A website shouting reasons unhappy New Yorkers should move to Doral keeps drawing traffic as it nears its third birthday but developer Armando Codina, who created it, hasn’t kept the site up even though it’s more relevant than ever. It seems he’s out of residences.
Now he’s looking to replicate the success in Coral Gables with his high-end 18-story Regency Residences, expecting to lease about 20% to New Yorkers flooding into the area. In neighboring Coconut Grove, Miami Today reported last week, New Yorkers are gobbling up the housing inventory.
Codina Partners designed and launched the website, UnhappyNewYorkers.com, on April 15, 2019. The homepage says, “High taxes. Rotten weather.
Outrageous cost of living. What’s not to like?” The campaign makes its point to draw people to Florida to escape high income taxes and “live where most people vacation.”
“They were ahead of themselves, creating this before covid,” said Ron Shuffield, president & CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty. “It played well into covid. People who live here are tethered to a job in New York, but with remote work growing they can work from anywhere.”
When the pandemic began, Mr. Codina, executive chairman of Codina Partners, said, “who wants to ride the public transit? Who would want to work in a 60-story office building?”
Mr. Codina made it clear that the New York residential flow to Miami is no longer escaping just taxes and bad weather, but also public safety problems.
“I briefly heard the new mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, speak. He said that New York needs to get its public safety issues back on track,” said Mr. Codina. “But the new district attorney, Alvin Bragg, announced that he isn’t going to prosecute most of the crimes. The mayor has a lot of challenges, and I have heard New Yorkers say that public safety is one of the biggest concerns.”
“We still get a lot of calls from people in the New York area interested in setting up residence here,” Mr. Codina said. “But we have not kept up the website because we are out of product in Downtown Doral. There are so few homes left.”
Codina Partners is hoping to get a permit in April to break ground in May or June for his new Regency Residences in Coral Gables.
“My market is about 80% empty-nesters in Coral Gables,” Mr. Codina said. “About 20% of the market will be from New York, coming down for residency. If they decided they want to build a house or move from there, it’s a great building to come to. Or remain in.”
The leases can be annual, or the larger “sky homes” in the complex have longer leases of five to 10 years.
“Miami has come on its own in terms of arts, sports and restaurants,” said Mr. Codina. “It is more ready for the New Yorkers than it was 10 years ago.”
“A lot of people had not thought about moving when the website was built,” Mr. Shuffield said. “Then they saw the tangible comparisons and thought about the boost with moving and their net worth.”
New York’s income taxes include federal, state and, in New York City, a local tax. Florida is one of seven states that don’t have an income tax.
According to a third quarter Q3 2021 US Census “Internal Migration” market report, New York is losing 874 citizens a day while Florida is gaining 579 a day.
“Motivation for moving also includes the companies that have located here, like Microsoft’s 50,000-square-foot [lease] in Brickell.” Mr. Shuffield is seeing sales in luxury homes in the $50 million to $75 million range. “We’ll see a $100 million house sell soon.”
“The number of people we’ve helped find homes since the [website] launch is way beyond what we expected,” Mr. Shuffield said. “We’re helping people escape from high taxes and their lifestyle, especially this time of year.” According to the US Weather Atlas, the average temperature in New York City in January is 35 degrees, while Miami averages 73.
“We had a lot of traffic and attention on the website at the beginning,” said Mr. Codina. “We haven’t updated it since 2019 because we don’t have product. But we will reactivate the website with the new building in Coral Gables, in April during tax season like we did the first time.”
Codina Partners didn’t appreciate what a huge trend it was setting, according to Mr. Shuffield.
“Covid helped kick-start this trend,” said Mr. Shuffield. “And the trend is here to stay.”
The post Website lures Unhappy New Yorkers to shrinking home supply appeared first on Miami Today.
Read MoreReal Estate – Miami Today
