Jimmy Buffett Brings Margaritaville to Manhattan

He is John Cohen, John and Jimmy. So nice to have you here, although it looks like if you'd be having a little bit more fun being where you are right now. First of all, New York City, because you guys are around the country. You're also in the Bahamas, you're in Costa Rica. Why New York City? And why now? Oh, well, it's an island. Well that's true, that's Jimmy whin New York Though after all these years of doing this, why New York now? Well, why don't right now? I guess

we all were. There's a little bit of history involved with that fact of as a performer. Uh, it always was said to me that you had to You had to take New York, no matter how popular were elsewhere in the country. And that was something that was difficult to do, but I took it as a challenge. But once you're here and you connect up, it's one of

the most delightful places to be. And uh, I've had a summer home out on Long Island for a long time, and I was always coming into the city and got involved in musicals and so um, you know, and let's say I frequented a few bars on this island, and uh, I thought, when this all came together, you never really know how it all happens. But we've had enough magic in turning this five minute tune into a brand that we just kind of we kind of followed the universe somewhere.

It takes us. And that's my take on And I'm sure John's got another one. Well yeah, well, John, speaking of that, speaking of that magic, how do you get this across the finish line, especially in the midst of a pandemic. Yeah, well, it takes as Jimmy, As Jimmy always says, it takes a lot of a lot of people to help you. And we had great partners, including the city of New York. But you know, I would say, well, New York obviously as an enormous number of visitors. There's

really no resort in New York. So this gives people an opportunity to visit and go on vacation in Times Square. Well, and we think that's pretty cool. We'll talk to us about if we go and visit, because there's a lot of moving parts. There's bars, there's the resort, there's the hotel, of course, So give us an idea of kind of if somebody visits, what are we going to see. Well, you're gonna first, first of all, you're going to have fun.

You're gonna walk in from one of the more frenetic towns in the world to his Jimmy said earlier today in Oasis, and you're gonna take a deep breath and you have a drink, and you'll be able to see the Statue of Liberty without getting on a ferry and a fabulous show designed by Jimmy to his music. Uh. Then you'll come upstairs and you'll have the choice of eight other bars, fantastic views. You'll feel a little bit

like you're on a on a cruise ship. In your room, and then you get to go out to check out a bunch of other bars and a lot of wonderful food retail opportunities. And I would say it's a real combination of entertainment and hospitality. Well, I do think that a lot of us could use a deep breath and a drink right now in a vacation as we do

hopefully soon get to the other side of this pandemic. Jimmy, I'm I'm, I'm wondering about what you did during the pandemic, how you got through it, and what you did from a creative perspective. Well, it was you know, if if you look at the way I looked at it, Uh, in world history, nobody has ever stopped fund complete and uh that that basically happened now. And I think that's,

you know, it's entertainment and its creativity. That is that then layer that keeps us from going back to being as tribal as as as some people are these days. And it and and funnest part of life. And I was brought up that way and raised that way down on the on the Gulf coast and the and the you know, and the remnants of the French Empire in Louisiana and La Bonton Roulet was something my grandmother and grandfather taught to their children, and I talked to mind.

So fun has always been there, and the thing of it is, uh. The other little known secret is the Tri State Areas has been an incredible uh place for our you know, die hard long term fans uh. And I've I've been playing here for forty years. I mean, Jones Beaches like playing Florida to me, you know, as far as friends. So there are a lot of parrot heads in the Tri State area. So of course tourism is one thing that New York said hopefully we'll come

back to. But you know, I gotta tell you know, I wrote that song about five minutes and I went and knocked on the door on Duval Strati and Key West to get a job, and I got one. I played it there in a place called crazy Old Philious the first time, and I think nineteen seventy two. This is a lot different up here, and I just I just had that one. I just took that that great.

You know, it's almost a light speed run from Duval Street, you know, to seventh and forty the street and look at this place and go through what an incredible job they did. But I always I love the fact that when it was being built, Uh, you know, I love kind of hanging. I came in and to see the building process and talk to people that were building it, and the excitement from construction workers in yere. They were

the nicest construction workers you'd ever want to see. And uh, it kind of emulates to the fact that everybody from you know, from our partners into the financial partners of people working here, there's there's a real cond of sense of community and and fun that we're having that. Uh, it's pretty special even on this island. Well, I gotta say the Bloomberg audience likes to have fun too, But

they're also a financial audience. And you guys have spent a few hundred million dollars to get this done, several years to get it done, and when it comes down to it, I mean, how long does it take to make it kind of a profitable venture? You guys know, New York City is an incredible place to do anything, but it can also be a very difficult and times square. I've seen a lot of restaurants, have seen a lot

of hotels open and closed in the same year. I've seen a lot of Broadway shows open and closed in the same year. So what is it going to take, um to make it successful financially? And are you seeing already demand in terms of rooms and people wanting to be there? Well? I think the first thing is that while there are a lot of hotels in Times Square, there's not a hotel in Times Square where you can jump in a pool twelve months a year. Good point. So uh, it separates us, I think in a fairly

material way. Um. And and this is a very profitable business because while it's fun to drink, it's also profitable to drink and so um. One thing we've never had trouble with is is demand and profitability. So um. We've learned from Jimmy from his career. You know, deliver value so long as you're creating fun for people and you're doing it at fair price. Our experiences that you do very well. Well. Are you guys seeing already demand in terms of people wanting to come stay at the hotel?

Can you give us any indication or can you give a little idea of what kind of demand you're seeing? Absolutely, the advanced bookings are very strong, obviously our timing, which we didn't control. Uh, the brilliance of American science did, UH is fantastic. There's a lot of pent up to man. You know, people haven't been able to have fun for a long time, and it's a bit of an allegory really for the comeback of not just New York but America.

Everybody could sure you use a visit to Margharitaville. Yeah, I know that is certainly the case for me. Hey, Jimmy, Um, you've been doing this for for quite a while and you've built an incredible brand. And I do wonder, Um, I wonder what you want your legacy to be. I wonder how you want people to think about you. Well, I'm not gone yet. Last time I look, I'm still here. But but it's it's a great shu because I've thought

about it. It's legacy time. Listen. I've been very lucky and I've had a few a few uh, a few turns around that there could have gone uh the other way. But I'm still here and uh and want to have fun.

And the thing of it is now it's the fact that uh, I'm looking at uh a legacy in a way that I think that there's an absence of of young performers out there in our world, live performers, and what we're trying to do is create like a camp or something that we can teach people how to get on a stage and how to really perform, you know, in this in the the age of streaming, in the age of dj H and all still, live performance is something that unfortunately is is not where it used to

be in terms of the number of bands that are out there they can really go perform as opposed to solo artists or people that are you know, that they can use the technology to replace live music. And I always think that one of our great assets that we learned a long time ago was you know, a bang for the book at a show, but also to stay there and keep going and because it means something, you know, I kind of knew we had a brand a long time ago, but I don't know what to do with it.

So I found John and I said, look, you know, I can't pay you what you make in New yorkable we partners and you can come to work in shorts. So that started it and here we are. Well it's worked out incredibly well for for both of you and for customers as well. Yeah, John, I I want to know how you're going to reach that next generation of parrot heads. How are you getting those younger consumers into Margaritaville right now? You know, truthfully, it's really very simple

because they've they've grown up on this music with their parents. Um, the most special time families have in their lives are vacations, and the soundtrack to those vacations has been Jimmy's music. And so the awareness is handed down. We're actually on college campuses with day College Ambassador program. We're on over four hundred campuses. UM, we're obviously affiliated with Land Shark Beer and and beer is a young person's game for the most part. So UM, it's it's it's It's really

not something we have to work at very hard. Uh, it's quite organic. So one last question, guys, I have to say. In the lead up to this, Tim and I've been talking around the news room like we're gonna interview Buffett and they're like Warren and we're like, no, Jimmy Buffett, the other Buffett. You guys are actually friends Jimmy, and we're curious, did you guys do you talk business with him. Do you talk investments with him? Do you

drink Margarita's with him? Like, I'm just curious about that relationship. Yeah, if you if you were a distant something may be because of Warren buff you call him to We've we've been friends for a long long time. We were introduced by his sister Dars to my mom moment they went on a genealogical kind of trip and that was the first time that she said, you know, you ought to meet Warren, you ought to buy Berkshire And that was like in nineteen seventy two, and I did both, Wow,

have you bought bitcoin? And yes, yeah, I know I know anything. I know what Warren thinks about it, but you know it is, Yeah, a little dabble in there done. Do anybody harm? You know? I think in the in the entertainment side of it's pretty entry. I'm looking at how how you could uh tickets to me is an interesting thing of how you could control maybe scalping and then the long run, you know, I don't see anybody's done anything about it yet that has actually worked, but this,

this could be a possibility. That's what I'm kind of looking at. Yeah, well, I gotta say when it's I'm not gonna buy seventy million dollar painting don't work, but I'm looking at tickets right. No n f T s there. It sounds like, hey, listen, we know when it's five o'clock. Where where both of you want to be? At least when you're in New York. Um, John, Jimmy, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Good luck, Thank you all for having it. Thank you