Jorge M. Pérez

Pérez was born October 17, 1949 in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Cuban parents of Spanish origin.[6][7] He lived in Colombia before moving to Miami in 1968.[8] His father was the head of a pharmaceutical company that was nationalized by the Cuban government.[9] He has a bachelor's degree in economics[10] from Long Island University C.W. Post Campus,[11] and a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Michigan.[4]

Pérez was an economic development director with the city of Miami before he entered the real estate business and became a developer.[10][12] In 1979, he founded Related Group[13] with New York builder Stephen M. Ross. Pérez built his fortune by building and operating low-income multifamily apartments across Miami. The firm became the largest affordable housing builder in Florida by the middle of the decade.[10] He then branched off into rental apartments before becoming one of the most prolific high-rise condo builders in the Southern United States. Pérez has owned 50 condo towers in various stages of completion in South Florida, Fort Myers and Las Vegas. He has been called the "Donald Trump of the Tropics".[14] During his career, Pérez has developed or managed more than 90,000 residences, most of which are located in South Florida.[15] He has worked with many well-known designers, architects, and firms, including Philippe Starck, Cesar Pelli, Arquitectonica, David Rockwell, Rem Koolhaas and Karim Rashid.[16][17][18]

Related Group had $2.1 billion in revenue in 2004, putting Pérez at the top of the Hispanic Business 500 during this period of time. He is an active Democratic fund raiser; he advised Bill Clinton on Cuba during his presidency and was an active fundraiser for the failed presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton. In 2008, he also hosted and raised money for Barack Obama after he became the Democratic presidential nominee.[19]

On November 18, 2007, Related Group demolished the Sheraton at Bal Harbour to make way for a new project.[20] The Sheraton at Bal Harbour, originally called the Americana, was created by architect Morris Lapidus, who also designed the Fontainebleau Miami Beach and Eden Roc hotels— buildings that had inspired Miami Modern Architecture (MiMo).[21]

With the financial crisis of 2007–2010, many of Related Group's projects were in financial strife as buyers, many of whom were speculators, refused to settle on their apartments or banks refused to grant home or property investment loans to the buyers. As a separate business, Pérez set up a hedge fund to buy distressed real estate. Before the financial crisis of 2007, Forbes pegged his wealth at $1.3 billion. As of March 2013, his wealth stood at 1.2 billion with a steady resurgence in Florida real estate prices.[3]

His firm has built projects in Argentina, Brazil, Panama, Uruguay and Mexico.[22] The company has completed skyscraper condo projects including 50 Biscayne, Icon Brickell, Icon South Beach, Murano at Portofino and Paraiso Bay, among others.

In 2017, the company broke ground on a 400-unit luxury apartment project in Tampa, Florida and also plans to build more than 700 units in West Florida in coming years.[23] The Related Group opened an office in 2017 in Dallas with plans to build apartments in Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix and other major Texas markets.[22] In 2018, the Related Group and Block Capital Group broke ground on a mixed-use development called the Bradley, a 175-unit apartment building in Miami. Kravitz Design, musician Lenny Kravitz's firm, will design the project's interior.[24] The Related Group opened Icon Midtown, a high-rise apartment in the Midtown section of Atlanta, in 2018. It is Perez's first completed development in Georgia.[25] Wynwood 25, a partnership between Perez and East End Capital, will deliver 289 rental apartments that will range in size from 400 to 1,200 square feet. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2019.[26]

Peréz was the principal benefactor for the Jorge M. Pérez Architecture Center at the University of Miami, which opened in October 2004.[27][28]

Pérez's personal and corporate art collection contains 1,000 pieces and includes work from Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Fernando Botero, Roberto Matta, Rubén Torres Llorca, Vhils, Jef Geys, Michael Loew, and Pablo Atchugarry.[29][30]

In December 2011, Pérez donated $35 million in cash and art to the Miami Art Museum to support the construction of its Herzog & de Meuron designed building.[31] The museum was renamed the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM).[32][33] He donated $15 million more to the museum in 2016. The donation included $5 million in Cuban contemporary art.[34] He has pledged to donate his entire collection to the museum after his death.[35] Pérez donated over 170 works to PAMM until 2017.[36] He also supports the Miami International Film Festival, National YoungArts Foundation, the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University and the University of Miami.[37]

In 2012, he signed the "Giving Pledge," an international effort to invite the world's wealthiest individuals to commit more than half of their wealth to charitable causes either in their will or during their lifetime.[38]

In 2019, he established the CreARTE Grants Program, to support arts and culture programs in Miami-Dade County. His family foundation will award $1 million in grants per year to various artists and organizations.[39] After a $1 million endowment from Pérez in 2019, Florida International University's Metropolitan Center will now be known as the Jorge M. Pérez Metropolitan Center.[40]

In December of 2019 Perez opened a new art museum called “El Espacio 23.” The 28,000-square-foot art space is named for its location on Northwest 23rd Street in Allapattah, a neighborhood in Miami, FL. The museum features thousands of pieces that Pérez had kept away in storage for years, including photographs, paintings, sculptures and videos from around the globe.[41]

During March of the 2020 US Presidential Election, Pérez and his wife contributed a total of $5,600 to the Joe Biden campaign, claiming that "[he] will be supporting Joe Biden at a much higher level".[42]

Pérez was named Builder of the Year by Multifamily Executive Magazine, a Great Immigrant Honoree by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and an Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient.[43][44][45] He also received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Real Estate & Construction Award in the Florida Region, Urban Land Institute Southeast Florida/Caribbean Lifetime Achievement Award and Haute Living's Lifetime Visionary Award.[46][47][48] The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce awarded him its highest honor, the Sand in My Shoes Award, and the United Way of Miami-Dade presented Perez and his wife with the Tocqueville Award for Outstanding Philanthropy.[49][50]

Pérez lives in Miami, Florida, with his wife, Darlene Pérez. He has four children.[51][52] [53] He is a friend and former business partner of President Donald Trump, who wrote the foreword for Pérez's 2008 book, Powerhouse Principles,[54] although he has since been publicly critical of Trump's presidency.[55]

• Powerhouse Principles: The Ultimate Blueprint for Real Estate Success in an Ever-Changing Market. New York: New American Library. 2008. ISBN 0-451-22705-0