Jorge Pérez speaks with a frankness that is not usually heard in businessmen who manage portfolios of billions of dollars. He speaks as someone who does not need to sell himself, but rather extend his footprint and legacy.
Pérez, founder and president of Related Group – the largest private developer in Florida, with more than 120,000 units built in the United States, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico – spoke with Forbes México exclusively, during his stay in Mexico City when presenting Thompson Mexico City, a thin, high-rise tower, next to the Angel of Independence. The project combines hotel, residences and high-end amenities with an emphasis that he repeats several times during the conversation: art, service and belonging.
“It’s an iconic project,” he says. “It is a thin tower, very tall. We look for what we believe are the best architects and designers. For example, Piero Lissoni, who for me is one of the great interior designers in the world, is working with us. When I saw the place I fell in love. I don’t think there is a better location than this. That’s why I immediately bought an apartment overlooking the Angel,” says the 76-year-old businessman.
The model: hotel, residences and lifestyle
Thompson Mexico City’s approach responds to a very specific consumer that Pérez knows well: the buyer with high purchasing power who needs to be in Mexico City – for work, for cultural life, for family – but who demands five-star hotel-type service standards and, at the same time, a unit that functions as a heritage asset.
“We wanted to make apartments that weren’t too big,” he explains. “We are serving two very clear profiles: one, people who do not have many children or do not have children; and two, businessmen who live in other parts of Mexico but do a lot of business in Mexico City. We also have many Mexicans who live in Houston, in Dallas, who want to have an apartment here to be able to visit. And when they are not using it, they can rent it.”
That last sentence reveals his strategy. You are not just selling housing. You are selling performance. Its model defines it as a complete ecosystem: hotel services, amenities focused on well-being, gastronomy with its own seal, bar, spa, gym, concierge, room serviceprofessional rental operation when the owner is away. “We’re trying to make life easier,” he says. “That you have everything resolved inside the building,” is how he defines it.
Pérez has a word for that: “biosphere“. A self-sufficient micro-universe. “What we are doing is trying to make life easier and also have great design. Many of us, like me, like to be surrounded by art, by good things. If you want to have dinner, the restaurant will raise the food for you. If you want to watch a movie with your children, you have a movie theater inside the building. If you want to train, you have a real exercise center.”
His reading of the buyer is very frank: the new definition of luxury is not marble, it is control over time.
CDMX is no longer a trip: it is an operational base
The interesting thing is who is buying. The demand no longer comes only from abroad looking for “exotic Mexican experience.” It comes from corporate and migrant Mexico itself.
“Mexico, outside the United States, is our largest market,” says Pérez. “We have a very well-established company here. We have a magnificent team. And we have a very good local partner. I always believe that you cannot enter another country without a local partner.”
Some of Related’s flagship projects have been built or are under construction in Vallarta, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Lomas, Mexico City. He lists without hesitation: in Vallarta, a project with Philippe Starck, three towers sold “in months”; 70% of inventory sold before construction is completed; prices that tripled after delivery. In Cancún, four towers have been completely sold and a fifth is on the way. In Playa del Carmen, more than 300 units planned between jungle and beach in a development that they are “completely redoing.”
And even with a strong presence in beach destinations, it insists that the capital is the platform. To understand its reading you have to listen to the context: Mexico City is no longer just a gastronomic and cultural destination that you go out to consume for the weekend. It is a city where you want to live more often, operate businesses, receive clients and invest in real estate capital.
Design and art as sales assets
“As you know, we have a very important art collection. The art you see is not decorator’s art. It is a very well done curatorship,” he says. “We look for artists, especially contemporary Mexican artists. We have a very strong collection of Mexican artists, and we place that collection in our buildings. Then (the property) becomes a work of art.”
In this regard, he remembers an anecdote from Miami that happened a few years ago and exemplifies the power of art and its vision. “Instead of putting the typical illuminated fountain at the entrance of a luxury condominium, we installed a monumental African sculpture that spoke of slavery, religion and diaspora. There were residents who protested, but when they listened to the artist and understood the meaning of the work, the next day no one wanted the piece to be removed. Thus (the work) ended up being the symbol of the building,” says the owner of Related Group.
“Art has changed my life and I think it changes people’s lives, because it helps you understand the world in a different and fuller way. When I put up good art (not art that matches the sofa) I know that that person’s life is going to change. Each building comes with a book, we have a meeting with the tenants and we explain why it is there.”
The businessman, the collector, the philanthropist
Part of the conversation with Pérez moves away from the square meter and closer to legacy. He talks about a major medical surgery he faced, and still continues to eat what he loves, but he also talks about the future in terms of cultural impact.
“Real estate is very important,” he says. “I love sitting with minds that are much more creative than mine, looking for land, looking for architects, designers. But the most important thing for me is philanthropy,” he says.
“I want to leave as a legacy that we not only create beautiful buildings that help the city, but we also try to equalize social and economic differences,” he says. For this reason, he signed the Giving Pledge, which commits him to donating at least 50% of his assets during his lifetime. “I love getting involved in that. I love trying to ensure that as many people as possible have the same opportunities that I had, who came to the United States penniless,” recalls Pérez.
For him, business, art and philanthropy are not three separate chapters. They are the same flow. “I tell him a seamless process. Art feeds business, business feeds philanthropy, and philanthropy impacts art. It gives me money to do the things I like, and at the same time change lives,” he says.
Interview and text by: José Alfredo Beto, director of Regional Content Forbes Mexico.
