Agave’s $700 Million Gambit
Why the Real Estate Arm of Mexico’s Jose Cuervo Chose Miami
The obvious place for a Mexican company to invest in the U.S. would be in Texas or California, in cities like San Diego, San Antonio, or Los Angeles, says Agave Holdings Managing Director Carlos Beckmann. But Miami – along with smaller holdings in Chicago and New York – became the preferred place for the U.S. real estate division of Mexico’s Jose Cuervo conglomerate.
“We always saw Miami as the capital of Latin America, and we saw tremendous growth opportunity here,” says Beckmann, who began managing construction of the massive, $700 million The Plaza Coral Gables project in 2016. “The fact that [Miami] is very Latin made it more attractive, and geographically it made sense being on the East Coast, because at one point there was an idea to move Jose Cuervo’s [U.S.] office here.”
While Cuervo’s U.S. HQ remained in New Jersey, Agave Holdings was incorporated in Miami in 2009, when The Plaza’s other managing director, Jose Antonio Perez, arrived and began acquiring U.S. properties. First came a commercial waterfront high-rise in Miami’s Coconut Grove, then an office building in Chicago. That was followed by the development of a mid-rise office tower in Coral Gables, the tony suburb of Miami that is a favorite home base for global CEOs and consular officers.
These projects pale in comparison with The Plaza Coral Gables, with its 455,000-square-feet of office space in two towers, 137,000-square-feet of retail, a 200-unit luxury apartment building, and a 242-key Loew’s hotel crowned with an Old Spain-style bell tower. The Mediterranean styled project is now fully complete except for its retail section.
Like other Mexican companies operating in Miami, both Beckmann and Perez found a more welcoming culture than in the U.S. West. “We like Florida much better, especially Miami, because of the melting pot that it is,” says Perez. “The way some of the immigrants and Mexicans are treated in Mexico, the working class, is not very nice. Here in Miami, it’s like everyone is equal. It’s a much more open society.”
Next: The Rail Alternative – Grupo Mexico and Florida’s East Coast Railway
