[00:03:15] Asi Cymbal: She had a divorce. She divorced from my dad. It wasn’t a, it wasn’t a great marriage and she was kind of on her own and for a while, couldn’t really take me and my sister because she couldn’t afford us and she was on food stamps for a while. And so I just saw her step by step through sheer will. Sheer will not education.

[00:03:34] Asi Cymbal: She didn’t, I don’t believe she graduated high school, but sheer will figuring out as a bookkeeper and a tie factory. How to slowly invest in real estate. She had, she was renting, I think, a one bedroom co-op in a one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn that turned co-op. She borrowed money from friends and family to buy it, I think it must have been maybe $10,000 at the time.

[00:03:56] Asi Cymbal: And then she flipped it within a year for more money than she made [00:04:00] as a bookkeeper in a tie factory. And then said, well, let me do more of this. And she’s progressed to progress with other deals and she eventually made real. That’s one of the reasons I’m very proud of her, in addition to the sheer will and determination of getting us out of there.

[00:04:18] Asi Cymbal: I love those stories. 

[00:04:19] Patrick Donley: Does did she continue to invest in real estate? 

[00:04:23] Asi Cymbal: Yeah, she did. I mean, so she took proceeds from that co-op flipped. And I think maybe did an eight unit deal and then a bigger deal. And eventually, her biggest deal, I think at the age of 50 was a 64 unit deal in Crown Heights, which is now I understand, has become actually a, a quasi hipper area.

[00:04:44] Asi Cymbal: It’s a religious Jewish area that’s also quasi hip and that she made her first million with that deal. That’s awesome. Is she still. She is, she’s living, she’s I actually convinced her to move to Miami because I figured Miami’s the better place to live [00:05:00] after a lifetime in Brooklyn. I love New York, but it was a little rough living out in Coney Islands.

[00:05:05] Asi Cymbal: And, you know, I saw better opportunities for us as a family and also for real estate to come to South Florida. because everything in New York was so expensive. It’s very, you know, for, for anything, if you don’t have a hundred million dollars or so, you can’t really interact or transac. On any meaningful level in New York City, so I figured for a lot less money, let’s come down to Miami.

[00:05:24] Asi Cymbal: At that point, I was in real estate. I got my mom to move here about 20 plus years ago. Then my sister moved here, and then a few years later I moved here. So my mom lives about 40 blocks away from me. That’s awesome. 

[00:05:37] Patrick Donley: My dad also is kind of similar to your mom. He’s been a huge influence on me. Same kind of story, ma, on his first real estate deal, made more than he had been making as a sales guy, you know, in his first deal and light bulb went off and started building homes.

[00:05:51] Patrick Donley: Do you still talk with your mom or do you talk with your mom? Do you discuss business with her? You run ideas by her? Do you talk shop 

[00:05:59] Asi Cymbal: with her? [00:06:00] Yeah. So until recently she was very involved in real. And I was very involved in her business because, I mean, one of the reasons I became a lawyer is because, well, first I have a Jewish mother and my only option was medicine or law.

[00:06:16] Asi Cymbal: And since I hate blood, it had to be law. And second, I saw her at this very young age making these handshake deals that unfortunately ended up in litigation for. And I saw those conversations with lawyers freaking her out, and I said to myself, you know, I’m, I never want to grow up in business or in life freaking out when a lawyer calls me.

[00:06:38] Asi Cymbal: And so that’s been helpful. I definitely don’t freak out around lawyers. And so I was very involved with her business since, since I was 15, sort of protecting her, dealing with litigation, dealing with other matters. And always helping her because I had the English language. She didn’t speak English as well.

[00:06:57] Asi Cymbal: So we’ve always talked business and I’ve [00:07:00] always, you know, been involved in her business and now she’s getting older and now I, things are different. That’s great though, to be able to have her as a resource and 

[00:07:08] Patrick Donley: motivation, just the example that she’s set for you. I wanted to talk, you mentioned law school, you ended up going to law school at ucla.

[00:07:16] Patrick Donley: I think you 

[00:07:16] Asi Cymbal: went to undergrad at VAs. I love Vasser. That was, and Vassar saved me. Sa Vassar was a savior. All kidding aside, aside from the fact that it was an all women’s college or, you know, historically when I got there, they admitted men. But it was still mostly women. And that Vassar really saved me.

[00:07:31] Asi Cymbal: You know, all of a sudden I, I left from the urban jungle of Brooklyn where the playgrounds were kind of like ghetto to a thousand rolling acres of greenery in an ivory setting. It was unbelievable. Fast food was. 

[00:07:45] Patrick Donley: So great experience there. You ended up going to ucla. Why did you decide to pursue law school rather than go into development?

[00:07:53] Patrick Donley: I read that you dreamt of building skyscrapers. Growing up in New York, I think you were influenced, obviously by your mom. Why 

[00:07:59] Asi Cymbal: not [00:08:00] go 

[00:08:00] Patrick Donley: directly into development rather than pursue law school in the costs and 

[00:08:04] Asi Cymbal: time of that? I didn’t really know what development was until I went to law. And the reason I went to UCLA as opposed to any other school was I knew I didn’t want to be an attorney, and I knew I didn’t want to be saddled with a quarter of a billion dollar.

[00:08:19] Asi Cymbal: So I went to the best public least expensive school I could get into, and that was ucla, which was a great experience. And it was there, you know, I always thought I’d buy and sell real estate because that’s how I saw my mom getting her and us off of food stamps. But when I went to UCLA I was introduced by real estate finance law professor to a developer, Howard Jacobs.

[00:08:39] Asi Cymbal: And Howard said, you can always buy and sell, but if you build and develop, you’ll have a lot more fun and make a lot more. And I didn’t know what development was. He hired me to run around his construction site and it was just so much fun. I loved it. I ate it all up. I love it. Fast forward, what is it? 30 years.

[00:08:56] Asi Cymbal: Love it as much, if not more. 

[00:08:59] Patrick Donley: Was that a job [00:09:00] that you took with Howard during law school or were you already, had you already finished 

[00:09:03] Asi Cymbal: law school? It was during law school, and I remember he actually introduced me to spreadsheets and Excel. I didn’t even know what Excel was, a spreadsheet running number. I had no idea what that was.

[00:09:13] Asi Cymbal: Underwriting deals. I remember being there late at night just trying to figure it all out. So it was during law school that I worked for him. And then when I graduated I ended up working for him sort of circuitously because he wasn’t offering me much money. A fraction of what the UCLA law grads were getting paid.

[00:09:35] Asi Cymbal: And I said, Hey Howard, how could you offer me so little? He’s like, well, you’re, you don’t know anything about development. I’m like, but everyone’s getting offered so much money out of the law school. He’s like, but they’re working as a lawyer. So I ended up working as a lawyer for like a nine month stint at, I think it was Ernst and Young is a tax attorney working in a cubicle.

[00:09:53] Asi Cymbal: So miserable. My entire time was focused on how to avoid work. It was. And [00:10:00] then after nine months of this, I called Howard back and I said, Howard, do you remember me? And he is like, yeah, oie. I’m like, if it’s still available, I’d love to take that low offer. And thankfully he said yes. And I worked for him and it was amazing.

[00:10:12] Asi Cymbal: And I think 

[00:10:13] Patrick Donley: it was about 20,000 that he was offering 

[00:10:15] Asi Cymbal: you? Yes. I mean, not enough to pay my credit card bills. I mean, it was a rough time. It was. It was a rough time for a long time. 

[00:10:22] Patrick Donley: Talk to us about some of the lessons though, that you learned from 

[00:10:24] Asi Cymbal: him working underneath. He taught me a lot of great stuff.

[00:10:28] Asi Cymbal: So he is micro, he’s very detailed oriented, like me now, a licensed attorney, a licensed general contractor. That’s where I got the idea. And he’s one of those guys who’s a very hands-on developer and contractor. So what he taught me is pay attention to the details. Do not mess around. Like he could quote you, you know, the price of lumber.

[00:10:50] Asi Cymbal: He could get into the minutia. That’s what I learned from Howard. That also suits my personality, because I’m also detail oriented. And then there are other mentors along the way [00:11:00] who taught me bigger picture, less detail. So I’ve borrowed from each mentor. Well, let’s get into that. 

[00:11:06] Patrick Donley: I think in 1999 you moved to New York with no job, I think at still dreamt of building skyscrapers.

[00:11:14] Patrick Donley: And you were unemployed for about a year. And then you met a real estate attorney, Noel Dennis, but I believe you were mostly doing litigation. Talk to us about how you broke into doing 

[00:11:24] Asi Cymbal: development in New York. I met Noel because I was in the worst place I could possibly be here. I was clawing to get outta Brooklyn, finally, you know, got to Vassar, finally got to LA and then coming back to build skyscrapers.

[00:11:38] Asi Cymbal: But I, but I had no money, no contacts, and I had to live with my mom cause I was broke. And I’m like, here I am 30 years old, no one would hire me. And Noel was, I think an uncle or a cousin of a good friend. And I just needed a job. Litigation was actually, I never thought I’d see the inside of a courtroom or want to, but it was a lot more [00:12:00] fun than I expected and I, I actually became a lawyer.

[00:12:02] Asi Cymbal: I became a real estate lawyer for the very first time. You 

[00:12:05] Patrick Donley: liked the litigation, but you still want to do development. What, after that job with Noel did you do to start getting your feet on the ground of learning the development business? 

[00:12:16] Asi Cymbal: I kept on looking for development position. I reached out to developers.

[00:12:21] Asi Cymbal: I kept on looking for positions, interviewed a bunch of places. Everyone said no, and it was a hiring boom. Everyone was hired. You could just have heartbeat and you were hired. Somehow no one hired me for years. And then finally a friend mentioned that there was a developer looking for a young guy to come on board.

[00:12:39] Asi Cymbal: I answered the ad in a classified ad. Met with the guy, had a two hour interview. He was this bearded guy, Orthodox. And after two hours he said, you’re hired. And I asked for what? And he said, for whatever I tell you to do, that guy’s name is Shia Boyel Green. And he made a partnership with a [00:13:00] company that I never heard of before called Africa Israel.

[00:13:02] Asi Cymbal: So I called my friends in Israel and asked, Hey, have you heard of this company? And they said, yes. That’s actually the largest developer in. And this guy, religious Jew outta Brooklyn, JVD with them. And he hired me, I guess because I was the educated guy. I think I was the first guy in his company to graduate high school.

[00:13:20] Asi Cymbal: Everyone else was, you know, family Yeshiva guys. And the opportunity I got was insane because he gave me whatever I could take and I took it all. And after three years with Cha Bomo Green and I developed about 700 million in New York City in development, brought Felipe Stark to do his first project in New York City.

[00:13:37] Asi Cymbal: He’s a big designer, did the largest non-union job in Manhattan, which was so intense. You know, going to a like Manhattan is all unions going to the, like a huge site with protests outside, you know, protesting that. It’s not a union job. That’s a memory I will never forget. But the opportunity was phenomenal.

[00:13:54] Asi Cymbal: And after three years with Shia Barma Green, who taught me macro, big picture, contrast [00:14:00] that to Howard. To your point, Howard was micro super detailed. Shia was more big picture, and they both had different ways of approaching business. After that experience with Shia in Manhattan, I decided, okay, it is time to do this on my own.

[00:14:15] Asi Cymbal: And I, I moved to, So what were some 

[00:14:18] Patrick Donley: of those early deals, like how did you have any credibility as a, as a young guy with no real experience? Was it because of the, 

[00:14:25] Asi Cymbal: his name? Well, yeah. I mean, because my experience in in New York City was substantial. My mom had a business partner at the time in Miami who, you know, was very well, no, very social, and I’m, I’m not particularly social, and he knew, you know, he knew a lot of people and he was looking to become a developer and he knew a lot of people and he knew a lot of people with money.

[00:14:46] Asi Cymbal: He found the guy with money, he wanted to be a developer himself, and he asked me to join as a, as a partner, as a minority partner. And it was based on that agreement that I moved to Miami to develop this [00:15:00] real estate that my partner at the time had acquired. And that’s what brought me to Miami. And I just figured it out as I, I went along, although eventually that that partnership dissolved.

[00:15:12] Asi Cymbal: So that was 

[00:15:13] Patrick Donley: 2004, I believe, is when you went to 

[00:15:17] Asi Cymbal: Miami, correct? Yes, correct. 

[00:15:19] Patrick Donley: What was that like 

[00:15:20] Asi Cymbal: entering a brand new. First of all, Miami’s paradise. I mean, Miami’s unbelievable. It’s paradise. I mean it’s, it’s the perfect weather. Great people. Everyone’s seemingly having fun. And for me as a developer, I thought I’d have a competitive edge here because I was trained as an attorney, trained by a micro guy with a lot of detail.

[00:15:39] Asi Cymbal: Went to New York City, did 700 million deals, you know, with a macro guy who partnered up with a serious company. I figured Miami at the time was the Wild West. We’re in really professional develop. There weren’t many of ’em. There were a lot of people with money who consequently lost the money in development, but there weren’t like many professional developers.

[00:15:58] Asi Cymbal: And my theory [00:16:00] was that for a little bit of money I, or less money than New York, certainly I could come to Miami and have a competitive edge. That’s the reason I I, I came here and eventually it took time because no one knew me. I had no contacts, I had no money. But eventually it took too long in my opinion.

[00:16:17] Asi Cymbal: But eventually that theory play. What was your first deal? Tell us about that In Miami. My first deal was, I think when I was 40, when I was about to basically quit the business. I was thinking to myself, here I am at 40, I’ve got $70,000 in my bank account. It’s going nowhere. I just dissolved this partnership.

[00:16:38] Asi Cymbal: We’re in the great recession. The future looks bleak. A lot of it had to do with. I remember getting call, a guy turned me onto this deal that I actually had under contract a couple years prior, but that came back to the market and I knew the deal really well, like, because I had under ridden it. I had researched it, I met with the lenders.

[00:16:58] Asi Cymbal: It was this deal. It was [00:17:00] a across the street from where my office was. A guy was building a big project, but he stopped. He bought the side for 13 million. There was an 11 million note. And I had the opportunity because I knew the site to buy the note for 2 million and that was my first deal and I did whatever it took to get that deal.

[00:17:20] Asi Cymbal: I got the deal because in my mind, this was my last chance. If I wasn’t going to do this deal, I wasn’t going to be in development. I was going to find another business. And lucky for me, I took a lot of risks, but eventually it worked out really well. I bought the node foreclosed. I was trying to build a building, but because again, who are you, you know, you have no money.

[00:17:43] Asi Cymbal: No one would lend me money, so I couldn’t get financing. But then that 2 million note acquisition, and then I had to put in another million, so $3 million in all of a sudden, and this was in the Miami Design District and a site right across the street from where my office was. So I, I tracked the construction.

[00:17:59] Asi Cymbal: The [00:18:00] biggest guy in the design district came up to me and offered me 11 million for that. Couldn’t build it and didn’t execute on that plan, but the 3 million turned into 11 in 24 months, two years. Wow. 

[00:18:13] Patrick Donley: That’s awesome. And so you bought the note in 2008, 

[00:18:18] Asi Cymbal: I want to say in 2009. December 27th, 2009, the closing days of 2009.

[00:18:27] Asi Cymbal: And was it a 

[00:18:27] Patrick Donley: completed project or not at all? It, it was half 

[00:18:30] Asi Cymbal: done. What was the status? The foundation was built, columns were above grade, and it was a beautifully designed project, but I had a different design for it and a different vision. And I got a new project entitled and then tried to figure out, well, how do you build this building?

[00:18:47] Asi Cymbal: And that’s where, you know, the story of my life. Financing is always challenging and you gotta hear like a thousand nos, gotta hear a thousand nos get used to it. A thousand nos before you hear that. Yes, I’m still [00:19:00] not used to it, but I’m, I’m trying to get used. I like to ask older 

[00:19:03] Patrick Donley: guys that did live through the 2008 great financial crisis, 

[00:19:07] Asi Cymbal: older guys.

[00:19:07] Asi Cymbal: Not that you’re that old. You’re not not. I’m an older guy now. I used to be the younger guy, but I get it. Well, 

[00:19:12] Patrick Donley: we’ve got a lot of listeners that have not lived through a downturn, so you actually have lived through it and I like to discuss it with other people who you know, who you experienced it firsthand.

[00:19:22] Patrick Donley: What kind of advice would you have for a younger investor that’s never experienced a downturn? What should they be doing now if we’re, and we’ll talk about this, I kind of wanted to hear your kind of market predictions for the coming years, but let’s say there is a, a downturn, I don’t know, similar to 2008 if that’s going to happen or not, but what kind of advice would you tell a younger person to get ready for 

[00:19:43] Asi Cymbal: how to handle it?

[00:19:45] Asi Cymbal: Well, first of all, find the opportu. Track that opportunity, track that deal. If you believe there’s a downturn, track that deal and confirm the downturn, meaning you’ll see the price go down, right? That’s how you know there’s a downturn. That’s how you know [00:20:00] there’s an opportunity. Track that deal. Get as much market intel as you can and hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, and don’t let anything get in your way.

[00:20:10] Asi Cymbal: Don’t let anything stop you. Would you 

[00:20:13] Patrick Donley: say it’s actually a good thing to maybe look forward 

[00:20:15] Asi Cymbal: to a down. Yeah, I think they’re opportunity. What I’ve learned now, I mean, I used to say, listen, the secret to real estate is buy low, sell high, very simple. And it’s easy to do that in a downturn because you’re buying low.

[00:20:28] Asi Cymbal: So that was my go-to, to your point, my first deal, well if the guy before me bought it for 13 and he’s got a note at 11, how could I go wrong? Buying the note at two? And I did make money, right? I turned three to 11 in 24 months and that was my first big. As I’ve evolved, first of all, always buy low, sell high, but that evolves into not just the purchase price, but also creating value.

[00:20:54] Asi Cymbal: So when I look back, the most money that I’ve made to date, for example, is this [00:21:00] Oasis Point project that we just completed, 301 units, 140 million deal. And the reason we did well on that deal is because we executed. So it wasn’t just buying low and sell. It was you buy it, right? We bought it very well. We rezoned it.

[00:21:15] Asi Cymbal: We created value in the rezoning, right? So we ID an area that no one else was pursuing. We rezoned it from industrial to residential, buy low, and create value. After that rezoning, we created amazing value, right? Returned probably a 4.7 million acquisition to at least $9 million. Big numbers. But by executing, you know, we ended up, you know, building the 301 units.

[00:21:39] Asi Cymbal: By executing, we ended up making 60 or 70 million on top of that. Big difference between four and 5,000,060 or 70. There are many different ways of buying low and selling high. What was that rezoning process 

[00:21:52] Patrick Donley: like? How long did that take? Does your law 

[00:21:55] Asi Cymbal: background help you with that? Yeah, absolutely. Law definitely helps [00:22:00] resoning.

[00:22:00] Asi Cymbal: A lot of it is politics. A lot of it is administration. And I like that process, and I think I’m pretty good at it. I mean, we have a hundred percent success rate at entitlement at rezoning, and that’s a lot of what we do. Not all developers take on that risk. You’ll hear the phrase entitlement risk, and a lot of people are not interested in that.

[00:22:20] Asi Cymbal: But I think we do it well because first, I mean, I do like people, I do like talking to the politicians. I like to understand what the city needs. And plus we deliver a product that’s beautiful, right? I, I don’t want to just build for the sake of building, right? I don’t want to be embarrassed by what, what I build.

[00:22:34] Asi Cymbal: I want to be proud. And for us it’s like buildings that are beautiful, that are well designed, that has have original art and wellness and sustainability and technology, that it makes a positive impact on neighborhoods. You start seeing the neighborhoods change. As a result of what we’ve built in those areas.

[00:22:51] Asi Cymbal: So when you communicate that to the politicians and the community, at least the result for us has been very positive. 

[00:22:59] Patrick Donley: And I’ve gotta think [00:23:00] that once you’ve had one successful project, it becomes much easier to do the second and the third 

[00:23:05] Asi Cymbal: ones. Yeah, it is now. Well, listen, I’ll tell you for the Oasis Point project that we took about two, three years.

[00:23:12] Asi Cymbal: I mean, that was a hard project to lift because it was middle of Covid, right? Again, no one’s lending you money. Right’s. The story of my life, you know, I’ve, I’ve heard this forever in the design district, this project that I bought for 2 million added a another million, couldn’t convince anyone except for three people that I was right.

[00:23:29] Asi Cymbal: But thank God those guys believed in me. And it turned out to be a wild success. And that’s been the story over and over again. A thousand nos. So back to a fast forward 10 years later, you’re in Covid and it’s like, you know, who are you? What have you done? Same story. And as long as you grow, I think you’re going to keep hearing.

[00:23:47] Asi Cymbal: I’m going to keep hearing that. To your point. Yeah. It’s better now. Many more people know who I am. I’m no longer chasing lenders. Thankfully lenders are chasing us at this point, which is an amazing turnaround from three years ago. [00:24:00] But we’re also constantly expanding. I’m very, to your point, the older guy, I’m running outta time.

[00:24:06] Asi Cymbal: Hey, we’re all running outta time, and I’m very conscious of that, and I have a lot of plans and a lot of visions for our company, for our team. I’m not looking to be static and standing still. I’m looking to grow constant. And when you grow constantly, you’re always going to hear, you haven’t done this, you haven’t done that.

[00:24:22] Asi Cymbal: Of course not. I’m growing. I’m going to hear that for the rest of my life. And if I don’t, then that’s a problem. I want to 

[00:24:29] Patrick Donley: go into your company Cymbal, DLT. What would you say makes your company stand out? What’s its unique competitive edge compared to some other developers in town? 

[00:24:37] Asi Cymbal: Couple things. First, we build our own projects.

[00:24:40] Asi Cymbal: We take on the construction risk. A lot of things. Something that most developers won’t do. Developers, in many ways consider construction a risk, and it is, it’s a huge risk. We believe we mitigate the risk by actually being the builder controlling the risk as opposed to giving it to a third party who, because of the way the contracts are set up, [00:25:00] are in an adversarial position to the owner and the developer.

[00:25:03] Asi Cymbal: So here’s a guy who controls 65, 70% of your costs that you’re in an adversarial relationship with. That to me is. We took on that risk. I think that makes us very different than most developers around, particularly at this deal size. You know, now our deal size is in the hundred to 200 million range, and our goal is to execute on a deal like that every quarter, every quarter break round on a hundred to 200 million project.

[00:25:29] Asi Cymbal: The other thing that makes us different is we care. You know, we really care about these projects. We care about the communities. We care about the people living in the c. That goes back to design and art and all the things that give a community life and soul. And then when the community’s done, we still care.

[00:25:45] Asi Cymbal: We own it, we manage it, we operate it. And I go into, you know, tenant events, social events, and my business partner as well to make sure that everyone’s happy living there. And if they’re not, I want to know why and we want to correct that. I’m a big [00:26:00] fan 

[00:26:00] Patrick Donley: of the book. Good To Great by Jim Collins. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the book, but one of the ideas of it is getting the right people on the bus and then determining where to drive the bus.

[00:26:09] Patrick Donley: How have you gone about getting the right people on the 

[00:26:12] Asi Cymbal: Cymbal DLT bus? For most of my life and career, I’ve sort of been a one man show, or maybe a few others join me. I had partners who weren’t sort of equal in many ways. And I think what makes us different right now and what attracts like the high quality people you just mentioned is I have a friendship with a guy for about 15 years, and I always said that if I ever did something really big in, in construction, not just in making money in real estate, the way I had buy low so high, but actually build and execute something sophisticated and significant, I bring him on board.

[00:26:49] Asi Cymbal: His name is Hector Torres. He’s basically my brother, smartest construction guy in a room, and we compliment each other in different ways. I like big picture, vision [00:27:00] design. That’s kind of where I focus strategy. Where’s the company going? He comes in into the nitty gritty of construction development, procedures, processes, and culture.

[00:27:11] Asi Cymbal: And he also convinced me, Hey, Asi, don’t do this on your own. We love to read Napoleon Hill, right? Napoleon Hill talks about the master. And prior to reading that, I’m like, what do I need a partner for? You know, it doesn’t make any sense. Why do I need a company? Why do I need to write to cut all these checks?

[00:27:27] Asi Cymbal: Back when I was poor and people were cutting me checks, I’m like, I want to be that guy. I want to be the guy who write cuts the checks. Then I got a taste of that. I’m like, I don’t want to cut any checks anymore. So I let everyone go. But after talking with Hector and reading Napoleon Hill and getting the concepts of the Mastermind, he was clear, you gotta bring great people.

[00:27:47] Asi Cymbal: I brought Hector into the Oasis Point project, and together we’ve been creating this amazing company that over time, we’re probably three years into this merger of our two companies, or two years in, you know, when [00:28:00] we started with me, him, and assistant. Now we’re about 33, 34 people, and this, by the end of this year will be 60.

[00:28:07] Asi Cymbal: And the talent that we’re now drawing is so significant. Great people. Great people who fit the culture, who love what they’re doing, who want to make an impact, who care about the communities that we’re impacting, and who have integrity and honesty and hard work. I completely agree that the people are, are the most important.

[00:28:27] Asi Cymbal: I’m 

[00:28:27] Patrick Donley: glad you mentioned Napoleon Hill. I kind of wanted to get into books also. Do you have any other Think and grow riches for those that don’t know is the, the book that you’re referencing, but do you have any other books that you recommend? 

[00:28:40] Asi Cymbal: I think it’s a balance, right? I mean, now we’re talking about real estate, we’re talking about development, we’re talking to business, but there are other things in life.

[00:28:46] Asi Cymbal: Other than that, there’s love, there’s health, there’s a lot of stuff. Napoleon Hill I love, he’s a core book for me. I reread his book every month. Think and Grow Rich and other books, but also Deepak [00:29:00] Chopra, the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success is a meditative practice that I think is very important. Also, my business partner thinks it’s important to be spiritual, right?

[00:29:08] Asi Cymbal: I, I think it’s very important to be complete. Make sure you have love in your life. So there are books that I read that really help me get there successfully. Remarkably, those are some of the books that. We’re big fans at the Investor’s 

[00:29:23] Patrick Donley: Podcast of Ray Dalio, who, who wrote a book called 

[00:29:25] Asi Cymbal: Principles and he’s a big 

[00:29:26] Patrick Donley: meditator.

[00:29:28] Patrick Donley: Is that something you 

[00:29:29] Asi Cymbal: practice every day or regularly? I know when I’m out of balance. I know those days and those are the days, Hey, Asi, you gotta chill, you gotta go back to the meditative practice. Ideally it should be three or four days a week. When it’s under that, things go wrong. I stress out, I’m off kilter, and so I try to bring myself back.

[00:29:48] Asi Cymbal: Like this morning I. I skipped my workout when, you know, I love working out. That’s the other meditative practice, but I was working out too much, so I decided today I’m not doing it. Went to the beach, spent 30 minutes. That’s how I started my day. [00:30:00] And honestly, I need to, I, I’d like to grow to doing more and more meditative practices.

[00:30:05] Asi Cymbal: There’s no question that it makes an impact. There is no question scientifically or otherwise. I’m reading a book right now called 

[00:30:12] Patrick Donley: The Awakened Brain, which goes into some of the benefits of meditation and spiritual practices in general, and they’ve done 

[00:30:19] Asi Cymbal: CAT scans of MRIs, I’m not sure exactly, of brains, of 

[00:30:22] Patrick Donley: meditators and non meditators, and there’s a vast difference.

[00:30:25] Asi Cymbal: It’s pretty wild. No question. And also helps with, I know a lot of people suffer from anxiety and I recommend to them, I said, you need to have a meditative practice because otherwise you get to be where I was at the age of 42 where I was working so hard, I didn’t have that practice and then I kind of fell apart.

[00:30:41] Asi Cymbal: I’m like, you know what? I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s too much stress. And then I took a five year break with the encouragement of another mentor of mine, Joshua Rosenthal actually, who ran and founded the largest school of nutrition in the. And I’ll remember. Oh, that’s crazy. I know. Joshua, do you really?

[00:30:57] Asi Cymbal: Yeah. 

[00:30:58] Patrick Donley: Integr what is that? What’s it called? [00:31:00] The company he founded, 

[00:31:01] Asi Cymbal: institution of Integrative Nutrition. Joshua was my third investor. So when I had to close on this deal in the Miami Design District, I had three weeks. I never raised money before in my life. I had a few law school buddies who put up money that was a game changer.

[00:31:15] Asi Cymbal: But then I was short, substantial amount of money and I was introduced to him through a mutual friend and within a. He’s like, Asi, I like you. I believe in you. Wired me the money. No agreement, no documents signed, nothing. He really changed my life. And then we became very close for a long period of time, and I remember walking down the beach, I’ll never forget this, telling Joshua, Joshua, this is how much money we’re going to make on this deal.

[00:31:40] Asi Cymbal: And he responded to me and said, Asi, I’m less concerned about how much money we’re going to make on this deal, and more concerned about you opening up your. Which really just set me back. I’m like, who says that? Who says that? So he encouraged me to actually take time off and I did for five years, and he encouraged me to [00:32:00] get more into a spiritual practice, which I did.

[00:32:02] Asi Cymbal: So that was super, super helpful. It met the love of my life, had a family, it was a traveled the world, it was phenomenal. But I was off kilter in the other way, you know, before I was working too hard and now I was meditating too hard. It was off balance. So I decided after the birth of my daughter that the best approach is to bring the two together, be out there, create, be in business, and also live this semi-retired life, but work at 110% as well and leave an impact.

[00:32:31] Asi Cymbal: And that’s what I eventually did. I had the same experience. It’s really hard to figure out how to balance like the material 

[00:32:37] Patrick Donley: and the spiritual, and I’ve had periods like that same as you, where I took time off really to focus on that aspect of life, this 

[00:32:44] Asi Cymbal: meditation and the spiritual aspect of things.

[00:32:46] Asi Cymbal: It’s a crucial skill to be able to 

[00:32:48] Patrick Donley: bring that together to bring real estate in with the spiritual. And it’s, I think, really rare, honestly. Like you said, it’s very easy to get lopsided 

[00:32:56] Asi Cymbal: one way or the other. That’s. And you want people [00:33:00] around you with the same expression, right? So Hector is big on spiritual practice, people that we bring to us.

[00:33:05] Asi Cymbal: It’s not just, okay, you can execute. You know, it’s not just, Hey, you have money. It’s, are we aligned? Are we aligned in our philosophy of life and our, we say the business of life and the life of business. Are we all aligned that way? Because it’s not just, it’s multi-dimensional. You gotta, you gotta connect on many levels and for ha you know, to have a long run, to create the company that we’re looking to create, which is a very, very significant company.

[00:33:29] Asi Cymbal: You need to be aligned. 

[00:33:31] Patrick Donley: Do you talk with your employees about spiritual practices? I mean, I know in real estate in general, it’s something I just don’t discuss. It’s a part of my life, but I don’t discuss it. Is it something that you try to 

[00:33:42] Asi Cymbal: bring to the company? So, it’s funny, Hector and I just talked about We do, but we trick ’em.

[00:33:48] Asi Cymbal: We don’t tell ’em what we’re talking, we’re not telling ’em that it’s a spiritual practice conversation. We have our Monday morning meetings where we all collaborate. We’re very big on collabo. [00:34:00] But at the end of the meeting, Hector has a presentation that really is about spiritual practice, but he brings it into the context of work and he calls it self-development, but he laughs.

[00:34:10] Asi Cymbal: He’s like, it’s really, it’s spiritual practice, but we translated it into business so that people don’t freak out. I think it’s super powerful if you 

[00:34:19] Patrick Donley: can bring it to the business world. I, I think Ray Dalio has, and he’s created Bridgewater, an amazing company. Sounds like you’re trying to do the same at Cymbal d l.

[00:34:29] Patrick Donley: We 

[00:34:29] Asi Cymbal: agree. We agree. 

[00:34:31] Patrick Donley: I’m a big fan of Sam Zelle and he, he talks a lot about zigging when others are zagging. I wanted to get into some of your thoughts on some trends or some market niches that you think it would be smart to focus on and then 

[00:34:43] Asi Cymbal: others that you think you should completely avoid. Listen, we’re Zackers.

[00:34:48] Asi Cymbal: We’re Zers, right? All of our deals were that way. In the midst of the great financial prices we took on a real estate deal, that phenomenally success. We’re developers who build our own stuff. [00:35:00] Developers don’t touch that. You’re taking on too much risk. During Covid, everyone stopped. No one was building. We said, no.

[00:35:06] Asi Cymbal: Now this is the opportunity to build. Where are things headed? I don’t know. I’ll have philosophies and I’ll have predictions, but they’re usually wrong. And luckily for me, they’re wrong in our favor in a big, big. I’ll share. I think we’re heading into a rough time. I think that’s kind of obvious, but let’s see, in a year or so how that translates.

[00:35:30] Asi Cymbal: We may or may not see buying opportunities either way. We’re geared up for tremendous buying opportunities. We’re we want to take down 10 deals by the end of the year. We believe there will be buying opportunities, although I believe that we’re buying opportunities in Covid, and I was wrong, but we’re going to prepare.

[00:35:47] Asi Cymbal: No harm, no foul. We’re going to prepare. I think interest rates are decimating this industry, making it very, very difficult. Housing pro prices are going down. Construction [00:36:00] prices have gone up materially, so it’s very, very tough to build a project and make it work. Another reason why we like to control the hard cost by being the general contractor, and it’s going to be choppy waters.

[00:36:10] Asi Cymbal: The next 12 to 18 months I think are going to be very, very choppy, but the way we’re preparing for it is all chips on red, all chips on. And that’s how historically, well, in the last couple of years, we’ve kind of done it actually. Historically I’ve been very conservative, but now I’m, I’m being very aggressive on our, on our dues.

[00:36:28] Patrick Donley: Are you stockpiling cash right now? You mentioned that you’re trying to do about a hundred million worth of projects every quarter, I believe. Or do you have lines of credit? Do you 

[00:36:37] Asi Cymbal: have relationships with banks? Yes. We’re refinancing a project right now, hoping to take out close to a hundred million out of that deal.

[00:36:45] Asi Cymbal: We’re raising an equity fund. And we’re working on credit line. We’re doing, the idea is to sit on cash right now to get as much liquidity as possible. Also, we have a 2 billion pipeline that we need to prepare for. Right? It’s, it’s hard to execute on 2 billion if you’re not sitting on a ton of [00:37:00] cash. We’re organizing and mobilizing for exactly that.

[00:37:03] Asi Cymbal: You mentioned 

[00:37:04] Patrick Donley: Covid. I’m just curious what some of the biggest challenges are right now in getting 

[00:37:08] Asi Cymbal: a hundred million worth of projects completed. Oh my God. so many. Luckily, we’re no longer hearing who are. That’s a good thing. That’s amazing. That’s a real turnaround. That’s amazing, amazing stuff. The challenge is, is you know, specifically in our business leverage, we like to lever high because that gives, the equity check that’s required is a lot lower, and if we execute correctly, the multiple on that money is incredible.

[00:37:36] Asi Cymbal: I mean, we’ve, we’ve been, been able to return to our investors every year for the last 13 years, 95% cash on. Major, major returns like a 4.7 x on a five year hold, right? I don’t know anyone who’s done that. We’ve taken risks. We’ve become, we’re aggressive in our deals, but we gotta, we gotta mitigate the risk every day.

[00:37:55] Asi Cymbal: Every day there’s a major issue that we have to solve for. So right [00:38:00] now, construction escalation, lower leverage, higher interest rates. And are we going into a recession? Are we not going into a recession? Are the runs going to go up? Are they not going to go up bud? Listen, luckily we’re in South Florida. Anyone with half ahead wants to move here.

[00:38:16] Asi Cymbal: I’m surprised you’re not here, Patrick, and you’re seeing that people are coming from New York. I mean, you are really seeing it. I think we’re in a good spot. We just need to solve for these major issues that arise because we’re in a complicated business. In a complicated economy, we like to say, how do you eat an elephant?

[00:38:32] Asi Cymbal: One bite at a. I wanted to talk a little bit, what’s an 

[00:38:36] Patrick Donley: average day like for you right now? 

[00:38:38] Asi Cymbal: Or is there no such thing? It’s very busy. I mean, it’s, it’s very intense, you know, it’s very intense. There’s a lot of disciplines that are involved. You know, an average day deals with politicians, with lawyers, with bankers, with lenders, with investors having interviews, you know, being on panels, which I’m not a natural at, that I’m anti-social, not social, so that that [00:39:00] takes a heavy.

[00:39:01] Asi Cymbal: Construction going on job sites, and God, I, I wish I could go on job sites more now. I’m limiting it to once a week because I don’t add the same value that let’s say Hector or COO who ran a major construction company, adds to a job site. But I love it. It energizes me and I gotta do right now what’s best for the company, which is financing, which is equity raise.

[00:39:23] Asi Cymbal: Which is strategy, which is growth, strategic vision, strategic direction design, branding, market. That’s a typical day and it’s just intense and it’s great cause I’m running outta time. You’re very aware of the, 

[00:39:37] Patrick Donley: Passage of time. There’s a practice that I’ve mentioned before on previous episode, it’s called Memento Mori.

[00:39:43] Patrick Donley: It’s a stoic practice and it basically, it means remember your death. So basically it’s a meditation on you’re going to die and how are you going to spend 

[00:39:51] Asi Cymbal: today? That’s correct, a hundred percent. That completely motivates. And it’s also a little different now. Now that I have a family, I [00:40:00] want to make an impact.

[00:40:00] Asi Cymbal: I want to be more careful on how I want to spend my time. I want to achieve things at the highest level in all aspects of my life, not just business. 

[00:40:09] Patrick Donley: Would you say it’s the money that motivates you to continue to grind right now? Is it something else? 

[00:40:14] Asi Cymbal: Initially was the money, right? Because when you don’t have money, I’m like, how come everyone else does?

[00:40:19] Asi Cymbal: You know, how come I can’t do things that everyone else did? You know, when I made that first hit, you know, at the age of 42, turning three to 11, I took the money and traveled the world. You know, because I’ve never really traveled like that. At this stage, it’s more of an impact and yes, you know, material success or you measure by success in many ways.

[00:40:39] Asi Cymbal: One of them is a metric of, well, how much? How much money? The other is, what’s the impact you’ve made? The other is, how much love do you have in your life? How’s your health? You know, how’s your mental state? At work. You know, it’s also very exciting because we’re creating this company, you know, and I’m a guy who never thought I’d create a company.

[00:40:55] Asi Cymbal: You know, I thought I’d just figure it out on my own and be like, my mom, she was a solo person her whole [00:41:00] life, Howard, he had three or four people. I didn’t think that I would create this company. And I think we’re, we’re on a, on a trajectory of creating a, a substantial multi-billion dollar company with hundreds of employees.

[00:41:12] Asi Cymbal: So nothing I ever thought I would want or that would be exciting, but it’s really, really exit. You know, just coming in with like-minded people, making an impact, having a multidisciplinary day, loving what I do, loving my business partner, that’s what motivates me. You had mentioned 

[00:41:28] Patrick Donley: the mastermind group, and is that something that you talk with Hector, your business partner, do you guys talk strategy often about where you want to take the company?

[00:41:37] Patrick Donley: 5, 10, 

[00:41:38] Asi Cymbal: 15 years? Yeah, constantly. Listen, I told him, I’m like, I’m 54, he’s 64 in five years. We’re on the verge of being in our sixties and seventies, which is freaking insane. I don’t know how it happened, but this is where we are. I think at that point, what I’d like to see for our companies have the new crop, all these guys that we’re training take over, take over, [00:42:00] and if we bring the company to a five to 10 billion level, I want to see them bring it to a hundred billion level or get to a 15 x kind of.

[00:42:08] Asi Cymbal: That’s our vision. We’re very conscious of it and, and we’re very supportive of our key talent. We’re very young and relatively inexperienced, but are doing a terrific job. There was another article that I read as I was doing my research. They asked you what 

[00:42:22] Patrick Donley: one of your favorite life lessons quote was, and you said, burn your Bridges, and I wanted to talk about that.

[00:42:29] Patrick Donley: That’s kind of unconventional. It’s, you know, the conventional wisdom is to never burn your bridges. 

[00:42:33] Asi Cymbal: What did you mean by that? I meant it when I said it, but I meant it differently. When you go to an island, you usually go over a bridge. And the idea that I had in this partnership, and Hector has it as well, burn that bridge.

[00:42:47] Asi Cymbal: So you’re on this island and there’s no way off this island other than succeeding. When I reread that interview, I’m like, wait a second, but it has a different connotation, meaning burn your bridge, burn your relationships. That’s not what I intended. So probably a [00:43:00] better description or better phrase would’ve been burn your.

[00:43:03] Asi Cymbal: You bring your boat to the island and you burn that boat, there’s no way off that island. Now you’re committed to one another. You’re committed to succeed. I’ve read passages of in war, I don’t know if it was Napoleon or I, I don’t know who that was. They were outnumbered and then they just burn their boats because they realize that’s the only way that they’re going to win.

[00:43:22] Asi Cymbal: They’re can’t get off the island any other way. That’s what. 

[00:43:26] Patrick Donley: I think some of the Spanish conquistadors did that too. When they, when they sailed to the new world, they burned the 

[00:43:31] Asi Cymbal: ships and it’s like, we’re going forward. There’s no returning. And that’s when Napoleon Hills talks about, right. He talks about that.

[00:43:38] Asi Cymbal: He said, be committed, be committed a hundred percent. Be focused. Don’t miss around. And we have clarity of vision on that point. I wanted to 

[00:43:46] Patrick Donley: talk to you about, do you have any real estate or entrepreneurial heroes, how they’ve impacted your life and just some of the lessons that you’ve taken from them that you try to implement into your own company?

[00:43:58] Asi Cymbal: Yes. I mean, so my [00:44:00] mom is a hero. I saw her be very scrappy, just lift herself up by sheer will Howard Jacobs. Super smart guy. Super smart guy, and. So he gets into the detail and he’s very skilled. He’s very, very sharp and intelligent and also academically intelligent. Shia Boyel Green. I’ll never forget this, you know, Shia actually expanded he became, I think a multi-billion dollar developer at a certain point, and it wasn’t on detail, and it wasn’t on focusing on the minutiae.

[00:44:32] Asi Cymbal: And he used to tell it was more about big picture, and he used to tell me, Asi, explain it to me like a. If I can’t understand what you’re saying as a farmer, it’s a deal. I don’t want to do a different perspective completely. And I incorporated that into my life. Big picture, big vision. The micro, with Howard being a lawyer, being a a licensed general contractor, the sheer will of my mother, and then Joshua Rosenthal, who was about a spiritual practice.

[00:44:59] Asi Cymbal: Who [00:45:00] are you as a human being? Where’s your heart? How do you transact with the people around you? Are you true to yourself? Do you have integrity? So those are the people who’ve guided me. You had mentioned 

[00:45:11] Patrick Donley: the Napoleon Hill idea of definiteness of purpose and the importance of vision, and you seem to be able to develop that throughout your life.

[00:45:19] Patrick Donley: Maybe there were some periods where it was, I don’t know, a little uncertain, but how do you recommend younger people find that 

[00:45:28] Asi Cymbal: vision in their own life? Oh, easy fail. Just fail. Just keep failing the way I did. You know, you fail and learn from that. Learn from it, right? You’re not going to know everything at any given time, but be out there.

[00:45:42] Asi Cymbal: Go at 110% in any endeavor that you undertake. If you fail, that’s okay. Learn from it. As Napoleon Hill calls it, it’s a temporary defeat. It’s not really a failure. It’s a temporary defeat. Learn the LA lessons from that temporary defeat. Be cognizant of the opportunities that get. [00:46:00] You know, at the right time of my life, I decided I’m coming outta retirement.

[00:46:04] Asi Cymbal: I’m executing. I want to build these incredible projects. I want to take my life to another level. And I learned so many things in my failures that allowed me to say, Hector, come on board. These are the projects we’re doing. We’re going to do it together, not by myself, masterminds. And that’s how you succeed.

[00:46:24] Asi Cymbal: I wanted to talk 

[00:46:25] Patrick Donley: about your first, That was 2008 you said. It was. We discussed it was a 3 million deal that’s now worth about 180 million and you’ve got plans to grow it, I believe to like 700 million by 2026. Talk to us about how you get those kinds of returns. I’m not good at math you throughout some numbers, but that’s a huge rate of return that 

[00:46:45] Asi Cymbal: you’re compounding that Yeah, that is a huge rate.

[00:46:49] Asi Cymbal: A lot of it is just, just know your stuff. When you don’t know your stuff, learn from the failures. I mean it, it’s very. I knew this area in Miami that I thought it [00:47:00] was going to boom. You know, very few others saw what I saw. But that’s the zig right, or the zag or, so you have to see things that others don’t see.

[00:47:08] Asi Cymbal: And so I was very aggressive on that deal. I bought it for three, sold it for 11. My guys were like, Hey, what a job. Turns three into 11 in 24 months. Let’s keep it rolling. We bought another deal outta bankruptcy for about 11, 11, 5 Rough. Today it’s worth 110 million. We took money from that deal. We put it into this project at Oasis Point that generated 60 or 7 million in profits, and we also invested in another project that we’re doing.

[00:47:38] Asi Cymbal: And when you put that all together, you get to your 180, but that’s before I even built the trophy project that I’ve been working on for 12 years in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The challenge there, When I bought that for 11, my partners were like, Hey, try to flip it. Look at how much money we made flipping in the design district.

[00:47:58] Asi Cymbal: And I said, okay, I’ll [00:48:00] try because you know, I had great mentors and, and it didn’t pan out for whatever reason. But then I said, you know what, again, it’s not just the money. I really, I, I, we bought this site because we’re going to make an impact. I saw six acres on the water in a mature urban core. Where else can you make an.

[00:48:16] Asi Cymbal: And then this project ended up becoming a billion dollar project. And then I, and I was semi-retired at that point and I said to myself, well, how am I my assistant going to build this billion dollar project? I mean, that’s, I, it sounds ludicrous. That’s when I saw the, you know, I decided to come out of retirement.

[00:48:33] Asi Cymbal: I brought Hector in. We started on Oasis Point just to get our feet wet, just to start a smaller project. Eventually a lender gave us the. We built it as the general contractor. Wildly successful, started creating a team. That was the whole point. Get your feet wet, create the team, because the vision and the gold is that billion dollar trophy that you’re going to develop with no other new partners, by the way, except for [00:49:00] my few partners who invested 3 million with 3 million, our intent is to execute on a billion, no new partners.

[00:49:08] Asi Cymbal: Then we decided, okay, there’s, you know, we have this great team. And the Fort Lauderdale deal is not yet ready to get built. I don’t want to lose this team. We’re creating a serious company here. We found another deal, you know, to start building and that’s how our 341 unit Miami Gardens came to be, which on its own is the best deal I ever underwr.

[00:49:28] Asi Cymbal: It’s going to be a a phenomenal deal. So now we’ve grown to 34 people with serious construction people. Now we’re ready to execute on this billion dollar development. And you know, to me, what I’m, I’m going to be most proud of is not just to be the owner of the developer, but to be the builder of five high rises in a major city as the builder.

[00:49:47] Asi Cymbal: So much fun. So you ask, how do I get from, you know, three to 180 to 700? We haven’t even built a trophy yet. Once we build that, that’s where the 700. Once the 

[00:49:59] Patrick Donley: [00:50:00] projects are completed, are you, you mentioned that you, some of them you flip. Are you gen? What’s your strategy? Is it your 

[00:50:05] Asi Cymbal: exit 

[00:50:06] Patrick Donley: strategy? Is it to hold it and to operate it and to manage it?

[00:50:09] Patrick Donley: Or do you prefer to flip it and sell it and take the money 

[00:50:11] Asi Cymbal: and run lessons learned? Right. When you don’t have money and you have limited options, and someone comes in and says, Hey, I’m going to give you $11 for this thing that you spent 3 million on, you gotta take it. But I, I also learned from actions. And yeah, that was great.

[00:50:28] Asi Cymbal: That was a lot of money, but looking back, the better move would’ve been don’t sell, build it. That would’ve been the better move. I didn’t have that option at the time. Right? Because when you don’t have money, you gotta just hustle and find a way to do it. Now that I do have money, looking back at those decisions, I now see it’s better to halt and it’s more fun to hold and to manage and to be in other people’s lives and to create these communi.

[00:50:55] Asi Cymbal: And just, you know, be constantly involved. That’s a long way of saying that our goal is to [00:51:00] hold all these projects multi-generationally. It’s kind of reminds me of Warren Buffett’s strategies. It’s like when you know you never sell, he sell in general, held on forever. You gotta afford to not sell. You’re not always in that position.

[00:51:15] Asi Cymbal: Not everyone can be in that position. Very difficult, fortunate position to be in. Yeah, very. And money compounds pretty quickly. When you can do that, and in real estate you can refinance, you can take money out, maybe you don’t make as much as quickly as as selling, which is why most real estate developers are merchant builders, right?

[00:51:36] Asi Cymbal: The ones that I know the most active here in South Florida, what that means is you buy the land, you build a project, you sell quickly, you move on, you take the money, you go to the next project, and you do it over and over again, but that’s not, and you make the most value. For example, in this Oasis Point, projects, project’s probably worth 140 million.

[00:51:53] Asi Cymbal: I’m not going to be able to take the one 40 out. Cause in a refinance, no one, no lender’s going to give me one 40. On one 40, they’re going [00:52:00] to gimme a lot less so that they have a collateral there. So you make less money by doing this approach in the short term, but the money grow. And the experience, I think is more fun.

[00:52:12] Asi Cymbal: And we put our heart and soul into these buildings. Imagine like giving birth to kids and then giving ’em away from adoption every time you give birth. I mean, I, it’s not something I want to do. I like that example. It’s painful to do. Yep. Painful. Listen, we’re we understand from an investor’s standpoint, listen, our goal is not just, Hey, you know, let’s build these beautiful buildings and I don’t care what the financial aspect.

[00:52:37] Asi Cymbal: A big thing for me is if you’re an investor, I want to give you more in return on a risk adjusted basis than you’ve seen anywhere else. I’m going to do stuff willy-nilly. There’s going to have to be a strategic investment component, because my primary obligation and responsibility is to my investors. It’s a big deal.

[00:52:54] Asi Cymbal: Someone’s giving you money. That’s a big deal. You gotta honor that. Luckily, we’ve done really, really, [00:53:00] really well and our thesis is you can build great project. Create great communities and still make more money for your investors than they’ve seen anywhere else. Have you also been involved 

[00:53:12] Patrick Donley: in some restaurant development and been part owner of some restaurants?

[00:53:15] Patrick Donley: I wanted to hear, can you tell us about 

[00:53:17] Asi Cymbal: that experience I have. That was, a very interesting experience. I’ve owned and operated half a dozen restaurants, some of them the hottest restaurants, the hot hottest bars in Miami. We had, a restaurant called S Senior Martinez, with Michelle Bernstein, who’s a James Beard Award-winning chef.

[00:53:36] Asi Cymbal: Unbelievable food. That’s actually my favorite restaurant. And then we had another restaurant called Gigi that was really a commercial success. Then a bar, live music venue called Bardo. Everyone in town went there, you know, and for a while I did, but then I couldn’t get any work done because I was there all night and I’m like, I can’t even go to Bardo anymore.

[00:53:53] Asi Cymbal: I was involved, but from in the beginning it was because my business partner at the time, He was more of a [00:54:00] hospitality restaurateur. And when the great financial crisis happened, and the initial reason for me coming down here to partner with him and build all these buildings that didn’t materialize because the crisis happened.

[00:54:11] Asi Cymbal: All of a sudden he is like, okay, we’re, we’re done with real estate. We’re going to do restaurants because that was his business. And I’m like, restaurants, what do I have to do with restaurants? But I learned the business because there’s nowhere else I could go. I I couldn’t make money anywhere else. So all of a sudden I’m like, okay, let me build the restaurant because I’m, I’m a.

[00:54:28] Asi Cymbal: I did that, and then that’s how we got in. And then I said, you know what? Rather than do a standalone restaurant for the sake of saying, I own a restaurant, how about you bring the restaurant into a building that you build and create that sense of community that draws me and increases the value of real estate, which is important to me.

[00:54:46] Asi Cymbal: And so now the restaurants that we do are in the context of creating, of place, making, and creating value for the real. I love 

[00:54:55] Patrick Donley: that idea. I interviewed a guy that’s pretty popular on real estate, Twitter, Eric Weatherholtz who does [00:55:00] developments like that. He’ll do really cool patios fountains and have a taco joint and a sushi place, and all different kinds of really cool space and eateries that people want to be at, and then do the development around it.

[00:55:14] Patrick Donley: And it, it’s like you said, it’s just placemaking. It’s you’re creating a place that people are going to 

[00:55:19] Asi Cymbal: want to. That’s right. So now I’m going to take all that experience as a developer, as an owner, as a builder, as a restaurateur, and I’m going to invest and pour it into the district that we’re creating in downtown Fort Lauderdale, right?

[00:55:31] Asi Cymbal: So we’re going to have a lot of amazing restaurants, some that we own, and Ro Unop operate. We’re going to have luxury branded hotel. Luxury branded, multi-family luxury. Branded condominium. A couple of other multi-family buildings, a yacht valet. So if you’re in your fancy condominium, you press a button on your iPhone, you’ll have your car waiting for you downstairs.

[00:55:53] Asi Cymbal: You press another button. You’ll have your yacht waiting for you, your 60 foot yacht waiting on the water catered by our restaurant and a world renowned F&B operator. That’s where all the lessons learned are going to get. 

[00:56:06] Patrick Donley: That’s super cool. You got a lot of good stuff in the hopper it sounds like. So we want to wrap up here.

[00:56:11] Patrick Donley: I wanted to, if you just had to give our listeners just one big takeaway, one piece of advice from our talk here today, what would that be? 

[00:56:18] Asi Cymbal: I’d say find your passion. Find your passion. That’s what it’s all about. Time’s running out. Right? And don’t give up. 

[00:56:27] Patrick Donley: Awesome. Asi, thanks so much for your time today. I really enjoyed talking with you.

[00:56:31] Patrick Donley: For our listeners that would like to learn more about you or maybe reach out to you and get in touch, what’s the best way for them to do that? 

[00:56:38] Asi Cymbal: You can reach out by email Asi, asi@cymbaldlt.com. c y m b a l dlt.com. You could also check us out on our website, Cymbal DLT Companies, and it was great to talk to you to meet with you.

[00:56:52] Asi Cymbal: Patrick, you’re doing a great thing. I mean, I look forward to continuing the conversation. 

[00:56:57] Patrick Donley: Thanks. I’d love to have you back on and hear some updates sometime.

[00:57:00] Asi Cymbal: All right, man. 

[00:57:01] Patrick Donley: Okay, folks, that’s all I had for today’s episode. I hope you enjoyed the show and I’ll see you back here real soon. 

[00:57:08] Outro: Thank you for listening to TIP.

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