Diego Lowenstein calls Miami “very resilient” with strategic opportunities.

MIAMI—There's plenty of discussion around a softening Miami market, particularly within the hotel industry. But Diego Lowenstein, CEO of Lionstone Development, remains steadfast in his commitment to the market.

In fact, Lowenstein calls Miami “very resilient” with strategic opportunities. GlobeSt.com caught up with him to discuss his view in part one of this exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: Lionstone Development has been based in Miami for 50 years. What are some of the reasons you have remained so committed to the Miami market? What are the opportunities?

Lowenstein: Lionstone Development is headquartered in Miami, and we are proud to reach our 50^th anniversary this year. We've been here through the both the great times and the difficult times and can tell you that Miami has always proven to be a very resilient market.

We continue to be optimistic about the potential and the opportunities for future development here. One of the reasons for that is the impact of Latin America, not only on the hotel front, but along the trade and residential side, too, and how quickly things can change.

Miami experiences a positive impact when things go well in Latin America. It also experiences a positive impact when things are not going as well as people want to travel or relocate from volatile situations and invest capital into the safe haven which is the US.

Residential—growth has hit the South Florida market, and now that it is softening up, there are more potential opportunities for hotel development. Lionstone Development is looking for the right transactions with sound long term metrics.

We are also focusing our efforts on constantly improving our current assets, like The Ritz Carlton South Beach and The Ritz Carlton Bal Harbour. We recently closed on a $210 million refinancing for the property in South Beach. Both properties performed extremely well in 2015, a trend that we see continuing well into 2016.

GlobeSt.com: What are you seeing as far as the types of guests and travelers that are coming to Miami and South Florida? Can you provide insight on the demographics, and how it's changed in the last 10-20 years?

Lowenstein: South Florida, in general, has also evolved in a proactive way in the past decade. We used to be almost solely dependent on Northeast and Latin America traffic, but it has since opened up to the world, with a lot of travelers from Europe and Asian travelers now sprinkling in as well.

We are also able to segment our business and diversify other channels in a more significant way that a few decades ago. This bodes well for tourism. And aside from Miami's great weather, the city has evolved into a culinary, cultural and arts destination, and expanded certain industry sectors, like technology, financial services, and start-ups, paving the way for not only leisure guests, but business travelers, too.

In fact, Lowenstein calls Miami “very resilient” with strategic opportunities. GlobeSt.com caught up with him to discuss his view in part one of this exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: Lionstone Development has been based in Miami for 50 years. What are some of the reasons you have remained so committed to the Miami market? What are the opportunities?

Instant Insights /

After 50 Years, This Hotel Developer Still Bullish on Miami

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