LeClaire: What types of advantages does a development firm like Rilea Group bring to the relationship simply hiring a general contractor directly?

Ojeda: Say you want to build a residential tower. You cannot expect your architect to decide how many units, how big, how small, and what the unit makes. That’s not his job. His job is to be an architect, period, not the developer. Developers have the intellectual knowledge to give instructions to the architect to design, direct the legal team for the permits, navigate the financing requirements from the lenders, and oversee the checks and balances of the construction process. There are a lot of components that the developer has to put on the table, weigh, and choose.

LeClaire: When will the timing be right to take Rilea’s next project off the shelf and begin construction? Any hints about what that project might be?

Ojeda: We have three magnificent pieces of property. When the recession came I simply stopped because going against the market doesn’t make sense. There’s one on Brickell Avenue and two in Broward. I will start dusting off the project on Brickell Avenue project most likely within a month. It’s residential building.

LeClaire: What sectors of development are the most promising looking ahead two or three years and in which submarkets?

Ojeda: The main change we are seeing is Miami becoming a city. There are no urban cities in Florida. Jacksonville is not a city. Tampa is not a city. Downtown Miami has a mix of working, living and shopping, and entertaining within walking distance. This urban trend will only continue. Any product that keeps adding to the critical mass of what urban living means are the most promising: residential where you will see more people living in condos or rental apartments, office where you will see much greater concentration of future office space in Brickell than in Coral Gables, and retail because you now have thousands more people living within a mile or two of shops and restaurants.

LeClaire: What do you think in terms of development money coming off the sidelines this year and into 2012 for downtown Miami?

Ojeda: I think we will see a lot of new money. There’s a lot of liquidity on the sidelines waiting. That liquidity was waiting for bargains—and the bargains didn’t happen. Whatever looked like a bargain wasn’t even worth it. The latest closing prices on condos are already much higher than the cost of development and construction. Are they where they should be? No, but they are higher than cost.