Why Miami Has Become Billionaires Playground

Why Miami Has Become The Billionaires Playground

With low taxes, private hideaways and luxury branded residences from Bentley, Mercedes-Benz and Dolce & Gabbana, the super-wealthy are flocking to Florida

Southern Florida met Switzerland at the inaugural Montreux Jazz Festival Miami in Coconut Grove, the latest stage of Miami’s transformation from beachfront backwater to cultural capital. It follows in the wake of Art Basel Miami, first held in 2002 and now North America’s largest contemporary art fair where last December individual sale prices reached $20 million.

Since Covid, Miami is where many of the American rich want to be. The National Association of Realtors reported a 56 per cent increase in “inbound” moves to Miami (those from within the US) from 2019 to 2022, the highest in the states. They join “snowbirds” — retired people seeking year-round sunshine — Latin Americans who have long viewed Miami as a safe investment haven and now the billionaires too, spearheaded by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.

Last year Bezos left Seattle, his home of 29 years, to settle in Indian Creek, a 300-acre island in Biscayne Bay. While he said the move was to be closer to his parents and his space exploration operation, it also meant relocating to a state with no personal income tax and one of only eight US states with no capital gains tax.

“Miami has been a standout performer among American markets as the city continues to attract residents from the States and beyond,” says Paul Tostevin, Savills’ director of world research. “Capital values grew by 4.9 per cent last year and we expect the city to lead the way in 2024, with prime prices outpacing the global average.”

Fisher Island, immediately south of Miami Beach with the third most expensive zipcode in the US, is even more private than Indian Creek, accessible only by helicopter or a seven-minute ferry ride. The immaculately landscaped 216-acre island with its own country club, bank, health clinic, school and two deep-water marinas, has 850 homes, almost all apartments built in the 1980s to somewhat dated architectural guidelines.

6 Fisher Island Homes And Residences Will Cost Up To $ 90 Million

Further north in Sunny Isles, work has begun at Bentley Residences Miami, the first Bentley-branded residential tower in collaboration with Dezer Development. Residents in the 62-floor tower can take their car in one of four lifts (known as Dezervators) to a private glass-enclosed “garage in the sky”, allowing them to admire their cars and the Atlantic Ocean from their armchair. Price: $ 5.6 Million+

Developer Gil Dezer has sold Miami homes to affluent clients for several years — the footballer Lionel Messi owns one at Dezer’s Porsche Design Tower — and knows what they want. At Bentley Residences Miami, as well as car lifts, private pools on every balcony and a façade that sparkles with glass panels imitating Bentley’s “iconic diamond-quilted pattern”, bathrooms have underfloor heating to counter the chill from overenthusiastic air conditioning use.

Brickell, south of downtown, is where new Miami is developing at pace and where last month Mercedes-Benz announced its second branded residences project (the first being in Dubai). Mercedes-Benz Places is a 791-residence tower under construction with three-bedroom apartments priced up to $4 million, available through the agent Ryan Serhant, a former star of Million Dollar Listing New York. It joins St Regis Residences Miami, two to four-bedroom apartments and penthouses priced from $4-9 million through One Sotheby’s, with the Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Miami, and Ora by Casa Tua.

If you prefer Italian craftsmanship in your home, 888 Brickell Dolce & Gabbana is the first US residence with lifestyle and interiors designed by the fashion maestros. The project will be the tallest luxury high-rise in Miami with 259 residences, full concierge, an indoor padel court and in-house D&G tailoring. Prices range from $3.5 million to over $35 million through the estate agency Official.

“Brickell was always Miami’s main financial district, the Park Avenue of Latin America, but following trends seen in New York, it’s become more mixed-use as high-end residential and premium retail arrived,” says Michael Stern, the chief executive of JDS Development Group, developer of 888 Brickell and Mercedes-Benz Places. “Today it has some of the USA’s highest-grossing restaurants: Delilah from Las Vegas, Sexy Fish and Cipriani, all choosing to invest in Brickell, creating a Manhattan-style urban energy that people like.”

Brickell, Stern says, has evolved into a perfect work-play-live neighbourhood. It has the tightest rental market in Miami with the least inventory and the highest prices, while Miami in general had the best-performing five-star hotel market in the US in 2023 — the average daily rate was more than $1,000 a night, recording a 48 per cent increase since 2019.

“In the last five or so years, Miami has grown up to provide a diverse, stable economy and real cultural depth,” Stern says. “It was always fun and playful but now it has also become a serious place to do business. In the old days, a CEO would retire here. Now that CEO is coming when much younger and bringing their company and its entire staff too.”

Original Post: The Times