A pair of luxury realtors led a life of debauchery that has caught up to them. Katherine Kallergis and Sheridan Wall of The Real Deal joins Billy Corben to talk about what led up to the arrests of Tal, Oren, and Alon Alexander, and what happens now. Plus, Daniel Figueredo, the owner of the popular restaurant Sanguich, comes on to tell us how Miami commissioner Joe Carollo tried to destroy his business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Okay, I have to tell you, I was just looking on eBay where I go for all kinds of things I love, and there it was.
That hologram trading card. One of the rarest. The last one I needed for my set.
Shiny like the designer handbag of my dreams. One of a kind. eBay had it. And now everyone's asking, ooh, where'd you get your windshield wipers?
eBay has all the parts that fit my car. No more annoying. Just beautiful.
Whatever you love, find it on eBay. eBay. Things people love.
December.
We could have a big ho-ho-ho. He looks like a giant toddler and he likes to beat his wife. Beat his wife, beat his wife.
I have hit women.
One time Joe fell off a ladder and he le rompio la pinga. His esposa says it's broken in their sex life. D.O.A. He's so mad at meetings that his head just might explode. Commissioner, come and get us. Oh, and did I mention that he cannot get it up? Sociopathic bully Joe, el es culo de burrito. No one talks to him on Christmas cause his daughters hate his guts, hate his guts, hate his guts.
Both his daughters hate his guts, hate his guts, hate his guts. Feeble, evil little putts. Oh, my dad's hurting my mom. What happened? Oh, my dad's hurting my mom.
Ha, ha.
It's a very Carollo Christmas. Happy holidays to everyone, except Miami's biggest bully and most corrupt commissioner. And to you, Roy. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. Happy Hanukkah to you. Shalom. Yeah. Looks like David Sampson was here. I see the menorah on the desk. Is he in there somewhere? Dave? Crushed by one of the candles. How are you doing, Roy? You all right?
I haven't seen you in a minute.
Yeah, I've been on vacation all of last week. So, that's why.
Riding the Zamboni around Miramar? What are you doing? What did you do?
Yeah, the Zamboni floats. I was on a ship. Oh. Really? For about a week. So, yeah. I'm refreshed somewhat. Now, I'm tired again.
Yeah. It took four days.
It actually took one.
You're like, f*** this. Yeah. We have a fun show. It's not really that fun. It's kind of intense. Wait until you listen. It's a real bonbon. I've actually got one of my favorite entrepreneurs in Miami, the owner of Sandwich de Miami, the best Cuban sandwich shop in the world. Daniel and his wife Rosa built one of the great Miami brands.
I think it's going to be hugely successful if they can only get their next door open in Miami, which it turns out not as business friendly as Mayor Francis Suarez would have you believe. Also, we are talking first about the Alexander Brothers, who this is an unbelievable story of power and privilege and now allegedly serial gang rape for the last several decades. I mean, this is a... Fun show.
The Miami story for the ages. And if it turns out to be true, they're going to do a lot of time. But there is a fun show that I can recommend to you.
Okay.
What if I told you that a Miami developer... And part-time Medicare fraudster by the name of Roberto Antonio Francisco Emilio Rorigo de Leon. I'm in already. What's his name again? Roberto Antonio Francisco Emilio Rorigo de Leon. A descendant. The lion. A descendant. Yes, he is the lion of Lincoln Road. He is a descendant, he claims.
of Spanish explorer, conquistador, and Florida colonizer, Juan Ponce de Leon. Well, he said he was searching, the claim was, you know, he was searching for the fountain of youth, but he wasn't. He was here to colonize Florida. Some people say it was a Ponce scheme. I'm waiting for it.
So he is planning on demolishing the entire 1100 block of Lincoln Road, where the Regal Movie Theater and the Brito stores. The entire section? The entire block. Because he's going to build a 75-story luxury hotel, condos. You know, we need housing. And these condos start at $3 million. And in addition to world-class entertainment and restaurants, there is going to be a...
Multi-level, 180,000 square foot Vegas-style casino. The first legal casino in the history of Miami Beach. A place where every hotel used to have a bookie working, you know, semi-secretly. And obviously, Lincoln Road's not a protected landmark. Now, here's the thing. Everything I told you is not true. Okay.
This is the premise of a new play called Lincoln Road Hustle that is opening this weekend at Miami New Drama on Lincoln Road. And the premise of the show is the audience comes to the ceremonial groundbreaking of this giant casino. So you're right there on the 1100 block of Lincoln Road. And it's like this huge press conference.
And then you put on these headphones and you start to walk around Lincoln Road with tour guides and five little groups. And you hear these different scenes happening around Lincoln Road around this groundbreaking. And it all kind of comes together in this crazy ending. But what's wild is that Lincoln Road is the stage. So people just walking by or people having dinner, they're like in the play.
Everybody's just in the play and crazy shit happens. It's totally unpredictable. On the first night of previews, there was a block party. So like people were just out on our stage basically where the actors are walking and talking. And at the movie theater, someone pulled the fire alarm. So the entire theater emptied out onto Lincoln Road where everybody was performing. So I co-wrote the play.
It's a lot of fun. It's a fun night out. It's a five drink minimum. It's not just for financial reasons. It also makes the show a little bit better, a little social lubrication. You think comedy clubs have two drink minimums because they want to make money? It's like, no, they want you to laugh. But it's a lot of fun. If you go to DeLeonCasino.com. You can learn more and get tickets.
It's a great Hanukkah present, and it's playing now through February 16th, so also a nice Valentine's Day weekend.
Dr. King holiday.
And I know a guy, so whenever you want tickets, 10% off, Roy. Okay.
10% off. Not only are you the middleman, you're the first man as well.
Prominent real estate brokers with ties to Miami Beach and New York arrested for their involvement in a sex trafficking scheme that dates back over a decade.
Power, prestige, celebrity and money is what authorities in South Florida and New York say the Alexander brothers used to lure women and sexually assault them. The siblings known for their ties to very high-end real estate. The Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office says three South Florida women in three separate cases have come forward.
The twins and older brother Tal Alexander are also being charged to New York.
The Alexander brothers worked together and with others to repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault, and rape dozens of female victims.
This is one of... the most sensational and salacious stories of power, privilege, and perversion to come out of Miami in quite some time, which is quite an achievement, you have to think, in this town. How much time are we talking about? Like two weeks? Yes, at least in the last two. I would give it two years. But...
You know, real estate is the number one industry in Miami and Miami is the number two, I think, luxury real estate market in the world behind Dubai, if I'm not mistaken. And the Alexander Brothers and their so-called A-Team are among the top luxury brands. real estate agents in Manhattan, Miami, the Hamptons, I think London, Colorado for a while.
They're all over the place where there is luxury real estate. I think they're ranked like the number one medium-sized realtor teams in the nation for years running. They've done over a billion dollars a year in transactions. Their celebrity clients included Adam Neumann, Timbaland, Tommy Hilfiger,
They sold Ken Griffin his $238 million penthouse in Central Park South in 2019, which was then the most expensive real estate listing in the U.S. In Miami, they were famously Jared and Ivanka's realtor, sold him a $24 million home in the billionaire bunker next to neighbors like Tom Brady. These were like boy wonders and very well known.
And they lived a lifestyle, a high rolling lifestyle that like matched their their clientele as well. And so they were very well known. It turns out not all that well liked. And I will tell you in this story broke five months ago. It was like nobody in Miami was shocked. It was like Harvey Weinstein. It was like this worst kept secret, it seemed.
We have joining us now the journalism team from The Real Deal, The Preeminent, Real Estate, Periodical, Online, and Elsewhere. This team are the ones who broke the story five months ago. So before we get into the breaking news of just this week, which is the indictments, multiple indictments, Catherine Kalergis and Sheridan Wall
You broke this story five months ago, and the story at the time was then civil lawsuits by multiple women against some variation of these of these brothers. There's the twins and then there's another. So give us the lay of the land first on what was the breaking news five months ago before we kind of catch up to where we are today.
We started reporting on this in June. We got a tip that something was going on, and so we searched for lawsuits that had been filed against, you know, any of the brothers, Oren, Tal, or Elan, and Sheridan found the the two lawsuits in New York, and they were filed against Oren and his twin, Alon. So Oren is in real estate. Alon is in his family's private security business.
And that's kind of how it got started. And then we started to hear from other alleged survivors of the brothers. And there was additional reporting in other publications with other accounts. And that's kind of how it got going.
sheridan what were the allegations being made in these lawsuits and and how far back did they date so the initial two lawsuits that were filed um the alleged incidents occurred more than a decade ago um so it was pretty long ago and they were accused of rape in the lawsuits um and then there were two additional lawsuits that were filed like pretty soon after um one of which
named tall for the first time um in any of these allegations um that one was also about rape um and then another lawsuit named just oren um also alleging that he committed rape and was there a in terms of i know that the facts are are disturbing but was there
or the allegations were disturbing. Did a kind of pattern or practice emerge? Was there an M.O. here? Did they occasionally diverge from the M.O.? What did you learn early on about the allegations and how perhaps these alleged predators were preying?
Early on, the allegations sort of matched what came out in the indictment later, which was that some of the women alleged that they had been drugged or they felt like they had been drugged prior to any incidents occurring.
One woman alleged that she had met Oren on a dating app, which later on, the prosecutors in the indictment had mentioned a sort of pattern that they had created, one of which was to meet women on dating apps through social media. Some of the women had met Oren and Elan or Tal or a variation of the three on the scene, going out to clubs, some mostly in New York City.
So they had kind of met socially or at least in the nightlife, if not through other people that they knew. And then later on, more reporting surfaced from other allegations that were not in lawsuits. But, you know, that included a mix of women who said that they'd met the brothers, you know, some through work as real estate agents.
And Catherine, the some of the allegations are these women were victimized by one of the men or one of the brothers. Others claim that there were that I think gang rape is is one of the allegations and in fact, one of the charges now this week. What happened? What are the allegations? What is the the M.O. here?
And a lot of this happened in Miami Beach, I understand, as well, or in and around Miami.
Yeah, they grew up in Miami. They went to high school here. The indictment that was filed in the Southern District in New York goes back to high school that they allegedly gang raped girls when they were in high school. It's as recent as in the Miami case, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's case, The incidents that they cite allegedly occurred in 2016, 2017 and 2021.
So it's like it's a very wide range of time where these attacks allegedly, you know, these alleged attacks occurred. But it's it's start, you know, it's it's dating back to high school.
And I think the attorneys involved have alleged that as many as 40, if not more women have come forward with allegations. Is that I mean, and if this does date back to high school, it could be, I mean, multiples of that number.
Yeah, exactly. One of the plaintiff's attorneys had said to us early on, you know, that he had heard from I can't remember exactly how many. Do you remember Sheridan?
But it was at the time that we had talked to him, it was 28 in addition to the two that had already filed lawsuits. And that was six months ago, right?
Yeah, it was about five, six months ago. So that number just kind of increased significantly.
So Sheridan, catching up to this week, two things happened. There was an indictment, a federal indictment for sex trafficking in the Southern District of New York. And then there was state charges of rape against two of the brothers and I believe a cousin who still was still at large.
And the other brothers were arrested by the FBI in their homes in Miami Beach and I believe the Miami Beach Police Department as well. Can you kind of parse out what's happened here with the federal versus the state of Florida charges?
Yes. So in in New York, they are facing a federal charge of sex trafficking conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. They will. Yesterday at a press conference, the U.S. attorney, Damian Williams, said that they will work on bringing them to New York to face those charges. But for right now, they're in Miami. They were they went in front of a judge this morning for a bond hearing. They were denied.
bail or bond for one on for Oren for one of the charges. He's facing three in Miami and Alon for the sole charge that he's facing there. So these cases are they are separate. But the U.S. attorney did thank the Miami FBI, the Miami PD for cooperating. So they are kind of, you know, in tandem on this arrest, at least. And they are aware of the ongoing cases in each jurisdiction.
That is a rough trip without bond. That is the Con Air trip. I think that's a bus and two planes in custody for guys that are used to a very different kind of a lifestyle, not only selling luxury, but living in luxury in some of the most expensive and beautiful cities of the world. Catherine, what is I guess what is the difference?
Just so we understand between the state charges and the state seems to get much more specific. Federal fields a little broad to me reading the indictment.
Yeah. So the state is more specific because they name, you know, these like incidents with with alleged victims, you know, using their initials. It's interesting because Tal is not facing any state charges. So he is currently in federal custody in Miami. I believe that, you know, eventually the federal case will take over. I don't know exactly when that happens, but.
But for now, they you know, they went before Judge Mindy Glaser this morning. They'll go back before a different judge tomorrow morning. I just believe that the federal will trump will trump the state case, you know, the state charges.
This question, I guess, last question is for the both of you. You work for therealdeal.com. This is a real estate periodical. Is that still a thing? Do we call things periodicals? No, in magazines, right? Periodical means it's distributed periodically or released periodically. Are you figuring it out, Billy? I don't know. I'm feeling old. I just felt really old saying that. Periodical, yeah.
The old-timey periodical. Anyway, sorry. I digress.
Get on a newsstand.
Yeah. Yes. I'm going to go down to the newsstand, to Hudson News at the airport. Oh, my God. But this is for both of you. So let's talk about the reaction in the real estate community itself. Because obviously there is the tragedy of this situation for the accusers and the alleged victims. But...
I mean, the way I've heard it described down here in Miami is schadenfreude is the description I've heard. I mean, what they had a bit of a reputation for ruthlessness in their business. So can you tell us, I guess, Sharon, you could get first and Catherine, you could wrap us up.
What has been the reaction from the people that you've talked to who are colleagues, peers, coworkers, et cetera, in the luxury real estate world?
So you're right that, you know, initially we had heard from several people who said that they had, you know, that there were rumors circulating about them for years. And what exactly those rumors were, you know, we don't necessarily know. And there's definitely a large difference between
you know, the kinds of charges that are being levied against them now, which is really extreme rape and sexual assault, sexual battery. There's certainly a big difference between that and just, you know, womanizing and dating around and and being kind of ruthless in business and, you know, really being in the party scene and really, you know, being around lots of women.
So to the extent that like, you know, Were those rumors related to, you know, things such as extreme as what is laid out? We don't necessarily know, but it didn't, you know, some of the people we talked to pretty regularly, it didn't necessarily surprise them. Real estate is a business where, you know, a lot of
agents are they're all 1099 contract employees so workplaces don't always function the same way as um traditional you know corporate roles so people rely a lot on relationships and building connections and you know your your money comes from the business that you do and um the connections that you have and so you know kind of
if you're especially for agents that are newer or, you know, they're kind of looking at these guys that have made such a name for themselves in the industry and are kind of at the top of of the game, it's intimidating to come forward with any kind of, you know, allegations.
So certainly, you know, within the industry, it's it's tough to, you know, stand up for yourself when you're in an environment, you know, where all the money you make and all of the other kind of clout you get just comes from from your reputation.
Yeah, and I think too, like what was interesting, and I don't know that we necessarily expected this, was when the story, when our first story came out about the two lawsuits in June, our Instagram comments blew up. I don't know if you've seen that, Billy, but, and they've continued to.
And it's been a place where people are talking about what they, you know, what they knew, what they'd heard, other, you know, alleged survivors were posting. So it was just like, I think that, they allegedly operated in a way that in business and personally where it was very high pressure and people, in a way people are living paycheck to paycheck and they're living commission to commission.
So like Sheridan said, it's different. Like you have to rely on these relationships. And I think by none of this coming out until now, it just kind of like fueled itself.
Yeah, justice delayed is not only justice denied in a case like this, but it allows the runway for additional praying if that's in fact what happened here. Obviously, with the allegations, if they are in fact proven, there were many more victims that perhaps did not have to be victimized because this was like.
kept on the on the down low as it was, and I think is proven by your the response to your Instagram and in your comments. There may not have been any justice here at all for these alleged victims, if not for your reporting, because it was the amplification of the story and the publication of the news of the initial lawsuits that that I guess empowered
these women to come forward to the state attorney's office in miami-dade county and and to the southern district of new york so thank you for your outstanding work keep it up catherine calurgis and sheridan wall therealdeal.com thank you for having us thank you
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My name is Daniel Figueredo, and I'm a resident of Silver Bluff. I am also the owner of Sandwich in Miami. And I'm here at an interesting turn of events. I wasn't going to speak, but Stephen Meadow did something pretty admirable. He apologized. And he apologized for the pain that he had caused our business at the hands of Joe Carollo. You know, that was very big of you. You're forgiven, brother.
Joe, you once called me a coward on national television. And I'm here in front of you, wearing my shirt. I'm still standing. Karma is cold and it creeps in the bed at night. And I hope you sleep well knowing what you've done to the community of Little Havana and someone like me.
Daniel Figueiredo and his wife Rosa Romero are two of my modern Miami heroes. They risked it all to pursue their dream of opening a small business and making it the world's greatest Cuban sandwich shop. But they nearly lost everything in the process. They personify not only the American dream, but the spirit of the Miami hustle itself.
against all odds they risked everything to build a powerful family business create a proud local brand from nothing with their bare hands all while their own city government waged a war against them tried to crush their dreams and put them and their beautiful children out on the street with nothing and not because of anything they did mind you but because one petty pathetic man
Miami's biggest bully and most corrupt commissioner, Joe Carollo, had a personal vendetta against their first landlord, something we've talked about on this show for years. And he was willing to abuse his power and weaponize the city government to violate local and state laws and the Constitution of the United States.
But the people of Miami rallied around Rosa and Daniel and their ridiculously hard work. And they overcame all that adversity and not only survived, but thrived. Daniel and Rosa won, and the corrupt bullies lost. A nice change of pace for the Miami mafia here, who is usually undefeated, as we know. And Miami is better for this. I know I am.
Their perseverance inspires me and helps give me the strength to face this f***ery. Every day. They founded Sandwich Day Miami in 2015, which has repeatedly, internationally, and accurately been declared the home of the world's greatest Cuban sandwich. I'm partial to the Medianoche, the Miami sandwich, if you're into turkey, and their new ham, egg, and cheese, Roy.
They have breakfast offerings now. That's probably my new favorite. However, their Cuban is... Hands down the best Cuban sandwich in the world.
Yeah, not like that crap in Tampa, I'll tell you that.
Yes, you know, with that salami from the famous Cuban town of Genoa. You know, I mean, come on now. Daniel, I'm so thrilled. After that introduction, you might just want to say goodnight, you know, just quit while you're ahead. Goodbye and thank you. But I'm so thrilled that you're here.
I want to get into some of the kind of logistics of what it takes to be a successful small business owner in Miami, which is like Mission Impossible. I touched upon it a little bit, but how does this story start? It's you and Rosa, a dream in a shipping container on Calle Ocho. Tell us about some of those early headwinds and what the hell happened at the beginning of this adventure.
Thank you for the introduction. You know, when Rose and I decided to leave our careers, we wanted to pursue something like a simpler life for us. And I was traveling quite a bit. Rosa was in the legal field and, you know, she was doing an ungodly sum of hours for the firm.
And we had our first born daughter, our daughter, and in 2015 and we decided, hey, listen, this is not just the lifestyle that we want to live. So let's let's do something simpler. Right. And And it was my bright idea to open up a sandwich shop. So go figure.
My idea of being home every day and, I don't know, making sandwiches for the public and having, you know, some sense of community was just, you know, a... It was very attractive and romantic. So we started chipping away at it and we came across, you know, we obviously started working with Bill. Bill offered us a location.
This is just for clarity. This is Bill Fuller. He's most kind of famously known as a co-owner of Ball and Chain, the historic nightclub on Miami's historic Cayocho and Little Havana, but also a very prominent property owner in and around Miami. Yeah.
Yeah. And, you know, I think it's important to say that, you know, one of the things that I admire about Bill is to maintain Cayocho and Little Havana, what it is and what what we all enjoy Little Havana to be. And building a brand, I felt, especially the brand that we wanted to build, aligning ourselves with that community was just our secret sauce.
I think it was gonna be the best platform for us to succeed. So Bill came to us and he said, hey, listen, I got this great property here that I think we can do something with and give us some thought. Originally it was gonna be in the Futurama building.
But after some due diligence, I said, hey, we probably can, based on the type of zoning laws that we currently have at the time in the city of Miami and the use of the property and the use of my idea, I think it was executable. So my background has been in design, architecture, engineering.
And so I knew that if we did a shipping container, the shipping container would in private property afford us the opportunity to exercise our concept. So, we got all the appropriate documentation, we had the use, we got our DBPR health license, and we went to work. So when we opened, it was a huge success.
I'm not sure if you have any footage of that, but when we opened, the day we opened, we had over 300, almost 400 attendees just show up at our ventanita. And it was a kick in the gut because here we are, I have no experience in the food industry. And to my surprise and our surprise, the community really rallied behind the brand and took to it.
we had an incredible responsibility to uphold the integrity of the food and the quality of the experience and the brand in an environment that i felt needed it you know little havana being little havana i felt that we were just kind of the right fit for the community and and it was it was a really beautiful time up until joe carollo you know won his election and that fateful i would say it was just it was i believe it was november 22nd my memory serves me correct when
We all learned that Joe Carollo was going to be the commissioner. And honestly, if I can be totally transparent, I don't give a shit about politics. I didn't give a shit whether it's going to be Joe Carollo or Alfie Leon at the time. I was just like, I just wanted to sell sandwiches. That really was my only focus. And I had no idea that, you know,
the the level of evil that we were going to be facing with that fateful Tuesday or Thursday, whatever it was, when we were bombarded by police and and fire and code enforcement inspectors and what have you to attempt to close us down because they felt that we were running an illegal operation.
Which, of course, you were not. You knew you were not the city. The city already told you you were not. At one point, the rumors were that I was running a meth lab. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Listen, those sandwiches are pretty addictive, not going to lie. You know, yeah, people thought I was putting crack in the ham. The harassment was unceasing. You just said the police like stormtroopers.
I mean, this is what was how you guys were being raided. All of Bill Fuller's properties and any businesses affiliated with him were being raided. I mean, this was a this was a personal vendetta where the government was being weaponized against legitimate, hardworking small business owners.
Yeah, and I think it's important that I preface this, is that I'm not in politics.
I've never been in politics, and so I always felt that there is a formality, and I felt that I wanted to extend the olive branch and really introduce myself, so I took it upon myself to go see Joe Carollo, and I sat down with him very early on, and I really wanted to understand why was he trying to pick a fight, and I thought we were in a bridge-building situation,
um economy right we wanted to help our fellow entrepreneurs and and and build relationships in our community and and here he was taking a sledgehammer and destroying an honest family and honestly not i thought something was going to come from it and it just perpetually became worse That's interesting.
You established clearly and honestly that you you're apolitical. You don't give a shit about politics. But more importantly here, though, too, you had no beef with this guy. I don't know that you even knew who this guy was from Alfie or from Adam or from anybody. I didn't give a shit.
I don't care if it was Adam or Paul or Brian or Jamie Ringo. You represent at the end of the day, you are an elected official whose principal job is to promote and encourage. your constituents and your base. And you don't go in there with a wrecking ball and a torch and charcoal and light the whole place on fire for a personal vendetta, right?
I think we're all grown men and there are going to be many people that are going to agree or disagree with me. But at the end of the day, my job is to do what's right by my community.
When you go to your government, And you say, hey, we don't need your help, per se. You're not looking for a handout. We just need you to do what you're here to do, which is to assist business owners and residents with the permitting process, the basic legalities of opening a new small business. And the government not only fails...
to fulfill their minimum responsibilities to the taxpaying public, but instead they actually proactively work to destroy you. How bad did it get? I mean, what was the lowest?
They're nearly they're nearly nearly bankrupted me. So, you know, we spent a considerable amount of money on the on the on the build out. And obviously everything that goes along with it, you know, the architectural, the building, the you know, the establishment, the food, the employees, everything.
And to have the rug pulled from underneath you was, it was a very sharp moment in our existence as a brand and as a family. So here I have two young kids, they're one and two. And we're just obviously, Rose and I were very successful in our academic careers. And so we didn't have to do this. I didn't have to do that for like 12 bucks an hour, right, at the time.
And when that was basically ripped from our grips, it put us in a financial spiral. And Rose and I were on food stamps for a little over six months. My kids got on their Medicare plans. And at one point, I remember asking my neighbor... As I was building out the second location, I remember asking my neighbor, I was like, hey, listen, can you do me a favor?
I'm running out of cash and would you be able to buy some milk for my kids?
You now have four locations by my count, if my count is correct. So this is definitely a story with a happy ending. But I want to play something for you and ask you a quick question.
Yeah, go ahead. I think it can be what I call the capital of capital, a place where if you want to build a business, if you want to innovate, there is no better place. We've streamlined the process by reducing unnecessary processing of additional special permits and creating additional opportunities for projects.
Permit applications are now able to access and download their certificate of occupancy through the internet. We've enabled Miamians to request after hours of fire inspections online. Local businesses are now able to download their certificates of use and business tax receipts. Fancy way of saying we've made it easier.
We've made it easier, says Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. The head of the business prevention district. The business prevention. Oh, no, the BPD. Francis Suarez has been the biggest cheerleader for Miami, as we know, all over the world. How can I help? For years now. And all I keep hearing, and that was a very tiny sample of just...
You know, him going on ad nauseum on every national and international platform saying Miami is business friendly. We are deregulating. We are streamlining the permitting process, making it easier for entrepreneurs and small businesses to open up their shops and be successful. And you have all the tools in Miami's business friendly, business friendly, business friendly environment.
You had that experience now times three in Miami, once in the city of Coral Gables, which is a different city, but in Dade County. What has your experience been with how business friendly Miami is?
It's the antithesis of that, quite honestly. You know, it's it's it's very difficult to kind of cut through the bureaucracy of our municipality and understand what we need to do to open a restaurant. Like, for instance, Bayside took me three years and it's 500 square feet. Three years to open a 500 square foot restaurant.
Yeah, three years. Were you paying rent during that time?
No, thankfully no. I had an abatement period until I negotiated that once we were able to open, that's when our rent commencement began. But nevertheless, it takes a toll on a big financial picture of a business because you've got all this expense tied into a location that isn't generating any income.
Um, and that, and that's, and that's not 100% at fault of the municipality, but also Miami Dade County with their, with their Durham and their processes and other like, you know, endless amount of, of paperwork and bureaucracy and hurdles. And, and, and unfortunately, you know, if you don't know anybody here in the city of Miami, it's very difficult for you to get anything done.
So I've been, I've been, uh, unfortunately, you know, I, I hate to say it, but you know, as, as you start to grow your, your economy of scale here, you really get to know people and you can pick up the phone and say, Hey, like what the is going on? Can you help push this along? And that shouldn't, that shouldn't happen. I think everyone,
who wants to come into the city of Miami or anywhere that wants to open a business, it should be a real clear course to completion. And it's not. I remember, I'll tell you this, I was building up this commissary and Billy, you've been here to our commissary in our office. Outstanding.
I've been very fortunate to kind of cut through all the bullshit and grow my business despite all the impediments that we've faced.
but i had i had an inspect um it was a reviewer once that i was sitting down and really needed some clarity in some of these comments because these comments just kept dragging on endlessly right it's everyone's trying to cover their ass and there's just too much liability at stake and there's a lot of fear going on and people are walking on eggshells so i'd sit there and i talked to this guy and i asked him hey
know i really need clarity here i i've been in this project now for eight months and i need to finish this by two months and he he looked me dead in the face and he said oh you're eight months this is incredible man you should consider yourself lucky this process usually takes two years And I was floored. I was like, how dare you speak to me like that?
Because you sit here on the other side of this table and you have your, you have your salary, your salary, you're, you're working on your pension and you don't have a lot of disruption. You get to get, you get here at eight o'clock and you check out at four, you take an hour and a half lunch. You take your seven day two week vacations, right? While people like me,
are stimulating the economy people like me are investing in a process it's important that i open up not just for my sake but for those that are working for me i'm contributing to the ecosystem of our of our of our city you're preventing me from opening my doors and you think it's cute by saying ah you're ahead of yourself and i think that's the idea that's happening all across the board
You don't just contribute economically. You contribute culturally to this community. And three years to open a 500 square foot restaurant. It takes nine months to make a baby for crying out loud. I'm sorry. It takes a woman nine months to make a baby. It takes a man about 30 seconds. It's a very expensive 30 seconds. I'll have you know that. But, Daniel, I could talk to you all day about this.
And I want to talk more in the future about how to solve these problems since the government here in Miami is clearly not working to do it regardless of what they tell the world on television. It's not just a hard work. It's just a superior product. That's why everybody who tries it goes, holy shit.
This is just I mean, it's incredible. Listen, I'm not in politics, but every time I talk to an entrepreneur, I was like, if all these entrepreneurs took leadership positions within their city, I think we can really turn it around because we see things through different optics. And and I would say that, you know, one of the major impediments of the city obviously is the building department.
It needs it needs a massive overhaul. It's that theory of change that needs to happen and it needs to happen principally there. And I think once you do that, you have conversation with the business community on what we can do better and really open up that pathway, I think there can be real change.
But so long that we're all in this self-serving stage of politics, I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel.
In the city of Miami, the government doesn't work for the people. The people work for the government, and that is just back ass words. But you heard the mayor. He's fixed the building department, so don't worry about it. If you put garbage in, you're going to get garbage out. Daniel Figueredo. Sandwich Miami, my best to Rosa and the family. Happy holidays, my friend. Thanks, brother.
Have a good one, man.
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