Miami, FL
A day in the life of Robert Rivani, a 34-year-old real-estate mogul with $750M in deals who left LA to invest in Miami
Robert Rivani got a taste for business flipping shoes as a teenager in his hometown of Los Angeles.
At first, he said, he sold his own Air Jordan and Nike shoes to just afford other shoes, but when business took off, he was making $10,000 a month before he could legally drink. He dropped out of high school in the 11th grade. At 18 years old, Rivani said he was approached to sell his shoe collection for over $150,000 and he took it.
“The hustle came young because my family wasn’t wealthy or rich by any means, and I wanted to be able to afford nicer things in life,” Rivani, now 34, told Business Insider. “The only way for me to go about getting that done was by making it on my own.”
He started working in property management, helping run buildings in Los Angeles, and has stayed in real estate ever since. He specializes in buying more dated buildings, from restaurants to offices, and revamping them.
“I consider myself somewhat of an artist when it comes to designing the properties,” he said. “Painting a building a certain way or making it more aesthetically pleasing, from the facade or the landscaping, and then being able to have tenants buy into the vision. It was an amazing thing to turn around these dilapidated properties into something special or unique.”
Rivani left California in 2022 to make his mark in Miami, where he’s grown his real-estate portfolio.
His investment group, Black Lion, has a portfolio of restaurants, office buildings, and mixed-use buildings in South Florida totaling 500,000 square feet of space owned.
His hospitality real-estate investment firm has completed $750 million in transactions, he said.
In April, he paid $62.5 million for a building in Miami Beach with stores at its base and offices above. He plans to renovate the interior and exterior and rebrand it at The Rivani. So far, West Elm and Williams Sonoma are retail tenants.
“To buy my own office building at 34 years old for 60-some-odd million with no investors or no partners was a huge milestone in my career,” Rivani said. “It was a dream of mine since I was a kid to have that and then also have the building named with my last name.”
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Rivani is also known for his California home — a Beverly Hills castle inspired by “Harry Potter” and “Game of Thrones,” including a $50,000 replica of the latter franchise’s iron throne — which he sold for $22 million in 2023.
Rivani now lives in a 9,000-square-foot mansion in Miami. He let Business Insider take a peek inside a typical day, and described how he sets his life up for success.
5:30 a.m.
Although Rivani left California for South Florida, he still sticks to his West-Coast rituals and wakes up around 5:30 a.m. or 6 a.m. While working in California, he still had properties to worry about on the East Coast, so he had to be up early to stay efficient. Now it’s just a habit.
“I get anxiety if I sleep until 8 a.m. or 9 a.m.,” Rivani told BI. “I feel like I’m missing things. I feel like I’m being disrespectful.”
6 a.m.
Once awake, Rivani immediately spends 30 minutes to an hour catching up on emails he didn’t get to the night before and researching current market trends. He also takes time to meditate and visualize what’s ahead in the day.
Around 7 a.m. every morning he has tea with his wife, Krystal.
Anna Orsborn
“I can’t stress how important it is to have a healthy, stable marriage when you’re trying to do what you do in real estate because you’re always so busy 24/7,” he said. “I make sure I spend quality time with her in the morning.”
8 a.m.
Rivani usually hits the gym in the morning for about an hour.
“I’m a big, big believer in going to the gym at least four to five days a week — or at least staying active, whether that’s hitting weights or playing paddle or tennis or physical therapy to keep my body,” he said. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that without your health, there’s no wealth.”
9 a.m.
Rivani leaves his home in Miami to his office in Miami Beach — which can take up to 45 minutes depending on traffic. Even that 45-minute drive is valuable time, so his personal assistant or wife drives while Rivani texts and takes calls.
“I’d rather not text and be on phone calls,” he said. “A lot of the good old residential brokers do, and I see them on their phone. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
10 a.m.
Rivani is a believer in intermittent fasting and has his first meal, usually a protein shake, at 10 a.m.
His next meal won’t come until dinner.
“I’m a big fan of intermittent fasting, so that’s why I decided to drink tea versus other drinks because I fast for 14 to 16 hours every single day,” he said. “I won’t eat any food or have any special breakfast routine.”
1 p.m.
On Mondays, Rivani is usually slammed with a gauntlet of meetings from the legal team, to the construction team, to designer meetings, so he’s usually in the office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Throughout his meetings he’ll meet with his legal team and go over the status of pending deals. Meetings with the construction team checking in to see where they’re at with bids on new projects and ensuring current projects are on track. He’ll have interior design meetings to go over renderings for projects and help with furniture selection.
However, he’s a little more active every other day of the week. Tuesday through Friday, Rivani meets with tenant companies, potential vendors, and contractors.
Rivani has the luxury of having restaurants, including Delilah Miami, as tenants and can host multiple meetings in one location instead of bouncing around Miami.
Michael Timzil Nio
“I’ll set back-to-back meetings at one of my restaurant properties where I’ll just have people coming there,” he said. “So I try to be as efficient with my time. I’m never lapping the city to go to a meeting and going to another meeting — that’s just an inefficient use of my time.”
7 p.m.
About 65% of the time, Rivani eats dinner at home, he said.
“My wife loves to cook, and if I decide to eat out too much she’ll kill me,” he said. “On the weekends, that’s when we’re going out and having dinners. I’ll be having dinners much later than that, unfortunately.”
After dinner, Rivani winds down by watching TV for about an hour — he’s on his third watch of the History Channel’s Viking-age drama “Vikings,” he said.
Rivani said that because of the nature of the job, he’s still fielding calls up until bedtime.
“There’s no cutoff,” he said. “There are times when I’m talking to people right up until bed. I had a really bad habit where I would leave my phone on at night. But now it’s on silent and I don’t pick up anyone’s call. Once it gets to 9 o’clock-ish, my phone just goes on silent and time’s up.”
9 p.m.
It’s time for bed.
Miami, FL
Ex-con lists $138M in luxury penthouses, including Miami trophy condo
A former attorney-turned-investor who spent nearly three years in prison for defrauding the government is selling two luxury penthouses in Miami and New York for a combined $138 million.
William Duker is seeking $78 million for his three-story unit in Miami’s Apogee complex at 800 South Pointe Drive, the New York Post reported. The price amounts to $8,667 per square foot of indoor space. The home, which spans floors 22 through 24, includes about 9,000 square feet of indoor living space and 10,600 square feet of wraparound terraces, according to a news release. It has five bedrooms, four bathrooms, three half-baths and a private rooftop pool.
Dora Puig of Luxe Living Realty and Carlo Gambino of Douglas Elliman Florida have the listing.
Duker bought the unit as a concrete shell for $16 million, or $1,778 per square foot of indoor space, in 2008 and spent five years building it out. He first listed the penthouse for $65 million a decade ago.
The investor is also selling his penthouse in New York City’s Tribeca for $59.5 million. The 7,500-square-foot unit in the Sky Lofts at 145 Hudson Street has four bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms with a 4,500-square-foot wraparound terrace, the outlet said. Duker bought the penthouse for $30.5 million in 2009 from developer Stanley Scott.
Jim St. Andre and Trevor Stephens of Compass, and Adam Modlin and Andrew Nierenberg of the Modlin Group co-hold the listing.
“I’m 72, and I’m just beginning to organize this next phase of my life,” Duker told the New York Post’s Gimme Shelter. “The last thing I need now are two apartments of this size.”
Duker’s penthouse portfolio is a far cry from the prison cells he spent 33 months in after pleading guilty in 1997 to four felony counts. While working for FDIC and Resolution Trust Corporation, Duker overcharged the government $1.4 million and was charged with making false statements and claims, mail fraud and obstructing a federal audit. In addition to his prison sentence, Duker was disbarred and fined $7,500. He paid $2.58 million covering criminal restitution and civil damages, The Real Deal previously reported.
The judge in the case was Sonia Sotomayor, who is now a Supreme Court Justice. She said at the time that the case was difficult to reconcile because Duker helped the government recover millions of dollars even as he defrauded it, the Post reported.
As a lawyer, Duker helped recover money stolen during the savings and loans crisis of the 1980s and ’90s, which cost taxpayers $125 billion.
After his stint behind bars, Duker co-founded the electronic discovery company Amici, which Xerox acquired for $174 million in 2006.
He owns properties in Upstate New York, Manhattan, Miami, Palm Beach and Italy. He also has a 270-foot superyacht, Sybaris.
—Grace McClung
Watch out, Ken Griffin: William Duker wants $65M for Apogee penthouse
$30M penthouse buyer tied to FDIC scam
Residential
South Florida
$15M Apogee closing tops Miami-Dade weekly condo sales Read more
Miami, FL
alaïa clads first miami boutique in pink mosaic tiles, from interior to facade
pink mosaic wraps alaïa’s miami boutique inside and out
Alaïa opens its first boutique in Miami’s Design District, continuing its long-running collaboration with Swedish architecture studio Halleroed. Set within one of the city’s most design-conscious neighborhoods, the boutique also nods to Miami’s Art Deco legacy, establishing a more tactile architectural identity.
Pink mosaic tiles define almost every surface, wrapping the facade, floors, walls, and bespoke furnishings in a continuous skin. Halleroed uses the material to link architecture and interior, allowing curved geometries and rounded volumes to emerge from a single surface. At the center of the ground floor, the mosaic appears to peel away from the ceiling before descending into a suspended lantern that anchors the lounge below, giving the boutique the atmosphere of an inhabitable installation.
all images courtesy of Alaïa
halleroed reinterprets art deco through materiality
A circular opening punctures the pink mosaic facade, framing an organically shaped planter designed by French botanist Patrick Blanc. Known for pioneering vertical gardens, Blanc has collaborated with Alaïa for decades, from the living wall of the maison’s Paris flagship to the artificial river created for Azzedine Alaïa’s apartment. In Miami, climbing plants become part of the architecture, softening the building.
The retail experience, designed by Halleroed’s Swedish team, follows a series of distinct environments. Circular rooms dedicated to footwear echo the recurring geometry of the building, while the upper floor, reserved for ready-to-wear, adopts a more intimate atmosphere. Folding mirrored screens multiply reflections and perspectives, expanding the relatively compact spaces through light.
The pink mosaic carries visitors through almost every room. Then, darker materials begin to appear. Black leather softens the seating, brushed metal catches the light, and glass reflects flashes of pink back into the space. The change is subtle, but it gives each room its own rhythm without breaking the flow.
pink mosaic continues across the facade
furniture becomes part of the architecture
The furniture feels like another layer of the architecture. Martin Brûlé has assembled a collection that brings together rare twentieth-century pieces with contemporary designs, allowing different generations to share the same room. Reinhard Müller’s Chambre à Air shelving stands near François Arnal’s Formule 1 lounge chair, while Vladimir Kagan’s sofas meet Brûlé’s own sculptural tables.
Elsewhere, Philippe Starck, Ron Arad, Tom Dixon, Philippe Malouin, and Gerard Kuijpers each make an appearance. The pieces seem to acknowledge one another through their rounded forms, unexpected silhouettes, and shared sense of sculpture.
The same shapes and materials keep reappearing, making one room feel connected to the next. The mosaic continues onto the facade, plants climb through the circular opening, furniture echoes the curves of the walls, and the clothes become one more layer within the space.
the suspended tiled lantern anchors the boutique’s central lounge
suspended tiled lantern anchors the central lounge beneath
Reinhard Müller’s Chambre à Air shelving stands within the open retail space
Vladimir Kagan sofas and sculptural furniture soften the central lounge
a planter designed by Patrick Blanc introduces greenery into the circular footwear gallery
curved display shelves emerge from the mosaic-clad walls
pink mosaic clads the fitting rooms
mirrored folding screens multiply the red look from different angles
project info:
name: Alaïa Miami Design District Boutique
architect: Halleroed | @halleroed
fashion house: Alaïa | @maisonalaia
location: Miami Design District, Miami, Florida, USA
landscape design: Patrick Blanc
interior design & furniture curation: Martin Brûlé | @martinbrulestudio
Miami, FL
Reports: Heat add potent bench scorer in Tim Hardaway Jr.
Tim Hardaway Jr. averaged 13.5 points and shot 40.7% on 3-pointers last year in his first season with the Denver Nuggets.
Giannis Antetokounmpo has a new wingman in Miami.
ESPN, NBA on Prime and The Athletic reported Tuesday that Tim Hardaway Jr. will sign with the Miami Heat. ESPN reported that the deal is for one year and $6.5 million for Hardaway Jr., one of the league’s most dangerous long-range shooters.
Hardaway agreed to a one-year, $6.5 million deal with the Heat, sources said. Miami officials finalized the deal with Mark Bartelstein of @PrioritySports tonight. https://t.co/c47Tx4D1KX
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 30, 2026
Hardaway Jr. averaged 13.5 points per game and shot 40.7% on 3-pointers last year in his first season with the Denver Nuggets. He led all reserves with 205 3-pointers made last year and was awarded a third-place finish in the league’s 6th Man of the Year Award.
The 34-year-old swingman, son of Hall of Fame point guard Tim Hardaway, has played for five teams in his 13-year career. Hardaway Jr. is a career 36.5% shooter on 3-pointers, and he’s averaged 2.3 3s made per game in 893 career games.
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