So, man, like that, that's pretty big. That's because you kept going. It worked. It worked. Yeah, sure did. That's where the disconnect is, though, Gil. like, you know, people, they see people like you and they're like, well, of course it's easy to say. Or they come to me and like, of course it's easy for you to say, you have a big show.

It wasn't always that big, right? It wasn't always the case. I had to find ways to grow when I didn't have a budget, when I didn't have certain things, right? So it just, I love here. I love when my guests share these moments of adversity with the audience because then they can connect it to what they're going through right now in real life. Yeah. And that's it. Perseverance is everything, you know?

Oh, come on. And most people have the perseverance. They just don't realize that they're doing it. You know, there's always something that somebody wants real bad, you know? And well, even if it's just a piece of jewelry for a woman or whatever cases, you know, they don't realize that they want it. And they're going crazy for it. And they finally figure out how to get it. So if you want something really bad, there's the human nature as you figure out how to get it.

Well, it's so funny because most people think it's like these big, massive movements every day, right? it's like okay I got to go from A to Z every single day right and they're probably thinking that's what Gill had to do but really what it is it's little process movements like if I can but you got to keep Z in mind at all times always but like that's you got to get towards the goal that's it little steps towards the goal baby you have to and as long as you as long as you can retire every night saying okay I moved I moved it down the field a little bit more right I I did the right small steps to get to the ultimate, the ultimate goal of which is Z of getting this done.

And I just think too many people try to go to AZ every single day and you just can't do that. Yeah, especially in construction. There's no instant gratification in this business. You know, it takes seven, eight years to develop a building. So, you know, A to Z is an eight-year process. You just got to make sure you're moving along. And so with Z, you know, with a goal in mind, that's it.

How does somebody like you with the, you're a visionary, right? So you can see something before it's completed. and, you know, it's going to take seven, eight years for this thing to come to full fruition where you can put your hand on it. How do you go through and how do you manage delaying that gratification? Well, I mean, it's one of those things where you manage your own expectations, you know, and if you know what's happening, and that's what I tell my salespeople here, I say, your job here with the buyers is to manage their expectations, you know, and manage, so they

understand what they're buying, when they're getting it, how they're getting it, et cetera, so you don't have upset customers walking in when the building's delayed three months or, or, you know, or their flooring is not done properly or whatever the case. There's ways to manage expectations of people that if you, and especially our, the communication with our buyers, we are completely transparent on everything. We don't try and play any games. So they appreciate that because at this level, the buyer is no dummy, you know, so you can't talk to them like they're like their children. So we're transparent on our timelines and we also, I mean, my building is coming in on time and usually on budget.

So we know what we're doing. Yeah. But managing my own expectations and saying, okay, this is the process. We create timelines. And so we have schedules that we keep on the schedule of I have to sell so many by this time. I have to close a loan by this time. I have to start foundation this time. And we keep on that timeline.

And we keep on pricing also, which is very important, keeping the costs where they are. And so it's just a process. You have to believe in the process, and you have to believe in how you do the process. Cutting corners in my side of the business is a big no-no. And you just maybe have to take it a little extra time or a little extra money, but you've got to do it right. Because I've cut corners on other jobs before, and you pay tenfold later on. And so I don't go on anymore. I'll pay two, three, four percent more right now, but I'll do it one time, one and done.

It's done, right? Because, you know, cutting corners is going to cost you more. I'm the only developer in Miami, the only one. And it was based on an experience, but the only one who uses in the entire building, mold-resistant drywall, which is, yeah, it's a drywall that only two products sell it.

There's two companies that sell it. They take the paper source off the drywall, so there's no source for the mold to grow on. It has an actual fiberglass backing. I'm the only guy in Miami to do it. Why? because in one of my buildings, I had a $12 million mold rip out. That I had to, yeah, it's Miami.

You know, under construction, it starts raining, this, that, the other thing. And so we had to, we had to rip out for $12 million. No insurance on that. You know, there was nobody paying. So that hurts. So I said, hey, if I, if I'm going to buy a $10 million drywall package and I can buy it for $10.8 million and get the mold resistant, fuck it, I'm spending that money. I love it, man.

It's about learning the lesson, right? It's learning the lesson. Learning the lesson. And you almost have to go through it to get stunned to go do it. But what happens at the end of the day is I have the best quality product out on the market. And it's not, you'll never get molded in my buildings. And we actually, in a way, tested it, not trying to test it, but one of our residents left her tub on with a hot water running for four months. she came back from her because it was her second home.

She opened the door to the bathroom. It was a steam room in there, right? Complete steam. The mold grew on the cabinets, but not on the walls. And it was very interesting. And I was like, wow, this stuff really works. You know, so we probably tested it and the product was there and it's a good product. So, you know, that's why I'm the only guy who does it.

I spend the extra money, but we build quality, quality stuff. Look, man, I know the environment. I live in Florida, too. It's almost comical to me that more people aren't doing that because it is very wet. Yeah, I mean, it's wet. It's more expensive, too. It's almost 10% more expensive and people don't want to spend that money, you know? Wow.

Especially those home builder guys who are knocking out these homes 100 miles an hour. That 10% is their margin, you know? Yeah. The hell, I live in one of those. Yeah. You say, you know the issue. I have friends who tell me the issues all the time. What are the lists?

And they throw them shits together quick, bro. Yeah, that's the game. You have to. You know? But when you're the homeowner building it, you're like, sweet, seven months, this is great. Right. What quarters are we freaking skipping here, man?

Right. You learn it on the walkthrough, right? It's like, well, this is wrong. This is wrong. Like, shit. I got to, I was dealing with things for a whole year. And if they, you see, if they managed your expectations before you walked in. that might not have been the case.

You know, you might have accepted some wrong or accepted some this or, you know, some other way. Oh, man. Yeah, it was a journey, my man. It was a journey. Absolutely. Hey, man. That's the unfortunate part about home buying today is that the builder leaves off. The unit owner gets the stuff, has to finish it out themselves.

They're not contractors. They don't have the headache. They don't have the bandwidth to do this. They're going to work every single day. And so we noticed that a lot of buyers would come and they'd be so happy at closing. And then three months later, they'd be all pissed off. Why? Because I haven't got my flooring permit. I can't get my shades installed. I can't get it. So we really hold their hands and help them with that stuff because we want,

it's not just the buying experience, it's the living experience. We want it to be good. That's the one thing that I found interesting because I was doing some reading. And I noticed that you stay really close to your communities post-closing. You know, and that just, that's brand, right? That's, that's collaboration with the homeowner. I mean, these people are paying a lot of money for these properties. It's just, you know, to me, it just makes sense. To me, it's, it's, it's 100% reputation. I created a brochure. I want these people to live the brochure. When you turn these buildings over, you give them to a bunch of lawyers and doctors that they don't know how to run a building. You know, they're all nice people, of course, but, but they don't know how to run a building.

And they need that little helping hand, you know, just to carry them through. And believe it or not, they appreciate me. They appreciate me on the board. I have, because I'm sitting on several board, I understand what costs are across the different buildings. I know which vendors to call, hey, this guy's expensive here, call that guy there. And then we go to vendors with purchasing power. I said, hey, I sit on eight boards. You want to do a building? You want to do eight buildings or you want to get one contract?

So they really appreciate that we can push these guys on the price, get the best prices, the best service. And that's where my value comes in. I hate the board meetings, but I know it's like I got to do it. You know, this is my baby. Sure. I got to keep my reputation up. And so that's why the living experience in my buildings is second to none. And, you know, at the Portia Tower, it's a hotel.

You're living in a hotel. You have full hotel services from restaurants to spa to everything you can ever imagine. You just don't have transient guests. And people love, love, love living there. They love it. It's great. Yeah. You said something.

You said, I'm selling a brochure. Yes. And I think that's something, man, that, you know, a lot of people, a lot of businesses don't take into account. When a consumer looks at something, they're looking at the only marketing piece that they have, right? They're looking at what's this going to look like? What's it going to feel like? And most people fail to deliver that rendering.

Exactly. And as long as you build a building right, the next question or rub is a level of service. and that's where, you know, you show, hey, we have a spa, we have the, so all these buildings, they have a spa and it's great and you go to the spa, but there's nobody attending the spa. There's no towels at the spa. You can go out to the gym and they have to run back up to your apartment and sweating or whatever. You know, that's not level of service. My spas are, I have attendant 24-7.

We have classes. We do fitness. We do yoga. We do aerobics. We do all that fun stuff. I tell them, do, I love programming in the building, but I don't want it to be like old people programming. Right. So we do a lot of stuff.

We do a lot of fun stuff in our buildings also, from Valentine's Day to this day, all the, all the, we go to my, every one of our events, I told the management, every event has to start off with a drink, so everybody gets in the mood. It's just a great place to live.

People love it there. You know, we had an illusionist coming next week. And so, you know, he's going to. No way. That's about. They invited me. They told me to come. So, you know, that's bad, dude.

Yeah, it's a fun place to live with all the apart, at the Porsche Tower, all the apartments are priced, between, with the majority of the price between five and eight million dollars. So it's a kind of place where you want to know your neighbor. You want to get to know your neighbor. But if you don't want to, you also don't have to. You know, you can go to your own swimming pool

on your balcony or or right up and down the elevator without seeing anybody. So, but everybody being in the same kind of socioeconomic level, it's a kind of, it's a great, it's a great kind of clubhouse over there. And that's what they love. That's so awesome. That's so awesome, man. I just, I need to come over and see it.

You should definitely should. I'll take you for a lot. Yeah, man. We'll, we'll definitely connect and we'll have to do that for sure. As we land the plane, I want you to talk a little bit about the Bentley residences. I know we've mentioned it, but I really want to give this opportunity for you to talk about it if you're open to it, just, you know, and give the audience a little bit, a little bit of information of what's to come. So I don't like

saying this, but it's the truth. The Bentley is the, is the portion design tower at 2.0. And everybody tells me, don't call it 2.0. It's its own thing, but it's really 2.0. It's the few mistakes we made at Porsche, we better order here. The biggest mistake we made, which wasn't really a mistake, but we found that our buyers require more than two parking spaces. We're selling three and four bedroom apartments, and some of the buyers have, you know, older kids, and there's four drivers in that car, in that house.

Interesting. And the two parking spaces was not enough, believe it or not. So at Porsche design, we did every unit has the two parking spaces. At Bentley, we did three and four car spaces with the units. And that's been a tremendous success. We actually had a lot of Porsche buyers moving over because of that, because they just needed the extra space. So that was one correction we made. Second correction, we were gung-ho about the swimming pools on the balconies at Porsche.

And we put them in, was not the ideal location of the balcony. It's still great. It's still. But it does block a bit of your ocean view from the living room. So we didn't want that to happen this time. So this time we moved the pool over to the side and we sunk it. So now you have a sunken pool. Yeah, and we figured out a way to sink it without ruining the ceiling height of the guy next door.

And engineering, you know, again, pushing the architects. We got to do this. We got to do that. And we figured it out. And so now we have a sunken pool on Bentley on the side. And those are some of the major changes. We also did a balcony with, it's a three-sided balcony. You have to see it to believe it to understand it.

Bottom line is it tracks the wind. So we have 1,500 square foot balconies that are windless. And I show people by going outside and I light a lighter to show them how there's no wind on the balcony even on the windiest days. And so that's made the outdoor balcony space extremely usable. Because in my other towers, I'm going to be honest, especially in Armani, people tell me I left my cushions out and the wind blew and I came back. And it's real. I mean, it's real. People need to pull in and pull out the cushions, which makes you think twice about going outside.

And it's not, you know, just unless you have staff in the house, which people don't in these little apartments, you know, it's not going to happen. So we created an area where you just leave the cushions out all the time. And it's a windless, windless outdoor space that people are going to be hanging out there all the time, I think. That's some wild shit. How does one, what are the semantics on that? How would you, how would you be able to block the freaking wind? It started at Porsche.

We had the funny thing. So we had one of the Porsche design guys came to Miami, stayed in my hotel, and he was on the balcony of the hotel, and he couldn't light his cigar because of the wind. And he said, can you put on top of the balcony rail, can you put a piece of glass so I can block the wind? And I said, you can't do that because then it's considered interior space. And that changed all your stuff. But we can maybe add a few panels of glass here. And we did it at a Porsche where we added four panels of glass to an area that literally blocked the wind. And the area was a 10 by 10 on the balcony.

And if you go to the porch, everybody hangs out in that area because you can just hang out there. And I said, well, if this is working so well, let's blow out the whole balcony. do it that way. And so by adding an extra layer of skin, here, maybe you can actually see it here. This is a whole layer of skin here, adding to the building. So this, so you can see the balconies in here. And so each one of these balconies is tucked in there. And you can't really feed it, I guess, over there. But each one of the balconies is tucked in there. And you can, and it blocks the wind. It's, it's incredible. It's really incredible. Yeah. It's just everything is so innovative, man. It's, It's exciting.

It's, you know, if I'm a resident that's moving into one of these things, it's, it's an exciting experience, right? And I think it's just bringing. We have to change it up. We have to change it up. There's been hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands of apartments built in Miami. Everything is the same. Everything is the same cookie cutter.

You know, I said, how are you ever going to sell in the world where everybody's selling the same crap? So we got to come up with something extremely unique and innovative and also something that I would like to live in myself. That's my other side is. I don't, I can't sell something that I wouldn't want to use it myself. Yeah, I wish more people were, were dialed into that. Like, hey, would I, would I, would I, you know, tell my mother or my grandmother like,

hey, absolutely, go buy that. You know, people are so interested in turning a quick dollar and cutting costs wherever they can to the margins larger. What you're doing out here is creating an experience, something that you would also live in. And the results are, speak for itself. That's the idea. Yeah, man. I look forward to getting over there and meet you in person.

You know, we'll definitely have to have a drink and you take me up and down the elevator. But it would just be great to connect with you in person. And I'm super, super excited to see, you know, the project to its entirety and just really dive into more things that you guys are doing. I'd love it. I'd love to host your hearing part. You know, the elevator ride is cool, but at the end of the day, it's an elevator ride. It's a little bit unique. But it's, what happens is the cool factor goes away after the first 10 times.

And then you start thinking, how did I live my entire life without this thing? And that's what happens. It becomes a necessity, you know? Well, the other thing, too, is like, I'm like, we're going to do this and laughing because I lived in a high rise on a river in Fort Myers, okay? When my wife was pregnant with our youngest. And when we bought it, we were super excited because we had a nice view. I mean, it's Fort Myers.

And it's Fort Myers, you know, it's the Colusa Hatchie River. I mean, it's the best you're going to get where we are, right? unless you're on the beach and I don't want to be there. Not in the Gulf. But the first time that we went grocery shopping, Gil, I hated my freaking life, dude. I'm sitting there in my vehicle. I'm like, all right, cool.

I'm like, fuck. Like, how am I going to get this up? I'm like, so I got to go five trips up and down an elevator to get my groceries up there. finally I got a cart obviously and did that and then I was like you know we're doing we're doing instacart I'm not I'm not doing anything but that and the valleys of the building should be helping everything out but but in with the deservator you go right up you pull it out so I felt that too I had a water leak in my place and I had to move into an apartment so I moved to Fisher Island which I thought fisher island fancy as address and this and that yep there's like 25 units per

building or 40 units per building, something really small. We got the insurance paid for this mega unit that we're in and everything. And same thing. We got there with groceries or something else. And we're like, hey, there's nobody here to pull it out. And no service in this place. And what kind of nonsense is this Fisher Island address in the world? And there's no service in the building.

So I made sure that my building is, you know, if you show up to the front door and there's six guys on the car with bottles of water for you and everything else you need. Wow. Yeah. And it's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. We really, I believe that operating it in a five-star level

adds as much value as the real estate itself. And so that's why all my properties are really run like five-star hotels. Love it, man. I mean, that's a good experience, right? For the residents that are there, they really feel that they're, hey, look, I'm on vacation here. Right? They're paying maintenance, $6,000, $8,000 a month.

And the fact that they get free water makes them happy. It's almost comical, but, you know, that's... I get it. Yeah. I get it, man. Man, that's awesome. Well, look, thank you so much for coming on, talking about what you guys are doing

and provided the audience a different feel of things, right? I haven't had a developer on before, and this is really cool direction. And I'm excited to be able to get this out and to educate everybody on Desert Development and what you guys have been doing. So much appreciated, my friend. Much appreciated.

Thank you. Well, listen, everybody, if you got something out of the episode, which I think you did, share this episode with a development, development experts. Share it with someone who loves cars. Share it with somebody who loves luxury living and loves luxury living in South Florida. And if you're looking to relocate, now you know where to go. All right? So contact desert development. Their website will be

in the show notes. And until next time, guys, stay determined. Next up is a little song from CarMax about selling a car your way. You want to sell those wheels. You want to get a CarMax instant offer. So fast. Want to take a sec to think about it. Or like a month? I want to keep tabs on that instant offer.

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