Day In The Life Of Erik Rutter

Count Erik Rutter, 31, among the New York developers betting big on South Florida.

Rutter is the co-founder of Oak Row Equities, formerly known as Carpe Real Estate, a private equity and development firm with six mixed-use projects in Miami and 4 million gross square feet under development. He launched the company in 2018 alongside his partner, David Weitz, whom he met at the pair’s former firm, Tishman Speyer.

Rutter splits his time between New York and Miami. When he’s in the Magic City, he said he aims to sleep where he builds. For now, that’s Edgewater, where the firm is adding to the neighborhood’s development book with two luxury rentals.

Last month, Oak Row scored a $181 million construction loan from Bank OZK for its 41-story office and multifamily building at 2600 Biscayne Boulevard. The tower’s 499 apartments join another 950 units in the works for the six-year-old company.

The firm is doubling down on rentals at a time when South Florida’s multifamily investors are feeling the pain of inflation, higher interest rates and insurance costs. Once-skyrocketing rents are now leveling out, raising questions about growth potential moving forward.

But Oak Row appears to be powering through the uncertainty, with Rutter and Weitz steering the ship one padel match at a time.

5:45 a.m. I have a very precious morning routine. I wake up every morning at 5:45 during the week. It’s definitely a ritual.

6 a.m. I make my first coffee of the day, usually a double espresso. Then from 6 a.m. to about 6:15 a.m., I go through my inbox and acquaint myself with my calendar for the day.

6:30 a.m. I’ll head to the gym for about an hour. When I’m in Miami, I go to Legacy Fit.

If I’m playing padel later in the day, then I’ll focus on strength training. If I’m not playing padel, then I’ll try to mix in some running.

7:30 a.m. I usually have a padel match with my two partners, David Weitz and Perry Weitz, and a rotating fourth person. We usually play for about an hour and 30 minutes.

All three of us are obsessed with the game. We picked it up around 2021. It’s fun. It’s competitive. Winning in the morning sets your day up for success.

9:15 a.m. I arrive at our office in Wynwood. It’s in the first project we built, The Oasis. I usually spend the next 45 minutes really dialing into my inbox.

10 a.m. My first meeting of the day is at 10 a.m. Today, it’s an internal acquisitions and asset management pipeline meeting.

We go through all the deals we’re currently looking at in South Florida and review the numbers. We’re looking at both new multifamily deals and condo deals in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.

The market is challenging today, so for us to move on an acquisition, we want to know that we’re really buying unique land.

We just launched a credit business, so we’ll review our credit pipeline during this time as well.

12:30 p.m. My partner, David, and I have lunch with an active South Florida lender who’s in town.

At lunch, we compare notes about the market. It’s a beautiful day in Miami, so we eat outside at Pastis in Wynwood. I have iced tea, a salad and a little bit of bread. The bread at Pastis is the best in Miami.

1:30 p.m. I’m back in the office for a meeting with the interior designer for one of our new projects, 2900 Terrace.

We brought in an interior designer from Portland, and we’re working with them on this project and 2600 Biscayne. We spend about an hour together going through finishes, materials, etc.

We have our planning and zoning approval, which is a really big milestone for the project. We’re hopeful to break ground at the end of this year.

2:30 p.m. I have a call with an architect who’s working on another project of ours. It’s a new acquisition, and they’re working on preliminary massing for us. We go over the area tables and their other findings, so we can update our internal underwriting.

3 p.m. I sit with our development team to go over all of our projects. We meet once a week to talk about process, progress, permits, construction, etc.

5 p.m. Dave and I have a call with an investor. This one is just a catch up. Our investor is looking at another project in Miami and wants some market color.

6 p.m. Dave and I meet with some other developers for drinks before a dinner with investors who are in town. To keep things easy, we do drinks and dinner both at ZZ’s Club.

Typically, my drink of choice is a tequila on the rocks. ZZ’s is family style, so we do a bunch of salads, sushi and a couple of steaks. They’ve got a great crispy rice yellowtail on the menu that I love.

9 p.m. After dinner, I go to my home in Edgewater to hang out with my wife for a bit if she’s in town, and try to get some sleep early.