Kevin Venger has spent more than three decades developing high-end multifamily towers and hotels across Miami. During that time, the longtime South Florida resident has learned that luxury ultimately comes down to "giving people their time back."
That's an important way building operations can shape the experience of future residents and secure repeat buyers in a competitive market, said Venger, co‑founder and partner at One Thousand Group, in an interview with CoStar News.
One Thousand Group spends a lot of time integrating its operations teams into every step of the company's developments — from when a potential buyer walks into a sales center to the building management that follows closing on the deal, Venger said. In the process, the operations teams learn details about clients' needs, schedules and ways the staff can step in on everyday tasks, such as keeping track of important dates and making reservations at the latest restaurants.
"We're ops guys," he said, referring to his partners at One Thousand Group, Louis Birdman and Michael Konig.
That mindset has led to One Thousand Group's involvement in some of South Florida's high-profile towers, including the Four Seasons in the Brickell financial district, Regalia in Sunny Isles Beach and perhaps the most well-known, One Thousand Museum.
The University of Miami alum started out in the industry on the building side with an architecture and finance degree, he said. As he worked in property development over the years, identifying and meeting residents' daily needs emerged as an important factor in his continued success, Venger said.
At Villa Miami, for example, One Thousand Group's latest tower under construction, the group has what Venger calls a "majordomo," a hospitality curator who greets prospective buyers, handles any requests from them and gets to know them on a more personal level. It helps provide a level of service clients enjoy years before the condo opens and creates a buyer profile "from day one," he added.
That means by the time Villa Miami opens in 2027, "staffing and the service ops side already know everything about our buyers … they've been dealing with them, their family, their birthdays, where they like to go, where they travel to, you know, all the things that can keep you one step ahead of everybody to give people back their time," Venger said.
"Which is really what service is about, what luxury is about … handling all these things that allow [buyers] to do all the things that they like to do," he added.
One Thousand Museum was the first residential building in the Western Hemisphere designed by famed Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, and the last U.S. structure she worked on before her death. The 83-unit, 62-story tower at 1000 Biscayne Blvd. has curved external columns that resemble a wave.
Venger also learned that the building's design is important for giving customers what they need. While One Thousand Museum's large floor plans — from just under 5,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet — were a bit "pioneering" when construction began in 2015, Venger said, buyers have since caught up as more wealthy executives and companies relocate to South Florida and want bigger units.
Villa Miami is a collaboration between One Thousand Group and its fellow local developer Terra, as well as New York restaurant company Major Food Group. When Villa Miami is completed in 2027, it's set to be the first luxury condominium to be branded by Major Food Group, and Venger noted that its oversized residences are already 70% sold. Now, at this point in his career, he's seeing the towering buildings he's involved with sharing another need of residents.
"We've always been bigger, big-unit developers," Venger said, but now "people are buying … much larger units or combining units into bigger units to compete with the single-family houses that have just been depleted."