Long known for its pristine beaches and pleasant year-round climate, Miami has gained attention during the pandemic because Wall Street Southa refuge for Northern financiers.
Attracted in part by lower taxes, a flood of wealthy people and big businesses have migrated south to the Miami area in recent years. Companies such as Ken Griffin’s Citadel hedge fund and Paul Singer’s Elliott Management have moved their headquarters to the city and others like Goldman Sachs, black stone, and Point72 have expanded their presence there. Thanks in part to this financial migration, the city has 75% more millionaires than ten years ago, according to a 2023 report.
Yet one of the city’s most prominent billionaire residents, Barry Sternlicht, CEO of real estate giant Starwood Capital Group, said Miami still needs to improve education before it can become America’s new financial capital.
Talk to David Westin of Bloomberg TelevisionSternlicht said there aren’t enough private schools in Miami and that’s preventing the city from attracting the talent it needs to reach the next level.
“A lot of companies would go bankrupt if they could put their employees’ children through school, which is impossible,” Sternlicht said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Indeed, demand has far outstripped supply at some of the region’s most popular private schools, according to the New York Post. In order to secure places at top area schools such as Gulliver, Ransom Everglades and Miami Country Day School, where the children of Tom Brady and model Gisele Bündchen attend, wealthy parents reportedly offered five-figure donations (in plus tens of thousands of dollars for tuition) to try to enroll their children, according to the Job.
In 2018, Sternlicht moved Starwood from Greenwich, Conn., to Miami, where it built a new six-story, 144,430-square-foot headquarters. a block from the Miami Beach boardwalk. The company has about 5,000 employees in 16 offices around the world and manages $115 billion in assets, according to its website.
Sternlicht has taken a liking to Miami, where he owns a waterfront home on North Bay Road. The land alone costs $17 million in 2015.
Besides Sternlicht, some of Miami’s most famous newcomers include former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn also a house there.
Griffin in particular has brought many wealthy employees to the Miami area since he moved his hedge fund from Chicago to Miami in 2022. Sternlicht said the rush of financial types that followed Griffin would help the area grow.
“They alone decided that they were going to make Miami the financial capital of the United States and they have the power to do it,” Sternlicht told Bloomberg. “If I was really smart, I would just buy all the houses in Coral Gables and sell them to Citadel employees as they moved out.”
Although some have said that Miami real estate is overvaluedSternlicht said he has confidence in the city because of the great attention it has already received.
“I don’t think Miami has peaked,” he said. “I think Miami and Florida have cycles because they’re overbuilt, but they’re higher and higher cycles. You just need to have the stamina to hold on. »
