JULY / AUGUST 2013
Our Guests
Our guests reflected the rich variety in Miami’s real estate sector. Marcell Felipe was born in Cuba and entered the US as a refugee at the age of four. He qualified as a lawyer and is now the principal of a highly successful Miami law firm specialising in commercial law, real estate law and immigration.
Hercules Pimenta (
www.herculespimenta.com) is Brazilian and is a broker with long-established Elite International Realty. He specialises in sales to Brazilians and other South American buyers. Irina Rostova (
www.rostovaconsulting.com) is a Russian American attorney who specialises in the field of immigration using the EB5 program, with a special interest in Russians. Pete Menzez is President of Miami Capital Management LLC (
www.miami-capital.com), which specialises in Miami Commercial Real Estate. As a hobby, he runs a company selling toilet rolls to Venezuela. Juan Alvarez is a realtor with Zilbert International Realty (
www.zilbert.com), who specialise in the sale of luxury properties in Miami.
Gaetano Bellavista Caltagirone is Italian and President of Recoen Florida (
www.recoenflorida.com). The Recoen Group, based like many good Italian companies in Monaco, is a major international developer responsible for large projects all over the world. John Ainsworth is another attorney, working with Marcell Felipe (
www.marcellfelipe.com) and specialising in immigration to Florida. He is of Scottish extraction. Jose Canero junior and senior are, respectively, President and Founder of the Canero Group (www.
canerogroup.com). They specialise in sourcing land for local developers. Jose senior has been active in Miami since the 1970s and is given a large part of the credit (or blame!) for where Miami is today.
leaving the banks to pick up the loss. Okay, it hurt their credit rating for a while; but it brought prices crashing down.” Jose Canero added another important point, familiar around the world: “There was also huge over-construction. There was just no market for the thousands of apartments being built in downtown Miami.” He is well equipped to comment. He did the math and advised all his contacts
and clients to get out of the market months before the crash. That, and what he did next, is another story.
SO WHAT HAS CHANGED? Hercules Pimenta was clear: “Cash. Today almost all of our buyers are buying without a mortgage. Many in South America had always dreamt of a house in Miami. With the new prices they could not only have one but also see its potential for long
term growth in value.” The same is true of the other nationalities buying in town.
According to Juan Alvarez, 80% of wealthy Venezuelans now own a property in Miami.
WHO IS BUYING IN MIAMI? Marcell Felipe thinks that, as far as the South American market is concerned, Miami is in a win-win situation. “When countries such as
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