What does Miami future Holds?
Kobi Karp is here to tell us all about it!
Kobi Karp is one of the most notable and respected architects in the world.
He has designed projects that have cost $36 billion to develop and has worked on
multiple luxury projects in South Florida Including the Astor & Edison Hotels as well
as Palazzo Del Sol and Palazzo Della Luna, located on Fisher Island, which has the
highest per capita income of any Place in the United States.
In this one of a kind interview,
we’ll discuss the followings:
Where is the next place to invest in South Florida?
Is there enough demand for all the construction?
that is being built in Miami?
How would Miami look like 10 years from now?
Is Florida really safe from hurricanes?
Click above now to watch the full interview!
This is an auto-transcript of the interview (created online, unedited):
Eyal Melamed:
Hi friends and followers, and welcome to my informative video from your very own Madlan Miami real estate team here in South Florida. In the last few years, I have focused on investment properties and multifamily properties here in South Florida. These properties generated nine cap rates, and the lower mortgage rates led to a nice positive cash flow. Following the rise in interest rates in the past couple of months and the rise in insurance policies in US. I have been looking for alternative options for my investors and clients that are always looking for the next best investment. I have found new projects in preconstruction in the hottest areas and developing areas surrounding them. Miami is expanding rapidly with thousands of people moving here on a daily basis from all over, hence the rapid building of preconstruction. There are three measures to take into account when looking for the next project. First, find an interesting and good quality project in a fair price with a business plan of how to make money out of it. Second, that the project has full scale of professional team behind it, such as developer, architect, and so on. Three, find a new project before it hits the market and while prices are still as low as possible, once the popularity of the certain preconstruction rises, then the prices soar and we don’t want to pay for the same product more.
Eyal Melamed:
To receive further information on preconstruction, we are now going to interview one of the most prestigious architect of South Florida cobcal. Last year I organized a real estate event, and he was one of the public speakers, and throughout his speech, he picked everyone’s interest.
Thank you, Kobe, so much for having us today. Can you tell the audience to the people who still don’t know you, what project have you worked on?
Kobi Karp:
So I have been in Miami since.
1988, so I’ve had the pleasure of working on a number of projects.
But I came here in 1988 from.
Kobi Karp:
Minneapolis, Minnesota, specifically to join a British firm that was building all inclusive resorts and hotels in the Caribbean. We call it the British West Indies, st. Lucia, Granada Trips and Caicos, Bahamas, and then started to work here in Miami in the 90s in historic preservation, restoration of the buildings in Miami Beach. We call them here the MIMO district and the historic district of South Beach. You call it in Tel Aviv, you call it Ayura levanada. White OT.
Kobi Karp:
But it’s the same sort of typology.
Kobi Karp:
And DNA of architecture that was done in the in the United States of America with inspiration not only of Mediterranean arrival, but of streamlined architecture as well. And also I’m referring back to the Bauhaus architecture right to the arctico designs. And that’s really what started our projects here in Miami and slowly, slowly grew as financing became available. We do lifestyle luxury, whether it’s four seasons in surfside and four seasons in Fort Lauderdale or the one hotel or the Hyatt in Miami Beach or that’s what we do.
Eyal Melamed:
Okay. In in Miami for Miami? The south to Fort Lauderdale. I see they’re building so many preconstruction and new projects. Do you think there is enough demand for that or they building too many?
Kobi Karp:
So look, I’ve been here since the late eighty s and the people who came with me, it was my investment scarface days were individuals who ran away, for example, from Havana, Cuba by boat and got out of jail.
Kobi Karp:
And they had no money and many.
Kobi Karp:
Of them had no education and quite a few of them were criminals. Today the population that comes here is a bit more educated, a bit more sophisticated culture that is desiring to make an environment and a lifestyle for them in perpetuity in the great Florida. Meaning it’s the only state in the United States of America on the lower 48 that has up tropical weather. So the quality of life here is quite good from an environmental and sustainable standpoint, better and stronger than ever before. And it still continues as United shows, of about 1% growth on an annual basis, which is 10% every decade. Regretfully, we never had the resources to produce enough widgets on an annual basis. So we always had a shortfall. And that’s why there was always more demand than there was supply. Of course now with COVID with breakdown of supply chains and inflation, of course we have more of a demand than a supply, but eventually that supply will start to quench the demand. But ultimately we will continue to have demand. Based on the United States public record and census, the population around the world, whether it’s Far East, China or the Middle East, or India, Africa, the population will start to stabilize and compress like it has in Japan and or Scandinavia or Eastern Europe, or Western Europe.
Kobi Karp:
Right. The population has stabilized. That will continue. People will say, where should I live in a good quality of life? Hong Kong is a great place to live. To live. So is Malaysia. So is Indonesia. But if you have the opportunity to live in the United States of America and only south tropical weather, it’s Florida. So it’s like Southeast China, it’s like Vietnam and Cambodia from a weather climate standpoint.
Eyal Melamed:
Also, people often ask me about Huikan and flood in Miami. As an architect, do you think there is a reason to be worried?
Kobi Karp:
Look, to be worried, you can be worried. A lot of people like to worry, doesn’t do anything to worry. I don’t like to worry. I like to find solutions to problems.
Kobi Karp:
And I’ll be specific to you.
Kobi Karp:
1992 we had a hurricane, Hurricane Andrew here, which just blew through the city. And the reason was because we didn’t have the code in the infrastructure set up for hurricane impact. The buildings were not designed with clips on the roof. They weren’t designed to take the impact to the structure. And they were certainly weren’t designed on hurricane impact doors and windows, which today we have more so than ever before. And you can see today when the hurricane blows through, and if your structure meets the code and the infrastructure as we have laid it, you will sustain yourself. And furthermore, with the technology and the knowledge that we have today, more so than ever before. Solar panels are implemented on the roofs of our homes and structures to low voltage battery packs that we put in the garage. And backup generators are electric motors like a Tesla. And for 30, 50, $70,000, we can roll it into your home mortgage so it becomes a more financially stable solution, which the payback is quick, because otherwise.
Kobi Karp:
You’Re paying here in South Florida.
Kobi Karp:
Florida power and light electricity is about 20% to 30% of your monthly bills. We do have the responsibility for future generations to eliminate the carbon footprint, but we can’t do it unilaterally in the United States of America. It’s done internationally.
Eyal Melamed:
Now, you lived there for many years, and you know all the cities and the area. What do you think is the next spot to invest in today?
Kobi Karp:
I think the next spot is really everywhere in Florida that we can because Florida is defined by the Gulf on the west and the Atlantic on the east, and it has a little land that connects you then to the arrest of America. But the reality is that Florida in many locations is quite good.
Kobi Karp:
I see today progress and communities being.
Kobi Karp:
More developed in North Miami, north Miami Beach, closer to train tracks and stations along Miami Gardens, miami Springs, Hayaliya. Look at Doral brand new west side of the airport. And that’s what I like about Florida in a nice way. So I am optimistic about the direction of growth, real estate growth, and sustainability and resiliency in this community.
Eyal Melamed:
Yeah, great. Can you describe us? How do you see Miami in about ten years from now?
Kobi Karp:
I think ten years from now, it’s going to be a better quality of life, a more sustainable and more resilient, a more efficient I think that technology is going to continue to catch up and give us a better quality of life overall. We will be the only subtropical weather climate state in the lower 48 which will set us apart. And I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I said to myself, I’d rather be because everybody said, kobe, you’re never going to make any money in architecture. I don’t know why you’re studying it. Go be a doctor, go be a lawyer.
Kobi Karp:
But I studied architecture, and I happened.
Kobi Karp:
To be at the right place at the right time. But ultimately I said to my friends, I would rather be a bomb and sleep on the streets in Miami than sleep on the streets in Minneapolis, especially in the winter.
Eyal Melamed:
Nice. Okay, Kobe, thank you so much for having us.
Kobi Karp:
It’s my pleasure. Thank you for coming over. I hope you come by more often.
Eyal Melamed:
I will.
Kobi Karp:
Thank you.