In this powerful episode of The Determined Society, Shawn French sits down with Gil Dezer, the visionary behind South Florida’s most iconic luxury towers. From Porsche Design Tower to the new Bentley Residences, Gil shares how determination, disruptive innovation, and fearless thinking shaped a real estate empire. If you love luxury, grit, and next-level living, this conversation is a must-watch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the vision behind the Porsche Design Tower?
We were actually approached by Porsche Design. At first we said, well, what does Porsche have to do with real estate? So we had a few think tank sessions and we said, well, let's make the building for guys who love their cars. I'm the only guy who can actually bring in passengers in the car. What I've noticed when I did Porsche Design Tower, people are afraid of new things.
The reaction to the car elevator then, it was strange. It's amazing how the human automatically goes to the negativity. It's a freaking elevator. It goes up, it goes down.
Sharp French, what up?
This one's luck, I let the pain inspire me. I put my all in everything I'm doing. Up until it's done, I mean for the entirety. I put in overtime, I be working. Just know I'm a gopher, man, because I earned it. They watching, I know it's time. I confirmed it. The whole society determined.
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode. I'm your host, Sean French. Today I have with me an amazing man, a businessman that's changing the face of South Florida living, the president of Desert Development, Gil Desert. What's up, baby?
Hey, how you doing? Good to be here.
Hey, man. Good to have you. You're doing so many amazing things. It's like, you know, I live in Florida, right, on the West Coast and go to Miami often with the family. See all these beautiful buildings, right? All these cool things on the oceanfront. And I never really know who's behind them. But now I'm sitting with the guy, the man that is responsible for these beautiful things.
So I'm super excited to have you on the show.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
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Chapter 2: How did Gil Dezer overcome challenges in real estate?
Oh, man. It was a journey, my man. It was a journey.
That's the unfortunate part about home buying today is that the builder leaves off, the unit owner gets the stuff, has to finish it out themselves. They're not contractors. They don't have the headaches. They don't have the bandwidth to do this. They're going to work every single day. And so we noticed that a lot of buyers would come and they'd be so happy at closing.
And then three months later, they'd be all pissed off. Why? Because I haven't got my flooring permanent. I can't get my shades installed. I can't get... So we really hold their hands and help them with that stuff because we want, it's not just the buying experience, it's the living experience. We want it to be good.
That's the one thing that I found interesting because I was doing some reading and I noticed that you stay really close to your communities post-closing. You know, and that just, that's brand, right? That's, that's collaboration with the homeowner. I mean, these people are paying a lot of money for these properties. It's just, you know, to me, it just makes sense.
To me, it's 100% reputation. I created a brochure. I want these people to live the brochure. When you turn these buildings over, you give them to a bunch of lawyers and doctors that they don't know how to run a building. They're all nice people, of course, but they don't know how to run a building. And they need that little helping hand just to carry them through.
And believe it or not, they appreciate me. They appreciate me on the board. Because I sit on several boards, I understand what costs are across the different buildings. I know which vendors to call. Hey, this guy's expensive here. Call that guy there. And then we go to vendors with purchasing power. I said, hey, I sit on eight boards.
You want to do eight buildings or you want to get one contract? So they really appreciate that we can push these guys on the price, get the best prices, the best service. And that's where my value comes in. I hate the board meetings, but I know it's like I got to do it. You know, this is my baby. I got to keep my reputation up.
And so that's why the living experience in my buildings is second to none. And, you know, at the Porsche Tower, it's a hotel. You're living in a hotel. You have full hotel services from restaurants to spa to everything you could ever imagine. You just don't have transient guests. And people love, love, love living there. They love it. It's great. Yeah. You said...
I'm selling a brochure. Yes. And I think that's something, man, that a lot of businesses don't take into account. When a consumer looks at something, they're looking at the only marketing piece that they have. They're looking at what's this going to look like? What's it going to feel like? And most people fail to deliver that rendering.
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