Trouble with a greedy contractor, he explains afterward. He relaxes after hanging up, but the phone call affords a glimpse of Katz's legendary intensity. The way he handles his office also hints at an unorthodox personal style: A self-confessed "phone junkie," Katz is never without a handset, but doesn't use e-mail, and his personal office doesn't even have a computer. Each night, he hand-writes his own detailed "to-do" list. And he always carries a palm-size book inscribed with the most precious names and numbers of his trade.
In Miami's dizzying real estate market, awash in money and movers from around the world, Katz and his tiny real estate investment firm inspire a certain awe. With a staff of just eight brokers and nine support personnel, the Aztec Group handled $900 million in real estate sales, financing and other transactions last year -- a stunning figure that nonetheless disappoints Katz, the 51-year-old founder and CEO, just a little: Had the capital markets not gone cold during the financial turmoil abroad in late 1998, Aztec would have hit $1 billion, he says. "We are clearly the most successful, privately owned real estate company in Florida," Katz boasts.
Aztec's production of complex, high-profile deals reads like a Who's Who of local south Florida landmarks. Last March, Aztec secured an $89 million mortgage from Japan-based Nomura Capital for Miami Beach's signature Fontainebleau Hilton. In August, Aztec brokered an estimated $45 million sale (Aztec won't confirm the price) of 47 luxury condominiums and 40 acres on exclusive Fisher Island, off Miami Beach, amid a hailstorm of litigation between the island's owner and its rich and famous residents. A few months ago, Aztec and Insignia Capital of New York listed for sale Miami's most famous skyscraper, the curvy, 47-story NationsBank Tower (formerly the CenTrust Tower), now owned by Winthrop Financial; a deal could close soon.
With so much riding on so few people, Katz looks for specialists: Aztec President Tom Duncan is a former Southeast banker with expertise in finance. Senior Vice President Mark Ellert, a former developer, manages Aztec's hospitality and leisure area. Chris Johannsen, also a senior vice president, knows joint ventures and syndications. Vice President Mark Singer used to be a tax attorney. Another broker focuses on retail, industrial and office property, and yet another on multi-family housing. But aside from talent, it's the company's high-powered contacts, finesse with complicated transactions and reputation for matchmaking that attract the big deals. "We can market a property on a national or international basis and know upfront who the top bidders are going to be," says Duncan. "I think our niche is in deals which are harder to do."
Katz also sets a standard as a relentless workaholic. "When we first started trying to do business with Aztec and Ezra brought me a deal, I turned him down and told him to bring me another one," recalls Leonard Abess, chairman of Miami-based City National Bank. "He always asked me, 'Tell me why this isn't for you.' He'd never get upset. And he'd bring me another one. He spent two years trying to understand what and who was right for us. Ezra's greatest strength is in understanding when there's a match."
Most of Aztec's business is repeat customers or referrals, and the company's choosy about which deals it tackles. "I'd rather do one $100 million transaction than ten $10 million transactions," Katz says. The firm's sole owner, he won't reveal revenues, but says commissions range from 1/2% to 5%, depending on a deal's complexity, timing and the customer: Repeat customers are rewarded with better rates. Katz can't stand clients "who are very closed-mouthed" about crucial business details. "I can't do business with people who have amnesia," Katz says.
And he doesn't mince words with any of them. "He tells it like it is," says competitor Jay Massirman, first vice president at CB Richard Ellis, the commercial real estate giant with 3,000 brokers worldwide. "When you tell a developer, 'I don't like your deal and you're not going to make it,' it creates a rift," says Massirman.
"He's not the greatest diplomat in the world," echoes Norman Braman, the Miami automotive mogul. "But he's one of those unique individuals I would classify as a doer. There are a lot of talkers in this town. When Ezra says something, you can take it to the bank." Braman and Katz work together on philanthropy as well as business, including the construction of the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach. "Ezra is the son of Holocaust survivors. I think a lot of his outlook on life is based on his heritage -- his sense of urgency and the conduct of business in a very ethical way."
After the war -- most of his mother's family was murdered by the Nazis -- Katz's family emigrated from Czechoslovakia, where Katz was born, to Israel, and later, to Cleveland, where his parents ran a butcher shop. Katz graduated from Ohio State with an engineering degree and started out in construction. The real estate business brought him to Florida in the '70s; Katz opened the company in 1981. The Aztec name -- originally a play on his name, "EZ," and "tech" -- was suggested by a friend.
His energy and personality so color the place that for many years, he and Aztec were synonymous. For some employees, it was too much. "One weakness, at least in the past, was that the firm was too closely associated with Ezra -- it was Ezra's shop," says Boaz Ashbel, a broker who left Aztec a couple years ago to form his own firm, Ashbel Realty Advisers. Katz doesn't disagree and says he's trying to share more responsibility and credit with colleagues. "No one person can do $900 million in business. Every one of these people here has his own book of business. I'm trying to be a rainmaker as much as I can."
In recent months, however, the cloudbursts have been fewer. Deals closed at a record pace in early 1998, but slowed dramatically in the last quarter, as economic troubles in Asia and South America have rippled through the world's economy. Money sources, from banks to institutions, domestic to international, got cold feet. Aztec foresees a 1999 where capital is abundant but business is less frenzied than last year, as lenders, borrowers, sellers and buyers adjust to the new world order. "There's tremendous turmoil," Katz says.
But not enough to make him seriously consider a recent offer to purchase the company. "Everyone says, 'Why not retire? You don't have to work.' But I really want to break that billion-dollar mark."