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Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset
Luxury Living Redefined With Gil Dezer
00:43:41
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- [00:00]
Gil Desert
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, it goes down. Sh.
- [00:34]
Sean French
French. What up? This one luck. I let the pain inspire me. I put my all in. Everything I'm doing up until it's done, I mean for the entirety. I put in overtime. I'll be working. Just know I'mma go for mine cause I earned it. They watch and I know it's time I confirmed it. I host a song society determined determination.
- [00:57]
What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode. I am your host, Sean French. Today I have with me an amazing man, a businessman that's changing this the. The face of South Florida living. The president of Desert Development, Gil Desert. What's up baby?
- [01:12]
Gil Desert
Hey, how you doing? Good to be here.
- [01:14]
Sean French
Hey man, good to have you. You're doing so many amazing things. It's like I, you know, I, 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 oceanfront and I never really know who's behind him. But now I'm sitting with the guy, the, the man that is responsible for these beautiful things. So super excited to have you on the show.
- [01:38]
Gil Desert
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
- [01:40]
Sean French
Hey, heck yeah, man. Heck yeah. So listen for, for, 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, little background on what it is that you do?
- [01:52]
Gil Desert
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, but we build the highest end quality products and buildings on the. Primarily on the best locations in Miami from anywhere from downtown to the oceanfront, including Midtown. Several other sites where our niche was that I'm one of these. 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 with, in 2001 with, with our now President Donald Trump. Tremendous success with, 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, through selling units. And, and that really paved the way for us to do a lot, a lot more new business and, and everything worked out. I mean, we in. If you Google it and 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 in, in at the Trump Royale building. It was very nice.
- [03:11]
Sean French
The mortgage burning ceremony. That's pretty wild, man.
- [03:14]
Gil Desert
At that time, I mean, if you remember 2011, it was, 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 that what that did was open the door to many, many other opportunities for us. We had banks started calling us to, to help work out some of their bad stuff. And, and so we were able to take that over and made money with those things. And so. 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 weight. The Hide in Midtown. Yeah. Right now have a project up in Hillsborough with, with, with Rosewood. So we're doing a Rosewood Residences in H. Hillsboro. So we have, we have a lot on our plate and we have a pipeline of many more oceanfront projects to go as well as we bought the Intracoastal Mall here in Sunny. In. In North Miami beach, which we got zoned for 2,000 units, eight buildings, 500,000 square feet of retail. Massive project. So we've been working on that daily. That's, that's, that's a big logistics thing. So. So the answer is, if you don't know who I am now, you do.
- [04:33]
Sean French
I love it. No, thank you for that. You know, I always like the guests to go through a little bit about their background and what it is they're doing to give the audience more context. Coming from my guests, 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.
- [05:15]
Gil Desert
Well, we started here in Sunny isles Beach in 99 ourselves, meaning our own project. And it was taking a bit to get some traction. Sunny Isles beach was not the desired spot back in. In 99, 2000. There were still lots of motels here. There was little retail to speak of. It wasn't a great. The greatest place in the world like it is today to live. Don't forget, 25 years have passed, so everything's changed. But so. So when we started, we needed. We needed to kind of put our mark on. On. On the map here. And. And we found that the Trump Organization was looking to do something. They were actually about to sign a deal with what is now Continuum on South beach, and we stole them away from. From. From the Continuum project, saying, look, we can do more than just two towers here. We can do all these extras. And so Trump liked that, and he loved the location. And so that's. That's where we signed up with him. And, and what I realized was branding brings you a level of. 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, or if we would have tried to buy it, it would have cost tens of millions of dollars. So it was easier for us to go through this licensing route and getting all the attention and credibility from that way and really putting Sunny Isles beach on the map when Trump came down. And like I said, we did six buildings, 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. Each conversation I had with the hotel brands was. Was. Was difficult. They wanted to create their brand standard, and they didn't know how to do that. In a condominium. So. 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, you know, 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, 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 in my, in my. And I have it connected to the garage. So I have 29 car garage attached to my townhome in the building. Everybody who comes to my house, they drive into 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 price you can have of pulling into your own house without having to see a valet, a security. So that's, that was the inspiration of the Porsche Tower. I said, let's bring a way 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, and that's really what the net result. We did it initially because I said, how cool would it be to have your cars in your living room? Right? And that was, that was the initial concept. But, but the buyers bought for the privacy aspect. Believe it or not, 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, you know, yeah.
- [08:45]
Sean French
I mean that, that, that tower, you know what, what? For the audience, he's referencing the desert, 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, 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.
- [09:21]
Gil Desert
And more just rather specifically coffee. You can have it delivered to your apartment, room service from the restaurant downstairs. But no, it's exactly it. You know, who wants to get dressed up, they just have to leave the apartment for two seconds or whatever the case is, run outside. You know, it's, it's, it's like a single family home. You just jump in the car, you, you go out, you don't have to ask anybody, you don't have to call valet, you don't have to wait for a car, you know, any of that stuff. So it's, it's, it. We changed the way people live and we did it with a cool factor in mind. But really what the net result was that it. People really enjoy the idea of being able to come and go as they please. And of course, you know, with, with making these, these apartments being sky homes, we have everything that you would have in a typical single family home. So we did. 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.
- [10:13]
Sean French
Probably.
- [10:14]
Gil Desert
Yeah, probably. I mean, if you, if you think about it, it adds another almost a hundred dollars a square foot to the unit in cost. But yeah, but it's worth it. You know, I think it's worth it. I think it makes, it makes the product that much better. So, you know, we, 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're buying.
- [10:33]
Sean French
It just seems like there's more of an experience. Right? I mean, if you're going to live in premium, I mean, isn't it the largest oceanfront property in South Florida?
- [10:40]
Gil Desert
Well, this one. No, I'm the largest oceanfront owner in South Florida. But this, this one single property is, is, is a two and a half acre site. It's big. It's not tiny.
- [10:49]
Sean French
Yeah, the biggest, the thing, 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, and, and, and really kind of points of like in awe of, 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 desert vader 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, and I don't mean that in a condescending way. I mean like the, the, the, like how big it actually is.
- [11:33]
Gil Desert
I understand. My question is, how come the world hasn't seen it yet? You know, I went ahead and spent millions of dollars patenting this, 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 there's a lot of creature comforts and safeties and things like that that have to be done. And, you know, and, 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, so that's how we're recovering our costs. And, and, 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 they're, 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 for everybody.
- [12:50]
Sean French
Yeah.
- [12:51]
Gil Desert
You know.
- [12:51]
Sean French
Yeah. Agreed, agreed. And let me ask you a question. Because you said, you know, why isn't the world seen it then? 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?
- [13:06]
Gil Desert
What I've 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 gonna work. Oh, it's gonna be broken. Oh, it's gonna. This. Oh, it's gonna. Oh, how do I get My car down. Oh. And I'm like, guys, you know, everybody's was worried about. It's, it's a, it's, it's amazing how the human automatically goes to the negativity, right?
- [13:34]
Sean French
Yeah.
- [13:35]
Gil Desert
Foolishly optimistic on all my thought process. But at the same time, I, I, and I tend to oversimplify things. I do. But I said to the 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 already. We didn't, we didn't invent anything. We bought off the shelf parts. They're just combining them in a way that nobody's ever put them together. So all those naysayers, I remember, I remember my competitors at the, at the buildings next door telling, telling the buyers, oh, you don't want to buy a 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 and people. Guys, it's an elevator. Goes up, goes down. And yeah, just like.
- [14:19]
Sean French
Do you get an elevator at the mall?
- [14:20]
Gil Desert
Probably, right? I mean, it's a cool looking elevator. It goes 800ft 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, 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, and so I said to those, to those salespeople over there in the other projects, who's going to listen to you now? You know so much nonsense that, 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, and that's why, I think, why we're outselling our competitors. Because the same people who are, who are instilling fear to potential buyers are now realizing that they're all wrong.
- [14:57]
Sean French
You know, what people don't understand is when they do smear campaigns like don't buy in a Porsche building because you're never going to be able to get to the opera.
- [15:04]
Gil Desert
Right?
- [15:04]
Sean French
All they're doing is saying, go look at the Porsche building. Go check it out. It's almost your best, 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. I'm an internal optimist, like, probably too optimistic. If. If I say I want to do something, I don't tend to think of all the things that could go wrong. I'm. 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, like, what if it doesn't work? What if this breaks? What if it's not seen? And so I'd like. For you, dude, because, like, you've done so many amazing things, like 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 amount of determination involved because it's not always easy. So how would you help them?
- [16:06]
Gil Desert
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 it. 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 of fuel that can light up on fire. That's what the.
- [16:41]
Sean French
The.
- [16:42]
Gil Desert
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. I guess they're right. I mean, the car is combustible and it's, you know, so. So I didn't want to argue with them. That's where we came up with this. 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. 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, there are a few nights where we said, well, what happens if it doesn't and what happens if this. And, and my contractor said to me, what, 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 a, into an atrium in the middle of the building and have, and create everybody 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, and you know, there are a lot of unknowns. And there were some things in learning curves after a couple 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, higher compound. But like nothing that's impossible. Yeah, everything can get fixed. So, you know, that's, 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, and to go into this thinking that it's, it's, you know, it's 100 is also foolish. You gotta, you gotta 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 with the guy who built the, the lift at the deservator at Porsche. He's, 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 him 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, 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.
- [19:06]
Sean French
Come on, man.
- [19:07]
Gil Desert
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, I'm going to teaming up with Otis. We're going to be able to, to build these things everywhere.
- [19:17]
Sean French
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, to dial in on is, you know, there was a lot of adversity at the beginning stages, the designator 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, 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.
- [20:17]
Gil Desert
You'll never be able to convince people because they're, you know, it's go, go talk to a, to a Democrat and try and tell them that Donald Trump. 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, when they 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 say, 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, it cost a couple hundred thousand dollars extra, but it's ul, so it's like the real deal, you know, now of course, yeah, so now insurance wise and everything else, I got a proper system of the building, you know, so, and everything's, you know, you just have to ask the questions and, and every no gets you closer to a yes. Yeah, my whole life And.
- [21:20]
Sean French
And that's important, right? Because we can. 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 it would have said yes, maybe something. Maybe something would have happened. Right. They said no, and you put a bigger team around you. Yeah. It costs, you know. 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. The elevator company, and now there you can go throughout the whole world and. And sell the patent. So. Man, like, that. That's pretty big. But that's because you kept going.
- [22:07]
Gil Desert
Worked. It worked.
- [22:09]
Sean French
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. You have a big show. Wasn't always that big. Right. It wasn't always the case. I had to find ways to. To grow when I didn't have a budget, when I didn't have certain things. Right. So it just. I. I love hearing. I love when my guests share these. These moments of adversity with the audience because then they can connect it to what they're going through right now in real life.
- [22:40]
Gil Desert
Yeah, that's it. Perseverance is everything, you know?
- [22:44]
Sean French
Now, come on.
- [22:45]
Gil Desert
And most people. 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. 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. And they're going crazy for it, and they finally figure out how to get it. So if you want something really bad, you.
- [23:02]
Sean French
You.
- [23:02]
Gil Desert
There's the human nature as you figure out how to get it.
- [23:05]
Sean French
Well, it's so funny because most people think it's like these big, massive movements every day, right? It's like, okay, I gotta go from A to Z every single day. Right? And they're probably thinking, that's what Gil had to do. But really what it is, it's little process movements, like, if I can.
- [23:20]
Gil Desert
But keep you got to keep Z in mind at all times.
- [23:22]
Sean French
Always.
- [23:23]
Gil Desert
Yes, but like, but that's, you got to get towards the goal. That's it. Little steps towards the goal, baby.
- [23:27]
Sean French
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, the, the ultimate, ultimate goal of which is Z of getting this done. And I just think too many people try to go to A every single day and you just can't do that.
- [23:47]
Gil Desert
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, is an eight year process. You just got to make sure you're moving along. And so with Z, you know, with the goal in mind, that's it.
- [24:00]
Sean French
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?
- [24:17]
Gil Desert
Well, I mean I, it's, it's, it's one of those things where you manage your own expectations, you know, and, and, and if you, if you know what's happening and I met. That's what I tell my salespeople here. I say your job here with the sale, 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, 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 are 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 not, there's no dummy, you know, so you can't talk to them like they're like their children. So we're transparent on our timelines on our thing. And we also, I mean my buildings come in on time and usually on budget, so we know what we're doing. Yeah, and, but, but, but managing my own expectations and saying, okay, this is the process. We create timelines and so we have schedules that we keep on schedule of. I have to sell so many by this time I have to close the 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, is a big no, no. And you just maybe have to take a little extra time or a little extra money, but you 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 do that anymore. I'll Pay, I'll pay 2, 3, 4% more right now. But I'll do it one time. One, one and done.
- [26:01]
Sean French
It's done. Right. Because it, you know, cutting corners going to cost you more.
- [26:04]
Gil Desert
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 the only two products sell it. There's, there's two companies that sell it. They take the paper source off the, off the drywall. So there's no, no storage 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 dollar mold rip out that I had to. Yeah, it's Miami. You know, you 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. 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.
- [26:58]
Sean French
I love it, man. It's about learning the lesson, right? It's learning the lesson.
- [27:02]
Gil Desert
Learning the lesson. And so you almost have to go through it to get stung to go do it. But at the end, 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 mold in my buildings. And we actually in a way tested it. Not trying to test it, but one of our, one of our residents left her tub on with the hot water running for four months. She came back from, from her, she came back because it was her second home. She opened the Door to the, 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. So we probably. We properly tested it and, and the product is 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.
- [27:55]
Sean French
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, especially. Yeah, I mean, it's wet, but it's more expensive, too.
- [28:08]
Gil Desert
It's 10 to 10. 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. They can't. That 10 is their margin, you know?
- [28:19]
Sean French
Yeah. So, hell, I live in one of those.
- [28:21]
Gil Desert
Yeah. You say, you know, you know the issues. I have friends who tell me the issues all the time. Water leaves.
- [28:27]
Sean French
They throw them shits together quick, bro.
- [28:29]
Gil Desert
Yeah, that's the game. You have to, you know.
- [28:32]
Sean French
But when you're, when you're the, 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? You learn it on the walk through, right? It's like, well, this is wrong. This is wrong. Like, I got. I was dealing with things for a whole year and.
- [28:52]
Gil Desert
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 wrong or accepted some of this or, you know, some other way.
- [29:01]
Sean French
Oh, man. Yeah, it was. It was a journey, my man. It was a journey.
- [29:05]
Gil Desert
Hey, man, that's the unfortunate part about home buying today is, 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 headaches. 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 the buyers would come and they'd be so happy at closing, and then three months later, they'd be all pissed off. Why? Because they. I haven't got my flooring permit. I can't get my shades installed. I can't get. So we really hold their hands and. And help them with that. That stuff because we want. It's not just the, the buying Experience, it's the living experience. We want it to be good.
- [29:38]
Sean French
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. Um, it's just, you know, to me, it just makes sense.
- [29:57]
Gil Desert
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, appreciate me. On the board I have, because I'm sitting on several boards. I understand what costs are across, 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, on eight boards. You want to, you want to do a building? You want to do eight buildings or you want to get one contract? So, so they really appreciate that we can push these guys on, 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 I got to do it. You know, this is my baby, my building. 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 Portion 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, they don't. It's great.
- [31:11]
Sean French
Yeah. You said I'm selling a brochure.
- [31:17]
Gil Desert
Yes.
- [31:18]
Sean French
And, 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, okay, 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.
- [31:38]
Gil Desert
Exactly. And, and, and on. As long as you build the 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. 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 down to the gym, and they have to run back up to your apartment and sweating or whatever. You know, that's not level service. My spas are. Have attended 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. 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 fun stuff in. In our buildings also. From Valentine's Day to this day, you know, all the. All the Cinco de Mayo, every one of our events. I. I told management every event has to start off with a drink, so everybody gets in the mood. You know, it's just a great place to live. People love it there. You know, we have. We had an illusionist coming next week, and so, you know, he's gonna.
- [32:38]
Sean French
No way.
- [32:39]
Gil Desert
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 price between 5 and 8 million dollars. So it's the 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 right up and down the elevator without seeing anybody. So. But everybody being the same kind of socioeconomic level, it's a. It's a kind of. It's a great. It's a great kind of clubhouse over there. And that's awesome.
- [33:09]
Sean French
That's so awesome, man. I just. I need to come over and see it.
- [33:13]
Gil Desert
You should definitely.
- [33:15]
Sean French
Yeah, man.
- [33:16]
Gil Desert
We'll.
- [33:16]
Sean French
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. Little bit of information of what's to come.
- [33:33]
Gil Desert
So I. I don't like saying this, but it's the truth, the, the Bentley is the, is the Porsche Design Tower 2.0. And everybody tells me, don't call it 2.0. It's, it's its own thing, but it's really 2.0. It's the few mistakes we made at Porsche, we bettered over 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.
- [34:04]
Sean French
Interesting.
- [34:05]
Gil Desert
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, 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, and so, 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 1500 square foot balconies that are windless. And I show people by going outside and I light a lighter, you 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 got to be honest, especially in Armani, when people tell me I left my, my cushions out and the wind blew and I came back the next day, you know, and so, and, 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, and it's not, you know, just unless you have staff in the house, which people, people don't. In these little apartments, you know, it's not gonna happen. So, so we created an area where you just, you leave the cushions out all the time. And it's a windless, windless outdoor space that you people are going to be hanging out there all the time. I think that's some wild.
- [35:57]
Sean French
How does one. What are the semantics on that? How would you, how would you be able to block.
- [36:03]
Gil Desert
We started at Porsche, we had the funny. 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 changes all your, all your stuff. But we can maybe add a few panels of glass here. And we did it 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 it's, you can, you can just hang out there. And I said, well, if this is working so well, let's blow out the whole balcony and do it that way. And so by adding an extra layer of skin here, maybe you can actually see here, this is a whole layer of skin here added, added 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 see it, I guess over there, but each one of the balconies is tucked in there and you can. And, and it blocks the wind. It's incredible. It's really incredible. Yeah, it's, it's just.
- [37:10]
Sean French
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, it's an exciting experience, right? And I think it's just bringing.
- [37:22]
Gil Desert
We have to change it up. There's been hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of apartments built in Miami. Everything's the same. Everything's the same cookie cutter. You know, I said, I said, how you ever going to sell in the world where everybody's selling the same crap? So we got to, 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.
- [37:44]
Sean French
So, yeah, I wish more people were. Were dialed into that. Like, hey, would I. Would I buy this? 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. And cutting costs wherever they can so the margin's 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.
- [38:09]
Gil Desert
That's the idea.
- [38:10]
Sean French
Yeah, man. Well, I look forward to getting over there and meeting 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.
- [38:29]
Gil Desert
I love it. Love it. I'd love to host you here in Florida. You know, the elevator ride is cool, but at the end of the day, it's an elevator ride.
- [38:37]
Sean French
Elevator, right.
- [38:39]
Gil Desert
It's a little bit unique, but it's. It's. What happens is the cool factor goes away after. 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?
- [38:51]
Sean French
Well, the other thing, too, is, like, I'm working through 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 Caloosahatchee River. I mean, it's the best as you're gonna get where we are, right? Unless you're on the beach. And I don't want to be there. Not. Not in the Gulf. Um, but the first time that we went grocery shopping, Gil, I hated my freaking life, dude. I. I'm sitting there in my vehicle. I'm like, all right, cool. I'm like. Like, I. Like, how am I gonna get this up? I'm like, so I gotta 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, nope, we're doing. We're doing Instacart. I'm not. I'm not doing anything but that.
- [39:47]
Gil Desert
And. And the Valets of the building should be helping everything out. But, but in with a deserter, you go right up, you pull it out. I felt that too. I, 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 fanciest address and this and that. Yep. There's like 25 units per building or 40 units per building. Something really small. We got this, the insurance paid for this mega unit that we're. 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 well, like what, 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, you show up to the front door and there's six guys on the car and with bottles of water for you and everything else. Yeah.
- [40:37]
Sean French
And it's amazing.
- [40:38]
Gil Desert
Yeah, it's amazing. We really, I believe that, that operating it in a five star level adds as much value as the real estate itself. And so that's why all my, all my properties are really run like five star hotels.
- [40:50]
Sean French
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.
- [40:57]
Gil Desert
They're paying maintenance, six, seven, $8,000 a month. And the fact that they get free water makes them happy. It's, it's almost comical. But you know, that's, I get it.
- [41:06]
Sean French
Yeah, I get it, man. That's awesome. Well, well, look, thank you so much for coming on, talking about what you guys are doing and providing the audience a, a different feel of things. Right. I haven't had a developer on before and this is really cool direction and you know, we're, I'm, 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, if you got something out of the episode, which I think you did, share this episode with a development expert. Share it with someone who loves cars. Share it with somebody who loves luxury living and loves luxury living in South Florida. 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.
- [42:00]
Sharp French. What up? This one. Luck. I let the pain inspire me. I put my all in everything I'm doing up until it's done. I mean for the entirety I put it in no baton I'll be working Just know I'mma go for mine Cause I earned it they watch and I know it's time I confirmed it the whole society determined, determined.