Related Group’s chief: Public sector needs to offer incentives for sustainable development
change remains greater Miami’s greatest long-term threat. To help address the stiff challenge, the county will be the site of a key four-day event hosted by the prestigious Aspen Institute, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that has earned a reputation for tackling the world’s most complex problems.
Although the Aspen Ideas: Climate event, which started Monday and runs through Thursday in Miami Beach, is a major collaboration of political and business leaders, innovators and scientific experts, it was made possible thanks in part to longtime major MiamiDade County real estate developer Related Group and the Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation.
Related has home-construction projects in Miami neighborhoods, including Liberty City, Brickell, downtown, and along the Miami River — projects that company President
Jon Paul Pérez said feature higher-density buildings that are by definition more environmentally friendly.
“We’re creating density where it didn’t exist before,” Pérez said.
“We’re able to build buildings that don’t need parking, so people don’t have to have a car and can use public transit or walk to work or the shops. It all comes back to us doing our part in helping less [carbon] emissions go into the environment by creating more dense neighborhoods and developments so that there are less cars and less emissions in the environment.”
Pérez acknowledged the barriers to sustainable development remain immense and that economic incentives for building with climate change and global warming in mind remain lacking. The goal of bringing the Aspen Institute to the area is to break down those barriers and build momentum toward solutions.
“This is a global issue. Whatever comes out of this can be applied to everywhere,” he said of the conference. “I want to learn more about it and want to be able to intelligently respond and help out with my thoughts on how we at Related and the Pérez family can do our part to come up with solutions that better Miami, but can better buildings and better the city for the future.”
The Miami Herald talkClimate ed to Pérez, a son of Related’s founder, Jorge M. Pérez, in advance of the Aspen gathering here. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Question: The city is experiencing soaring housing costs due mostly to supply and demand issues, and not necessarily the cost of building for climate change. How do you view the challenge of building more affordable housing in a city greatly threatened by climate change?
A: There’s two main issues impacting real estate development here. One is land cost, which has definitely gone up, and two is construction costs have increased dramatically. Given those two things, we want to continue to add in more elements in buildings that will make the buildings give off less emissions, use less power, and become more energy efficient and green. The hard part there is what is economically feasible when you have two other factors like land and construction costs rising at the same time. Then you have green environmental costs on top of that.
In our opinion, it needs to be a private-public partnership, where you’re able to get credits, subsidies, something like reduced impact and permit fees that allow you to add these more expensive features to buildings that in the long run will definitely pay off. In the long run, it has to be economically feasible to spend those costs, if you try to do that. There needs to be a margin to take those risks.
Q: Is there a will among local developers to commit to building for climate change?
A:
I think there is. I think there could be more workshops driven by city officials that bring in architects, developers, engineers. I think the Aspen Institute conference will spark that, and I think that will be good fire to ignition where great ideas will be thought of. Then you’ll get actions, plans and solutions that need follow-up, and then the follow-up will be put on government officials who will work with the private sector to implement them.
You can’t have government pass new regulations without input from the private sector, because they may not know what the implications are, and it could slow growth. It’s going to be a continued, what I call working-group section between both private and public to come up with solutions that can work for everybody.
Q: Why was it important for your family and your company to get involved in this Aspen climate event?
A:
We’re a Miami family. All of my brothers and sisters were born and raised here. My father has been doing business and giving back here for 40 years. So as a family and as a company we’re from Miami. This is a community we really call home and will continue to call home for the coming generations. Now, we’re in this next generation of leadership at Related with me and my brother, so it’s important for us to be at the forefront of helping address climate change now and in the future not only for us but future generations. We’re very committed to being a part of how to help and find solutions and continue to make Miami the best city in the world. At Related, we take 2% of all profits and put them into our corporate foundation, which then redeploys capital into Miami and the neighborhoods where we develop.
What’s great about the Aspen Institute is that you have the brightest minds coming to Miami to not just talk about the issues, they come here to try to leave with examples or follow-ups. So it’s not just a conference where people talk and come up with ideas. There’s an action plan or multiple action plans to follow up on and implement something we can do that can benefit everyone in the long haul.
Q: Can you give examples of how Related Group is presenting development solutions to climate-change mitigation and adaptation?
A:
As a company, we always build to the most stringent standards out there. We hire the best consultants in every practice. We work within city code, and sometimes go above and beyond it. We are participating in workshops and working with the best engineers and consultants in the world. We definitely try to build our buildings to last forever. So just the quality that we focus on delivering, with whatever the latest zoning laws and restrictions are, that all gets incorporated into what we do.