Jorge Pérez

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Research record

Jorge Pérez · Staged record CTL-P-1153 · Entity Depth Program · 726 words · Evidence grade: VERIFIED (canonical master, carried unchanged) · Researched 2026-10-25

The developer Miami calls its 'Condo King' did not set out to be a developer at all. Jorge M. Pérez was born on October 17, 1949, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Cuban parents; the family moved to Cuba when he was nine so his father could claim an inheritance, lost the family pharmaceutical business when Fidel Castro seized power a year later, and went into exile in Colombia before Pérez moved to Miami after high school in 1968. He took a bachelor's degree in economics from Long Island University's C.W. Post campus in 1972 and a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Michigan in 1976, then worked for the City of Miami as an urban planner — the formation that shaped everything after.

In 1979 Pérez co-founded The Related Group of Florida with Stephen M. Ross, a fellow Michigan alumnus. Florida Trend's profile, which verifies this record, begins the company story with a modest first project: rehabilitating a small government-subsidized apartment building for low-income residents in Miami's Little Havana, fitting a 1920s walk-up with new plumbing, electrical systems, and an elevator, and turning a $200,000 profit in six months. From affordable multifamily housing in Little Havana and Homestead, the firm moved in the early 1990s into the condominiums that remade Miami Beach and West Palm Beach, and then into the luxury towers of downtown Miami; Florida Trend reported the firm at $6 billion in projects underway with more than $1.4 billion in annual sales at the time of its profile, and Forbes's current profile credits Related with more than 100,000 condos and apartments developed since 1979. Pérez bought out Ross's Related Companies stake in 2022 and remains chairman and CEO. Forbes estimated his net worth at $2.6 billion as of August 2025.

The second career is art. Pérez began buying lithographs as an undergraduate with poker winnings, built one of the country's significant collections of Latin American art, and in 2011 donated $40 million in cash and artwork to the Miami Art Museum, which renamed itself the Pérez Art Museum Miami — PAMM — when it opened its Herzog & de Meuron building in 2013. He later opened El Espacio 23, a 28,000-square-foot art space in Miami. TIME named him one of the twenty-five most influential Hispanics in the United States in 2005, and in 2006 he became the first American developer to receive the 'Icon in Real Estate Award of Excellence' at MIPIM, per the Immigrant Learning Center's hall-of-fame biography. He is the author of Powerhouse Principles (2008), his blueprint for real estate success.

The graph carries Pérez as a Person at VERIFIED grade — billionaire and founder — profiled in its Black and Latinx Founder Powerhouses list and recorded as founder of The Related Group. His place in a Black cultural intelligence archive is through that list's frame and through Miami itself: the largest Hispanic-owned business in the United States, per the sources above, built by a Cuban-exile family through the neighborhoods — Little Havana first — that anchor the city's Latin American identity.

The philanthropy and collecting record deserves its own paragraph, because it is how Pérez's name travels outside real estate. He began collecting as a college student in the early 1970s, buying lithographs with money won playing poker, and assembled what coverage describes as one of the most significant private collections of Latin American art in the United States, with a particular focus on Cuban and Latin American modernism. The 2011 gift that renamed the Miami Art Museum — $40 million split between cash and artwork from the collection, per Forbes's account of the donation — was followed in 2013 by the museum's opening as the Pérez Art Museum Miami in a Herzog & de Meuron building on Biscayne Bay. He then opened El Espacio 23, a 28,000-square-foot contemporary art space in Miami's Allapattah neighborhood, to house the collection's overflow and exhibitions. Earlier business chapters include work with Donald Trump on South Florida projects, per the Immigrant Learning Center biography, and the distinction, repeated across his profiles, of having built what is described as the largest Hispanic-owned business in the United States. Related's own development tally in its company materials exceeds 100,000 residences built — the figure the graph's record carries from Forbes — across affordable housing, market-rate rentals, and the luxury condominium towers that made his nickname.

Sources for this record

• Profile: Jorge Perez and his Related Group — Florida Trend
  Claims supported: Master verification source: born in Argentina to Cuban parents; founded The Related Group in Miami in 1979 and leads it as chairman and CEO; 'Condo King' with 100,000+ residences per Forbes; the 1979 Little Havana rehabilitation and $200,000 profit; SLS LUX and $6 billion in projects underway; family exile history from his 2008 book Powerhouse Principles.
• Jorge M. Pérez — Wikipedia
  Claims supported: Born October 17, 1949, in Buenos Aires; LIU Post bachelor's 1972 and University of Michigan master's in urban planning 1976; chairman and CEO of The Related Group, founded 1979; Forbes net worth estimate of $2.6 billion as of August 2025.
• Jorge M. Pérez — Immigrant Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame — The Immigrant Learning Center
  Claims supported: Worked for the City of Miami as an urban planner; co-founded The Related Group in 1979 with Stephen M. Ross; began with affordable multifamily apartments in Little Havana and Homestead; largest Hispanic-owned business in the United States; TIME top-25 influential Hispanics; 2006 MIPIM Icon in Real Estate Award.
• Jorge Perez — Forbes profile (mirror of Forbes billionaire profile) — Forbes
  Claims supported: Related claims to have developed more than 100,000 condos and apartments since 1979; Ross's 25% stake bought out in 2022; the 2011 $40 million cash-and-art donation and the museum's renaming as PAMM, opened 2013.

Citations

Published October 25, 2026, from the head-verified staged record in the Entity Depth Program (Batches 004–008). Source: CultureTechLens