Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann picked Miami for the first projects from his multifamily company Flow after he and his family experienced the city's sense of community firsthand. And the warm weather and sunshine didn't hurt, either.
Flow got its start in 2022 after getting a $350 million investment from Silicon Valley venture capital firm a16z, led by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. Neumann's goal for Flow was to revolutionize the apartment industry in the same manner WeWork sought to change the flexible office industry.
“For us as New Yorkers, Miami wasn't the obvious thing. When we arrived to Miami, we were shocked by what we found … Miami’s superpower is community,” said Neumann while speaking at the America Business Forum conference this week in downtown Miami.
Neumann settled in Miami during the pandemic after spending time in New York, the Hamptons and California, saying that he and his family “immediately” felt at home in the city and that it was "an unbelievable place to raise kids."
Neumann launched Flow, his first venture since being ousted in 2019 from New York-based WeWork, the coworking company he helped build, in Miami in part because of the weather.
"Just think of the way a lot of people live in cities all over the world. They live in these boxes, in these cities of concrete. There's no outdoors. If you happen to be in a city that has very cold weather, half of the year you're not able to be outside. Imagine us coming to Miami, and suddenly the kids spend all day outside," he added.
Neumann's vision for Flow is to create living experiences that are flexible, connected and with a sense of belonging. Flow opened its first two apartment communities in Miami and Fort Lauderdale in 2024.
“In today's world, experiential real estate has never been more important. That's what we created here in Flow," Neumann said.
Neumann has been acquiring land throughout South Florida for additional development. He bought an Aventura office complex at the end of last year for $116 million. In January, he added a 16-acre site along Biscayne Boulevard where “we're going to build a new community with over 2,000 apartments and over 1 million square feet of office and 200,000 square feet of retail,” he said.
“From that, we went to Brickell,” Neumann added, referring to Miami's financial district. The firm most recently teamed up with investors Canada Global and Yellowstone Trust to buy a majority stake in a 6.8-acre site that came with a mostly complete 632-unit multifamily tower and ground-floor retail space along the Miami River. Now called Flow Brickell, resident move-ins began in October.
Beyond South Florida, Neumann doubled down on the decision to expand to Saudi Arabia, saying that it was “an extremely young country” with 70% of the population under 35 years old.
The company opened Flow Najris in Riyadh in November 2024, and followed that with Flow Granada, which opened this summer in the city's neighborhood of the same name.
"We’re starting in Saudi [Arabia], soon to go to other places in [the Middle East]," Neumann said, without providing additional details.