Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, the
Speaker 1: domestic cover story this week a Bloomberg Business Week It
Speaker 1: is all about Jimmy Buffett and Margaritaville and margharita Ville Enterprises.
Speaker 1: It is now in New York City. It's at the
Speaker 1: corner of seventh and forty Street. And we're delighted to
Speaker 1: have with us right now, Jimmy Buffett and his company's CEO.
Speaker 1: He is John Cohen, John and Jimmy. So nice to
Speaker 1: have you here, although it looks like if you'd be
Speaker 1: having a little bit more fun being where you are
Speaker 1: right now. First of all, New York City, because you
Speaker 1: guys are around the country. You're also in the Bahamas,
Speaker 1: you're in Costa Rica. Why New York City? And why now? Oh, well,
Speaker 1: it's an island. Well that's true, that's Jimmy whin New
Speaker 1: York Though after all these years of doing this, why
Speaker 1: New York now? Well, why don't right now? I guess
Speaker 1: we all were. There's a little bit of history involved
Speaker 1: with that fact of as a performer. Uh, it always
Speaker 1: was said to me that you had to You had
Speaker 1: to take New York, no matter how popular were elsewhere
Speaker 1: in the country. And that was something that was difficult
Speaker 1: to do, but I took it as a challenge. But
Speaker 1: once you're here and you connect up, it's one of
Speaker 1: the most delightful places to be. And uh, I've had
Speaker 1: a summer home out on Long Island for a long time,
Speaker 1: and I was always coming into the city and got
Speaker 1: involved in musicals and so um, you know, and let's
Speaker 1: say I frequented a few bars on this island, and uh,
Speaker 1: I thought, when this all came together, you never really
Speaker 1: know how it all happens. But we've had enough magic
Speaker 1: in turning this five minute tune into a brand that
Speaker 1: we just kind of we kind of followed the universe somewhere.
Speaker 1: It takes us. And that's my take on And I'm
Speaker 1: sure John's got another one. Well yeah, well, John, speaking
Speaker 1: of that, speaking of that magic, how do you get
Speaker 1: this across the finish line, especially in the midst of
Speaker 1: a pandemic. Yeah, well, it takes as Jimmy, As Jimmy
Speaker 1: always says, it takes a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: people to help you. And we had great partners, including
Speaker 1: the city of New York. But you know, I would say, well,
Speaker 1: New York obviously as an enormous number of visitors. There's
Speaker 1: really no resort in New York. So this gives people
Speaker 1: an opportunity to visit and go on vacation in Times Square. Well,
Speaker 1: and we think that's pretty cool. We'll talk to us
Speaker 1: about if we go and visit, because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of moving parts. There's bars, there's the resort, there's the hotel,
Speaker 1: of course, So give us an idea of kind of
Speaker 1: if somebody visits, what are we going to see. Well,
Speaker 1: you're gonna first, first of all, you're going to have fun.
Speaker 1: You're gonna walk in from one of the more frenetic
Speaker 1: towns in the world to his Jimmy said earlier today
Speaker 1: in Oasis, and you're gonna take a deep breath and
Speaker 1: you have a drink, and you'll be able to see
Speaker 1: the Statue of Liberty without getting on a ferry and
Speaker 1: a fabulous show designed by Jimmy to his music. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then you'll come upstairs and you'll have the choice of
Speaker 1: eight other bars, fantastic views. You'll feel a little bit
Speaker 1: like you're on a on a cruise ship. In your room,
Speaker 1: and then you get to go out to check out
Speaker 1: a bunch of other bars and a lot of wonderful
Speaker 1: food retail opportunities. And I would say it's a real
Speaker 1: combination of entertainment and hospitality. Well, I do think that
Speaker 1: a lot of us could use a deep breath and
Speaker 1: a drink right now in a vacation as we do
Speaker 1: hopefully soon get to the other side of this pandemic. Jimmy,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm, I'm wondering about what you did during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: how you got through it, and what you did from
Speaker 1: a creative perspective. Well, it was you know, if if
Speaker 1: you look at the way I looked at it, Uh,
Speaker 1: in world history, nobody has ever stopped fund complete and
Speaker 1: uh that that basically happened now. And I think that's,
Speaker 1: you know, it's entertainment and its creativity. That is that
Speaker 1: then layer that keeps us from going back to being
Speaker 1: as tribal as as as some people are these days.
Speaker 1: And it and and funnest part of life. And I
Speaker 1: was brought up that way and raised that way down
Speaker 1: on the on the Gulf coast and the and the
Speaker 1: you know, and the remnants of the French Empire in
Speaker 1: Louisiana and La Bonton Roulet was something my grandmother and
Speaker 1: grandfather taught to their children, and I talked to mind.
Speaker 1: So fun has always been there, and the thing of
Speaker 1: it is, uh. The other little known secret is the
Speaker 1: Tri State Areas has been an incredible uh place for
Speaker 1: our you know, die hard long term fans uh. And
Speaker 1: I've I've been playing here for forty years. I mean,
Speaker 1: Jones Beaches like playing Florida to me, you know, as
Speaker 1: far as friends. So there are a lot of parrot
Speaker 1: heads in the Tri State area. So of course tourism
Speaker 1: is one thing that New York said hopefully we'll come
Speaker 1: back to. But you know, I gotta tell you know,
Speaker 1: I wrote that song about five minutes and I went
Speaker 1: and knocked on the door on Duval Strati and Key
Speaker 1: West to get a job, and I got one. I
Speaker 1: played it there in a place called crazy Old Philious
Speaker 1: the first time, and I think nineteen seventy two. This
Speaker 1: is a lot different up here, and I just I
Speaker 1: just had that one. I just took that that great.
Speaker 1: You know, it's almost a light speed run from Duval Street,
Speaker 1: you know, to seventh and forty the street and look
Speaker 1: at this place and go through what an incredible job
Speaker 1: they did. But I always I love the fact that
Speaker 1: when it was being built, Uh, you know, I love
Speaker 1: kind of hanging. I came in and to see the
Speaker 1: building process and talk to people that were building it,
Speaker 1: and the excitement from construction workers in yere. They were
Speaker 1: the nicest construction workers you'd ever want to see. And uh,
Speaker 1: it kind of emulates to the fact that everybody from
Speaker 1: you know, from our partners into the financial partners of
Speaker 1: people working here, there's there's a real cond of sense
Speaker 1: of community and and fun that we're having that. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's pretty special even on this island. Well, I gotta
Speaker 1: say the Bloomberg audience likes to have fun too, But
Speaker 1: they're also a financial audience. And you guys have spent
Speaker 1: a few hundred million dollars to get this done, several
Speaker 1: years to get it done, and when it comes down
Speaker 1: to it, I mean, how long does it take to
Speaker 1: make it kind of a profitable venture? You guys know,
Speaker 1: New York City is an incredible place to do anything,
Speaker 1: but it can also be a very difficult and times square.
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of restaurants, have seen a lot
Speaker 1: of hotels open and closed in the same year. I've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of Broadway shows open and closed in
Speaker 1: the same year. So what is it going to take,
Speaker 1: um to make it successful financially? And are you seeing
Speaker 1: already demand in terms of rooms and people wanting to
Speaker 1: be there? Well? I think the first thing is that
Speaker 1: while there are a lot of hotels in Times Square,
Speaker 1: there's not a hotel in Times Square where you can
Speaker 1: jump in a pool twelve months a year. Good point.
Speaker 1: So uh, it separates us, I think in a fairly
Speaker 1: material way. Um. And and this is a very profitable
Speaker 1: business because while it's fun to drink, it's also profitable
Speaker 1: to drink and so um. One thing we've never had
Speaker 1: trouble with is is demand and profitability. So um. We've
Speaker 1: learned from Jimmy from his career. You know, deliver value
Speaker 1: so long as you're creating fun for people and you're
Speaker 1: doing it at fair price. Our experiences that you do
Speaker 1: very well. Well. Are you guys seeing already demand in
Speaker 1: terms of people wanting to come stay at the hotel?
Speaker 1: Can you give us any indication or can you give
Speaker 1: a little idea of what kind of demand you're seeing? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: the advanced bookings are very strong, obviously our timing, which
Speaker 1: we didn't control. Uh, the brilliance of American science did,
Speaker 1: UH is fantastic. There's a lot of pent up to man.
Speaker 1: You know, people haven't been able to have fun for
Speaker 1: a long time, and it's a bit of an allegory
Speaker 1: really for the comeback of not just New York but America.
Speaker 1: Everybody could sure you use a visit to Margharitaville. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know that is certainly the case for me. Hey, Jimmy, Um,
Speaker 1: you've been doing this for for quite a while and
Speaker 1: you've built an incredible brand. And I do wonder, Um,
Speaker 1: I wonder what you want your legacy to be. I
Speaker 1: wonder how you want people to think about you. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not gone yet. Last time I look, I'm still here.
Speaker 1: But but it's it's a great shu because I've thought
Speaker 1: about it. It's legacy time. Listen. I've been very lucky
Speaker 1: and I've had a few a few uh, a few
Speaker 1: turns around that there could have gone uh the other way.
Speaker 1: But I'm still here and uh and want to have fun.
Speaker 1: And the thing of it is now it's the fact
Speaker 1: that uh, I'm looking at uh a legacy in a
Speaker 1: way that I think that there's an absence of of
Speaker 1: young performers out there in our world, live performers, and
Speaker 1: what we're trying to do is create like a camp
Speaker 1: or something that we can teach people how to get
Speaker 1: on a stage and how to really perform, you know,
Speaker 1: in this in the the age of streaming, in the
Speaker 1: age of dj H and all still, live performance is
Speaker 1: something that unfortunately is is not where it used to
Speaker 1: be in terms of the number of bands that are
Speaker 1: out there they can really go perform as opposed to
Speaker 1: solo artists or people that are you know, that they
Speaker 1: can use the technology to replace live music. And I
Speaker 1: always think that one of our great assets that we
Speaker 1: learned a long time ago was you know, a bang
Speaker 1: for the book at a show, but also to stay
Speaker 1: there and keep going and because it means something, you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of knew we had a brand a long
Speaker 1: time ago, but I don't know what to do with it.
Speaker 1: So I found John and I said, look, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't pay you what you make in New yorkable
Speaker 1: we partners and you can come to work in shorts.
Speaker 1: So that started it and here we are. Well it's
Speaker 1: worked out incredibly well for for both of you and
Speaker 1: for customers as well. Yeah, John, I I want to
Speaker 1: know how you're going to reach that next generation of
Speaker 1: parrot heads. How are you getting those younger consumers into
Speaker 1: Margaritaville right now? You know, truthfully, it's really very simple
Speaker 1: because they've they've grown up on this music with their parents. Um,
Speaker 1: the most special time families have in their lives are vacations,
Speaker 1: and the soundtrack to those vacations has been Jimmy's music.
Speaker 1: And so the awareness is handed down. We're actually on
Speaker 1: college campuses with day College Ambassador program. We're on over
Speaker 1: four hundred campuses. UM, we're obviously affiliated with Land Shark
Speaker 1: Beer and and beer is a young person's game for
Speaker 1: the most part. So UM, it's it's it's It's really
Speaker 1: not something we have to work at very hard. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's quite organic. So one last question, guys, I have
Speaker 1: to say. In the lead up to this, Tim and
Speaker 1: I've been talking around the news room like we're gonna
Speaker 1: interview Buffett and they're like Warren and we're like, no,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Buffett, the other Buffett. You guys are actually friends Jimmy,
Speaker 1: and we're curious, did you guys do you talk business
Speaker 1: with him. Do you talk investments with him? Do you
Speaker 1: drink Margarita's with him? Like, I'm just curious about that relationship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you if you were a distant something may be
Speaker 1: because of Warren buff you call him to We've we've
Speaker 1: been friends for a long long time. We were introduced
Speaker 1: by his sister Dars to my mom moment they went
Speaker 1: on a genealogical kind of trip and that was the
Speaker 1: first time that she said, you know, you ought to
Speaker 1: meet Warren, you ought to buy Berkshire And that was
Speaker 1: like in nineteen seventy two, and I did both, Wow,
Speaker 1: have you bought bitcoin? And yes, yeah, I know I
Speaker 1: know anything. I know what Warren thinks about it, but
Speaker 1: you know it is, Yeah, a little dabble in there done.
Speaker 1: Do anybody harm? You know? I think in the in
Speaker 1: the entertainment side of it's pretty entry. I'm looking at
Speaker 1: how how you could uh tickets to me is an
Speaker 1: interesting thing of how you could control maybe scalping and
Speaker 1: then the long run, you know, I don't see anybody's
Speaker 1: done anything about it yet that has actually worked, but this,
Speaker 1: this could be a possibility. That's what I'm kind of
Speaker 1: looking at. Yeah, well, I gotta say when it's I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna buy seventy million dollar painting don't work, but
Speaker 1: I'm looking at tickets right. No n f T s there.
Speaker 1: It sounds like, hey, listen, we know when it's five o'clock.
Speaker 1: Where where both of you want to be? At least
Speaker 1: when you're in New York. Um, John, Jimmy, thank you
Speaker 1: so much. We really appreciate it. Good luck, Thank you
Speaker 1: all for having it. Thank you