For over 26 years, I served as a Director and Senior Vice President of Pacific International Equities, Inc., which, during my tenure, was Miami Beach’s largest, luxury, condominium, high-rise developer. My responsibilities included overseeing Pacific’s acquisitions, planning, design, development and marketing of the company’s condominium projects, comprising approximately 4,500 units whose market value exceeded $750,000,000. Some of these projects included mixed-use components among them notably, Sunset Harbour Marina, a 125-slip, state-of-the-art full service marina in Miami Beach.
In all, my total condominium development experience covers 34 years and entails some 7,000 units with a market value greatly exceeding one billion dollars. I was also responsible for Pacific’s commercial/industrial and rental assets in Canada, suburban Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, Georgia and was in charge of Pacific’s 5300-acre recreation land subdivision northeast of Los Angeles, California.
In 1997, I left Pacific and started my own firm, Howard Shapiro & Company, to engage in real estate development for my own account and to provide consultancy services to the development industry. My later activities in that regard include the development of a 15-story luxury, condominium (“Le Nautique”) in Bay Harbor Islands, Fl, numerous condominium conversions in south and central Florida and my executive position in the development of “Las Olas River House”, a 42-story, 287-unit, $250,000,000 luxury, high-rise in downtown Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on the New River
I am presently (2014)involved in the planning of a 326-unit, highly amenitized condominium hotel project known as “Regency Suites” located one mile from Disney World in Orlando.
Because of my experience, expertise and significant contribution to the built environment, I was asked by the University of Miami School of Law to assist its LLM (Masters of Law) Program in Real Property Development, which led to my being appointed to its Adjunct Faculty as its Developer in Residence. Working with law students and faculty, I lecture and assist students and professors in the classroom setting, where I present the client’s point of view and the reality of the real estate development industry, which complements the theoretical legal aspects learned by students through their law classes. I have been an Adjunct Faculty Member at UM Law since 1997.
I also attend many of the LLM Program’s workshops and assist in organizing site visits and inviting special speakers to address the students. I am an “ex-officio” member of the Program’s Strategic Planning Committee where I participate in the planning of the Program’s course content and special programs designed to enhance the students’ learning experience.
I hold a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Sir George Williams University in Montreal, Canada and an MBA from the University of Miami. Born and raised in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, I am fluent in French. Now an American citizen, I have resided in South Florida since 1972 when my real estate development career began.
