South Florida tourism promoters courting same-sex wedding business

By Hannah Sampson

hsampson@MiamiHerald.com

01/05/2015 6:44 PM

Tourism boosters around Florida are hearing wedding bells — and seeing dollar signs — now that same-sex marriage is legal in the state.

Already major players in the competitive destination wedding industry, some of state’s top tourist draws are promoting their beaches and grand hotels as the perfect spots for gay and lesbian couples to wed.

While tourism bureaus have long courted LGBT visitors, who tend to be affluent and well-traveled, officials say the legalization of weddings will give them new avenues.

For the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, that means the annual wedding-focused “Miami Romance Month” in February will include promotions for same-sex weddings; in Broward, a mass beach wedding in February for straight and gay couples is in the works. And the promotional arm of the Florida Keys will start running banner ads on hundreds of websites that reach LGBT audiences.

Rolando Aedo, chief marketing officer for Miami-Dade’s CVB, said the bureau has already been promoting the Miami area as a destination for commitment ceremonies between same-sex couples as well as a perfect spot for honeymoons.

“But of course with this, we have a tremendous opportunity to elevate that part of the discussion — and the timing is perfect,” he said.

Starting Tuesday, the Miami-Dade bureau will start running a social media promotion asking gay and lesbian couples for their love stories; the winners will get a weekend stay in Miami Beach.

While a spokeswoman for Visit Florida said the state’s official tourism marketing corporation is not planning any immediate marketing or ad blitzes related to LGBT weddings, South Florida tourism offices were rushing to reiterate their history of support for same-sex travelers and their excitement about the court rulings legalizing gay marriage.

“One of the things we really wanted to do is let our friends in the LGBT community around the country know that we have finally gotten the opportunity we have been working for and fighting for, which is to have them legally married in one of their favorite places to vacation,” said Nicki Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The tourism office on Friday announced a “Love is Love” initiative that will launch with the mass sunrise beach wedding in Fort Lauderdale.

Grossman said the bureau’s wedding point person — called an “Ambassador of Bliss” — will be available to help additional couples plan their events across Broward County. (One couple, Grossman said, has already inquired about the possibility of a Sawgrass Mills wedding.) Grossman said she expects to see as many as 100 same-sex weddings a month over the next year.

A report from the Williams Institute, a national think tank at the UCLA School of Law, estimates that 24,248 same-sex couples will marry in Florida during the first three years it is legal. Those weddings, according to the report, would generate $182.2 million to the state and local economy and create between 875 and 2,626 jobs in the tourism and recreation sector.

In Broward, 1.3 million LGBT travelers visited the county in 2013, according to the tourism bureau. Richard Gray, the CVB’s managing director for the LGBT market, said he expects the legalization of weddings to drive that figure up even more.

“We can grow the market even more now in my opinion,” he said.

The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables will reintroduce a campaign it ran in 2013 during the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival featuring photos of three couples — straight, gay and lesbian — getting married on its lavish grounds.

“There’s no doubt that this was going to happen, regardless of when it was going to happen,” said Natalia Plasencia, the hotel’s director of catering. “So I wanted to make sure that our position was clear and not that it was something we were jumping on the bandwagon afte the fact.”

Plasencia said the hotel has hosted small, intimate commitment ceremonies in the past for same-sex couples, but she expects more locals to plan huge blowout events now.

In the Florida Keys, where cities from Key Largo to Key West already do a booming destination wedding business, promoters will fold same-sex weddings into marketing campaigns. In addition to digital ads that will start running Tuesday, the Monroe County Tourist Development Council will run print ads in upcoming months.

“The whole destination wedding is a lot of money, not only from all the guests that come down from everywhere and stay in our lodgings and accommodations, but also all the facets around weddings,” said Harold Wheeler, director of the council. “That just puts a lot of money within the community.”

Bobby Kyser, whose Wilton Manors event planning company Panache Style is responsible for decor at next month’s giant beach wedding in Broward, has been anticipating this moment since last year.

In August, he organized a Gay Nuptials expo for same-sex couples preparing to get married. At that point, he said, many were flying to New York to legally exchange vows and then returning home to South Florida for celebrations.

“That’s what they did before,” Kyser said. “But now it’s all going to happen here.”

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Jordache buys Setai Hotel on Miami Beach for $90 million

By Rene Rodriguez

rrodriguez@MiamiHerald.com

   

The Jordache look, a quaint relic of the 1980s, is coming back in style in a different way.

Nakash Holdings, the investment company controlled by the designer jeans firm Jordache Enterprises, announced Wednesday it has purchased the 120-room Setai Hotel, one of Miami Beach’s most vaunted celebrity haunts, for about $90million.

The Setai is the latest acquisition by Jordache, which bought the Versace Mansion last year for a reported $41.5 million, and also owns five other hotels in the area, including the Breakwater Hotel and the Hotel Victor.

“The Setai is really the crown jewel of Miami Beach,” said Jonathan Bennett, managing director of Nakash Holdings, the real estate division of Jordache. “It is the epitome of luxury in that city. We’ve enjoyed spending time there, and when it came up for sale, we knew it was something that would be a great fit for us. It’s special and unique, and there’s nothing else on the Beach that can compete with it.”

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With 85 hotel suites and another 35 condo units, the price averages out to $750,000 per room. That makes it one of the highest per-room sales ever in Miami Beach, said Scott Brush, a Miami-based hotel consultant. The condo units are privately owned, but most can be rented through the hotel program.

“There have been some really high numbers recently — numbers that five years ago would have you committed to an asylum,” Brush said. “Rumors have it that the Delano might be available for $1million a room. We’re also talking about a market, Miami Beach, where the numbers have gone through the roof. You can still pay more in New York City or San Francisco, but for an area that did so poorly for so long, it has really come into its own in the past few years. As occupancy numbers go up, so do the value of the hotels.”

Built originally in 1938 as the Art Deco-styled Dempsey Vanderbilt Hotel, the hotel at 2001 Collins Ave. was renovated in 2004 and augmented by a 40-foot tower that is home to one, two and three-bedroom condos ranging in size from 900 to 3,500 square feet. Conceived partly by Aman Resorts founder Adrian Zecha, the beachfront Asian-inspired grounds include an interior courtyard pool surrounded by pergolas and an expansive outdoor pool garden. In 2013, readers of Conde Nast Traveler voted it the best hotel in Miami Beach and No.2 in Florida.

Past guests have included Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Hudson and Dylan McDermott. Its hotel suites bring some of the highest rates on Miami Beach, with a one-night stay on Jan. 4 starting at $1,360 plus tax; according to the hotel website, it is sold out through Jan. 2. In 2013, a full-floor, 7,100-square-foot condo unit on the building’s 40th floor sold for a record-setting $27 million — just over $3,800 per square foot.

Bennett said the current contract with the management firm that operates the condo portion of the facility expires early next year. He said the decision has not been made whether to renew or go in a different direction.

Jordache’s interest in Miami Beach won’t stop with the Setai, he said.

“We own several other properties there and the chairman of our company [Joe Nakash] has a residence on Fisher Island, so he spends a lot of time there,” Bennett said. “We’re going to continue to seek out these kinds of opportunities and add to our portfolio as they come along.”

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Russian ruble’s skip hits Miami realty market

Written by Susan Danseyar on December 23, 2014, Miami Today

Residential brokers who help Russians find homes in Miami say the plunging value of the ruble will probably affect their clients in a variety of ways, including apprehension over buying and renting here alongside higher motivation to place their money in a more secure country.

Russians are already buying in Miami and they know the market, said Anita Funtek, broker at The Boscolo Realty and CEO of the Miami New Construction Show.

“Their buying power is definitely shrinking as the ruble is falling, but as they have doubts in the future of the Russian economy, their motivation is higher to place their savings to a more secure country,” she said. “Many just want to stop their loss right now and, if they were planning to buy in the last couple of months, the current situation is helping them to make the decision faster.”

Ms. Funtek has a large number of Russian clients in Sunny Isles where there’s a community of Russian stores, restaurants and newspapers. She said there’s also a growing Russian population in Hollywood and Golden Beach.

It’s difficult to be a fortuneteller, she said, but the falling ruble could increase as easily as decrease the number of Russians buying and renting property in the Miami area.

“I just returned from a month-long trip to Ukraine and Russia where I talked to many friends who are worried about the ruble,” Ms. Funtek said. “Just like in the stock market crash, some want to stop the loss and put their money in a safe haven because they don’t feel they have a future in Russia; others are hesitant to buy and want to wait until the market improves.”

At the beginning of the year, $1 bought 33 rubles. The escalating currency crisis began in the second half of 2014 due to the fall in the price of oil, a major export of Russia, along with the international economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and European Union following President Vladimir Putin’s military intervention in Ukraine.

Last week, the Russian ruble steadied around 62.5 against the US dollar after Russian authorities announced Dec. 18 measures to ease banking regulations and encourage exporters to sell foreign currency. On Dec. 19, Mr. Putin endorsed the Russian central bank’s raising its key interest rate 6.5 percentage points to 17%, its highest since 2003.

The exchange rate from rubles to dollars results in properties that are twice as expensive for Russian buyers and current condo owners, said Irina Kim Sang, broker/associate for Coldwell Banker Miami Beach.

“The devaluation of the ruble and oil price decrease is distressing a lot of Russians,” she said. “I’ve seen the effect of this confusion and worry in my daily practice for the past three months.”

There will be a number of consequences, Ms. Sang said. “Those who have invested $1 million plus [for a condo] have at least $1,000 in monthly fees,” she said. “With the ruble devalued, they’re paying double the amount for maintenance and, should they only be using the property for three to six months of the year, they may want to sell.”

For her affluent Russian clients who have an investment portfolio of homes, sometimes three or more in Miami and elsewhere around the world, Ms. Sang doesn’t believe they are concerned with finances.

However, Ms. Sang said, political instability and the uncertainty of getting a visa might affect people of all income levels if they can’t travel to their vacation home.

“There are people in Russia who don’t want to immigrate and are more interested in investing their money in property here,” she said. “They prefer a tourist visa so they don’t have to pay worldwide income taxes.”

With the shrinking ruble and the possibility that the problem will continue to loom, Ms. Sang said there’s a potential for clients who might be interested in committing to immigration through an EB-5 visa, bringing investment to Miami for an approved regional center project. Those people, she said,  are potential homebuyers. 

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