Information that might be useful for people living in poverty in the Liberty City, Overtown, and Little Haiti neighborhoods of Miami who wonder where they should show up if they ever feel like picking up their pitchforks and axes! ...Here are few clips from the article by Arian Campo-Flores, "The Ultrarich Pay Big For Extreme Privacy":
The ultrawealthy are wielding their growing fortunes
to glide through a rarefied realm unencumbered by the
inconveniences of ordinary life. They don’t wait in
lines. They don’t jostle with airport crowds or idle
unnecessarily in traffic.
Instead, an ecosystem of exclusive restaurants, clubs,
resorts and other service providers delivers them
customized and exquisite experiences as fast as
possible. The spaces they inhabit are often private,
carefully curated and populated by like-minded and similarly well-heeled peers.
The acquisitive power of the very rich is soaring. The
net worth held by the top 0.1% of households in the
U.S. reached $23.3 trillion in the second quarter of this
year, up from $10.7 trillion a decade earlier, according
to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The amount
held by the bottom 50% increased to $4.2 trillion from
$900 billion over that period.
The Miami area provides a window into this world.
Long a destination for wealthy elites from the
Northeast, Europe and Latin America, it has become
an even stronger magnet for the affluent in recent
years, fostered by pandemic-era migration and the
region’s emergence as a technology and finance hub.
“There’s been an explosion of wealth creators,” said
Patrick Dwyer, a managing director at NewEdge
Wealth, a wealth-management firm, in Miami. “Now
they have enough money to live exactly how they want
to live.”
A new service economy enables them to avoid
everybody else if they want to. In the Bentley
Residences condo tower under construction in Sunny
Isles Beach, north of Miami, car elevators will deliver
residents straight up to their homes and deposit
vehicles in adjoining “sky garages,” avoiding the need
to deal with parking valets and reception areas.
Units, whose prices start at about $6 million, will each
feature a private pool perched on an expansive terrace.
The building’s restaurant, available only to owners,
will feature Cshaped booths arranged in a way to keep
guests out of each other’s view. “The ultimate luxury is
privacy,” said Gil Dezer, the 50-year-old president of
Dezer Development, who patented the car lift.
Dezer knows from experience. Several years ago, he
traveled to Belize aboard his Gulfstream jet and took a
helicopter to a private island resort with only seven
villas, each set off from the others and equipped with
its own plunge pool and dock. He spent his days
lounging and swimming, occasionally ringing a butler
to bring him a whisky.
At his 50th birthday party earlier this year, Dezer hired
artists including rappers Fat Joe and El Alfa to perform
on the beach in front of his home—effectively turning
a concert experience that is usually public into a
private bash.
Those who can afford it sometimes rent an entire
facility to have exclusive use of it. At Centner
Wellness, a highend holistic healing center in Miami
that offers a host of treatments employing the latest
technology, rich clients occasionally book the whole
place for several days, said founder Leila Centner.
When the ultrawealthy choose to socialize, they often
seek circles that are meticulously selected, said
Gregory Pool, a managing director with NewEdge
Wealth in Miami.
Faena Rose is a private social club in Miami Beach
focused on art and culture, whose members are vetted
by a committee and pay $15,000 initially and another
$15,000 annually. They get VIP access to the beach
club, spa and other amenities at the Faena Miami
Beach hotel, and admission to roughly 80 cultural
events a year, held in intimate settings for members
only.
Those include dance performances by Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater and recitals by the
Metropolitan Opera.
“That level of access is really, really compelling,” said
Pablo De Ritis, president of Faena Rose.
A newer variant: private dinner clubs, where members
get haute cuisine, personalized service and the ability
to secure a table whenever they want. ZZ’s Club in
Miami— where Dezer is a member—features a
Japanese restaurant, a sports bar and a cigar terrace. A
“culinary concierge” can, with 48 hours’ notice,
arrange any kind of dining experience members want,
from a 12course caviar feast to a re-creation of a
memorable meal from a honeymoon.
“The more personalized and the more seamless, and
the less things you have to ask for…that’s what great
service is,” said Jeff Zalaznick, cofounder of Major
Food Group, which owns ZZ’s.
Masoud and Stephanie Shojaee frequent the
membersonly MILA MM—where they can enjoy each
other’s company or that of friends without the
distraction of crowds—and other curated social spaces.
Last month, she sat in the front row for the Schiaparelli
show at Paris Fashion Week, she said, and struck up a
conversation with a woman next to her who was from
one of the wealthiest families in Monaco. They hit it
off and a week later met at a sushi place in Paris
together with their husbands.
In these settings, “the conversations for some reason,
they just feel safer, and they feel deeper,” said
Stephanie, 41, president of Shoma Group and a cast
member of “The Real Housewives of Miami” show
this year. “You hang out with people that are like-
minded.”
The curation extends to the couple’s clothes shopping.
They no longer go to high-end malls. Instead, Masoud
gets a large suitcase of items from NB44, a members-
only apparel brand, shipped to him every quarter, while
Stephanie regularly receives racks of new collections
from brands like Valentino and Christian Dior along
with an alterationist to make any adjustments.
Travel has always been a key feature of wealthy
people’s lives, and more than ever they prioritize
privacy, efficiency and customization, industry
specialists say.
Lauren Beall, owner of Travel Couture in Miami
Beach, specializes in arranging custom travel
experiences for the ultrawealthy. She has booked
private islands for clients and flown in Michelinstarred
chefs, yoga instructors and performers.
One coveted offering is a suite above the Christian
Dior flagship store in Paris that can be rented, and
includes an after- hours shopping excursion and a
private dinner at Monsieur Dior restaurant. An estate
Beall has reserved in Scotland comes with private
chefs, horses to explore the countryside and a
helicopter to visit towns for the day.
“We’re into that exclusive access right now—things
that other people can’t get,” Beall said. “There’s a huge
price tag that goes with it.”
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