Russell Galbut footed the bill for digital ads that recently popped in New York City’s Time Square, aimed at New Yorkers seeking to flee the upcoming mayoral reign of Zohran Mamdani.
Galbut, co-founder of Miami-based Crescent Heights, paid for the billboards that featured a Miami Beach lifeguard stand with a message from the city’s reelected mayor, Steven Meiner, the Miami Herald reported.
The ad said: “Miami Beach is open for business. Everyone welcomed! Mayor Steven Meiner.”
On Thursday, Meiner posted images of the ads on his Instagram account with the following caption, “New Yorkers: look up … Miami Beach is open for business. A world-class destination to live, work, and invest capital!”
Galbut told the Miami Herald that he suggested the ad campaign to Meiner in response to Mamdani’s Nov. 4 victory over Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa. That same day, Meiner won a second term as mayor, beating city commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez.
“It cost a little bit of money, but it’s worth it because it’s ridiculous what’s happening in New York,” Galbut said. “I just think that this is such a unique opportunity for South Florida.”
Galbut said the ads flashed in Times Square over the course of two days last week, but he declined to say how much the billboards cost.
Galbut joins other South Florida developers who are swooning over the possibility that Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who campaigned on enacting rent freezes for rent-stabilized buildings and other progressive ideas, is going to drive an exodus of wealthy New Yorkers to South Florida.
During a panel at The Real Deal Miami Real Estate Forum this month, developer Kevin Maloney said, “Mamdani, I think, is probably going to end the city.” Fellow panelists Ugo Colombo and Camilo Miguel Jr. said Mamdani’s win has already sparked a fresh wave of interest from New York buyers, but they do not think South Florida will experience a Covid-level migration because of Mamdani.
Other prominent real estate players have offered a more tepid reaction to Mamdani’s victory, including Galbut’s Crescent Heights partner and Manhattan resident, Bruce Menin. During the Miami forum’s multifamily panel, Menin said, “I think we have to take a little bit of a wait and see.”
And in another panel discussion at the event, about foreign buyers, ISG World’s Craig Studnicky also downplayed any significant impact of another potential New York-to-Miami migration. “I’ve heard a lot of people say we’re going to get this huge wave of people from New York, and I think the comparable in their heads or in their hearts is what happened five years ago during Covid,” Studnicky said. “Slow down. You’re going to get a bump. But I think you’re exaggerating the bump.”
– Francisco Alvarado
