Jorge Pérez plans Midtown/Design District hotel

Jorge Pérez is moving on up — in Miami geographical terms, that is. A titan of Brickell real estate is planning condos and even a hotel in Miami’s Midtown and Design District, Related Group’s top executive told The Real Deal.

At a party for Baltus House, a Related condo to be exclusively designed by Pérez-picked furniture designer Baltus and two Spanish conceptual artists, the neat and trim 63-year-old chief revealed plans for expansion in the Design District, where family friend Craig Robins is rushing in retail outlets for luxe fashion designers, including Prada, Hermès and Louis Vuitton.

“Forty of the world’s greatest brands of all time — that’s a revolution,” Pérez quips when asked how the Design District will make the leap from a pedestrian-scarce elegiac monument to high design to a high-density retailers’ paradise. “We’re going to be doing a hotel right here, so we’ve made a commitment to the area, which I call Midtown/Design District, all the way from the water and 25th Street and North Miami Avenue. I think the whole area is exploding and is going to be a fantastic place to live.” — Emily Schmall