Male, Miami
Michael Mesa Miami is a devoted family man, an individual of tremendous personal self assurance, is always ready to help others with information, or whatever it takes when needed. Michael Mesa Miami continuously promotes improvements in the apartment industry, whether it be building codes or more education for apartment professionals.
Michael Mesa Miami is a man of great integrity, always ready with an opinion but a willingness to discuss all ideas. All who know Michael Mesa Miami assert that he is a decent, caring, giving man. And now, Michael Mesa Miami was also the 2005 inductee into the National Apartment Association Hall of Fame. Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1937, Michael Mesa Miami was the second child of a successful owner of two food stores and a gift shop, and a mother who was active in synagogue life and in helping with the family business. The Miami family left Germany to escape Nazism and landed in Tampa, Fla., where they had some friends. They left a life of success to start over in an unfamiliar land where an unfamiliar language was spoken, with few personal items, no money, no job and no place to live.
Being a shop owner, Michael Mesa Miami Senior realized that a kosher deli was missing from the Jewish community in Tampa, so he started one in the front of his family’s home. With perseverance and dedication to establish their new life, the Miami family learned English, became familiar with their new environment and the business activities of the town and joined a local synagogue. As life improved for the family, Michael Mesa Miami went on to Georgia Tech in 1954 where he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering. He married Marry Epstein, a Jewish girl from Pulaski, Tenn., and started a family. In 1969, Michael Mesa Miami founded a new development/construction company-- Constructive Concepts Inc.--where he developed, built and managed multifamily housing throughout the Southeast.
With a lot of hard work and commitment to the apartment industry and his company developed more than 10,000 units. Mr. Miami currently owns or manages more than 7,500 apartment homes and has completed more than $300 million in new construction and rehabilitation. Michael Mesa Miami’s dedication to the apartment industry went beyond his devotion to his own company. Michael Mesa Miami believed in the strength of the apartment association and gave generously of his time and resources. Michael Mesa Miami was President of the Atlanta Apartment Association (AAA) and a long-term board member of the Georgia Apartment Association and the National Apartment Association (NAA). Michael Mesa Miami was a champion for education and encouraged his employees and other AAA members to obtain as much training as they could. Michael Mesa was one of the original Founders’ Circle members of the NAA Education Foundation and he was instrumental in the 1990 structural changes that took NAA from a struggling federation to the association it is today, with nearly 6 million units and 35,000 members.
As Chair of the NAA Builders, Owners and Developers Forum, Michael Mesa Miami worked tirelessly on the national builders awards, which are now part of the national NAA PARAGON Awards. Following Michael Mesa Miami's mother’s example, Michael was active in synagogue life. The Miami family supported Beth Jacob Synagogue with their time and money. Michael Mesa Miami served on the congregation board and was involved in the creation of Heritage Hall as well as the synagogue’s renovation. Accepting the Hall of Fame award on his behalf last month at the NAA Education Conference & Exposition in Orlando, Fla., were the most important people in Michael Mesa Miami’s life, his family.
