Jon Paul Pérez assumed that he would start working at his father’s company, the Related Group, shortly after graduating from college.
It made sense. He spent summers interning at Related, and though he got good grades, he also enjoyed himself. “It wasn’t like I was focused on figuring out my career path,” he said. At his graduation dinner, Pérez told his dad that he would start at Related after a month off that maybe included some travel to Europe. l
“He said, ‘Well, you’re not going to work for me,’” Jon Paul recounts.
His father tells a different version. Jorge Pérez required his sons get job experience outside of the family firm before coming to work for him.
It came as a surprise to Jon Paul, the second of four children, but his dad didn’t exactly throw him to the wolves. Jon Paul interviewed for an analyst job at Related Companies, billionaire Steve Ross’ firm, and, obviously, got it. (Ross is close friends with Jorge, and held a minority stake in Related Group for decades.)
His dad bought him his first couple of suits, with $100 pricetags from Men’s Wearhouse.
After Jon Paul started, he took an Excel training course. He worked 12- to-14-hour days and tried to absorb everything, “like a sponge.” Bruce Beal, now president of Related Companies, became Jon Paul’s mentor. He stayed until 2012.
Twelve years later, Jon Paul, now 40, is president and CEO of Miami-based Related Group. His brother Nick, or Nicky to the family, heads the condo division. Their dad is still very involved as executive chairman of the company. Dozens of projects are in their development pipeline, including thousands of condos, affordable housing units and market-rate rentals.
The Real Deal sat down with Jon Paul at Related’s headquarters in Miami’s Coconut Grove to talk about the family succession plan, the state of the market and working with his father.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Born: November 30, 1984
Hometown: Miami
Lives: Coconut Grove
Family: Married to Michelle Toledo, a son and two stepdaughters
“This country was a place where people come and they try to live the American dream. A lot of people that have become successful have come sort of illegally. There needs to be a better way to do things than the way it’s currently being handled today.”
What was your first job?
I worked at Subway. I was a sandwich artist at 15 years old, making $5.45 an hour. I worked there for like six months.
What was it like to work for Related Companies?
I didn’t even show up with a résumé. I didn’t show up with a notepad. I think I showed up in jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt. The interview goes well, and they say, OK, well, you can start in two weeks. I remember being nervous. I’m in someone else’s company. I don’t really know what I’m going to be doing. I remember seeing other kids come to interview in a suit and tie, with a résumé, a notepad, and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, what an asshole I am.”
The training in New York — the people you’re surrounded by are very Type A. It helps bring you up.
Kind of like sink or swim.
Yeah. It was great as a life experience and a way to help me mature quicker. There was no cutting corners.
What prompted the move back to Miami?
From 22 to almost 28, that’s a time where you really grind. It’s not necessarily about quality of life. You’re doing this now to set up your next chapter of your life. In 2012, I saw that my father had launched MyBrickell, which was the first condo out of the recession, and it sold extremely fast. And then there was another one called Apogee Beach in Hallandale that sold very fast as well. I called him and I said, “Hey, look, I don’t really want to miss this next wave. I’d love to be a part of it. I’ve been in New York for five years, you know? I’d love to come down.”
And he’s like, “OK, but you need to get your master’s.”
I was like, “Oh, Jesus,” because I was the first guinea pig of the family. All these rules are sort of being made up as I go, and I think I’m getting one step closer to Miami… But [Northwestern’s] Kellogg [School of Management] has an executive program based in Miami that you could work full-time and go to school. So I applied to that. I got in, and I came down.
How’s the market these days?
Demand has definitely softened.
Do you think there’s an oversaturation of branded projects?
Yes, because people have used some brands that I think don’t make any sense. Some brands that I’ve seen people are using … I just can’t understand the connection between that and real estate and why that brings anything to a project.
Have the president’s immigration policies affected foreign demand?
We have a project in Pompano where before Trump announced his first tariffs we had about 10 Canadian buyers ready to sign contracts. Trump announces tariffs on Canada, and they all disappeared. So that was an immediate reaction.
Your dad, a longtime Democrat, has been open with his political views, but you and your brother have typically shied away from that.
He’s more outspoken. Look, I completely disagree with tariffs. I disagree with what [Trump] is doing with deportation. This country was a place where people come and they try to live the American dream. A lot of people that have become successful have come sort of illegally. There needs to be a better way to do things than the way it’s currently being handled today. But if you’re coming here and you’re working and you’re adding to the economy, I don’t see anything wrong with that.
What’s it like to work with your dad today?
My father, he does take more time off. He loves to travel. He loves to go to art shows and he focuses a lot on philanthropy. But he loves real estate too. He’s got 45 years of experience. We love sitting with him and saying, “Hey, this is what we’re doing. What do you think?” And listening to his thoughts, right? He’s still very involved, helping me with the direction of the company. How are our condos selling? Where do we see the market?
The way our investment committee works is him, my brother and I sit down and talk about it, and all want to be on the same page. It’s really the family’s capital.
What are the challenges of working with family?
You never separate family from business. Sometimes you have disagreements in the office but then you have to go sit in the family dinner or spend Sundays together. We’re very lucky that my brother and I are extremely close and we don’t really disagree. We will have differences of opinions, but we’ve always been able to talk it out.
Does Related still have its famous all-day staff meetings?
We have them twice a month, but they now take up a day and a half. One of the meetings, we don’t talk about budgets. The other meeting, we talk about budgets.
How has becoming a parent changed you?
You realize it’s not about you. I’m up at 5:15 a.m., I go to the gym, come back home. At about 7:30 a.m. I shower, and that’s right around the time that my son is waking up. I walk into his room, he’s standing in his crib, just looking at me, and I spend about 45 minutes with him. Everything I do now is really for him and my wife. I look forward to going home every night and having dinner with the family.
I stayed single for so long and was probably more of a selfish person. Now to settle down and have such an amazing wife and a beautiful baby, I think, is probably the most successful thing I can say I have right now.
How do you unwind?
I love playing sports. I used to never be a morning person. Now I go to bed by 10 p.m. and I’m up early, and that hour and a half in the gym relieves a lot of stress. I’ve been injured for a little bit, but I really enjoy getting out on the golf course. I play between here and Apogee in Jupiter.
Are you on social media?
I deleted all my social media accounts after I got engaged. I caught myself every time I was not busy, I was mostly on Instagram. So much time looking at useless, stupid stuff. And I thought I would miss it, when I made the decision to get rid of it, but you know, you really don’t.
What keeps you up at night?
Everything that’s happening right now.
How do you plan to use the state’s workforce housing law, the Live Local Act?
We’re doing a lot of Live Local on projects that are already affordable. That means we get maybe some additional height, additional density and tax abatements. In Fort Lauderdale, we’re going to have a Live Local one where, it was going to be … call it 300 apartments … and now I’m able to do a condo tower with Live Local workforce housing surrounding it, which is like another 240 units of workforce housing in Fort Lauderdale’s central business district.
What was your first big solo purchase?
I probably shouldn’t have bought it, but I had always dreamed of buying an Audemars Piguet watch. I bought one toward the end of my career in New York.
Do you have a favorite place to ski?
I really enjoy Snowmass and having lunch at Sam’s. That’s a perfect ski day for me.
Do you miss anything about the old Miami that you grew up in?
No, it’s only positives.
“People always ask, ‘You have such big shoes to fill. How do you handle it?’ I guess I wish I would never be asked it again, but I understand where the question comes from.”
What’s your leadership style?
I’m not a yeller. A couple of weeks ago [though] I was yelling pretty loud. The whole office might have heard me, but I tend not to do that. People know if you make an honest mistake, and it’s your first time, and it’s not one of pure just being lazy or stupid, we will get through that. But if you come back and it’s the same mistake two times, then that’s where I will be very pissed off. We have very good people in their roles. So I let them own their jobs and own their responsibilities, but if I see them going off in the wrong direction, I bring them back.
What do you dislike about your job?
Real estate development takes a long time. You’re making bets today that you hope play out over time. So the amount of risk in real estate development is huge. I’ve been brought up in that, and I can understand that. You still are concerned about, well, what if things don’t happen and it takes even longer? The way we manage that risk is by keeping a strong balance sheet, so that we can withstand times where you can’t develop or you have to hold on to a site for longer. And we also buy in markets that we feel that there may be some bumps along the road, but over time, that’s still a city that people are going to want to live in and want to buy condos and move to.
Construction is a tedious, very difficult thing, especially when you’re doing 60, 70 high-rises. So there’s a lot of stuff that can go wrong, and the way we protect ourselves is we hire the best contractors. We’re very close with all the subcontractors that are hired by the contractors. We have as many controls in place as possible.
How are you handling tariffs?
All of a sudden they say, “Oh well, you have a $10 million order coming from China, white marble. And the tariff right now is 250 [percent].” Well, that’s two and a half million bucks.
Do you buy the marble from somewhere else?
Those types of issues are brought to me, and then we have to figure out how to handle it.
What intimidates you?
People always ask, “You have such big shoes to fill. How do you handle it?”
Are you tired of that question?
I guess I wish I would never be asked it again, but I understand where the question comes from.
I know that I love real estate. I love Related. I’m always going to want to do amazing buildings. I always want to do big jobs. I want to do lots of affordable housing, because that is the most amazing thing that we as a company can do. I want to be known as someone who’s continued to help the cities that we develop and grow to become better cities.
