Jimmy Buffett, who died of most cancers on Friday, was many issues: a singer, a songwriter and a spokesman for tropical escape.
But past crafting music that impressed listeners to seize a chilly drink and take it simple, Mr. Buffett was additionally a businessman who turned his private model right into a sprawling life-style empire that included every thing from eating places and resorts to traces of merchandise corresponding to at-home “frozen concoction makers” and cornhole recreation units.
Along with music gross sales and excursions, Margaritaville’s success helped propel Mr. Buffett into the billionaire ranks; in April, Forbes estimated his web price at $1 billion. Now, Mr. Buffett’s empire, named Margaritaville Enterprises after his signature track, should discover methods to maintain its business with out its founder.
“On behalf of everyone (who works, visits or lives) in Margaritaville, we mourn the loss of Jimmy, a true national treasure, and express our heartfelt condolences to his family and everyone around the world who loves him,” Margaritaville wrote in a press release posted on its web site.
Representatives for the corporate declined to touch upon its business.
In the times after Mr. Buffett’s demise, retail and advertising consultants mentioned his legacy would proceed to lure his followers — often called Parrot Heads, together with their kids, known as parakeets — and others to his companies.
“It’s definitely a lifestyle associated with him and his personality and his music that he created,” mentioned Barbara Kahn, a professor of promoting on the Wharton School on the University of Pennsylvania. But, she mentioned, as a result of his business is “bigger than just that, it could definitely live on.”
Mr. Buffett’s authentic thought for Margaritaville was “to expand the opportunity for as many people to experience the lifestyle immortalized in his iconic song as possible,” in keeping with the assertion on the corporate’s web site. The firm had $2.2 billion in gross annual income final yr.
Most of Margaritaville’s income comes from licensing and franchising offers with numerous ventures, typically with references to Mr. Buffett’s songs like “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.” The enterprise is linked to greater than 100 eating places, bars, grills and “lodging locations” in locations as numerous as Ambergris Caye, Belize, and Pigeon Forge, Tenn., a brief drive from the Dollywood Theme Park, named for Dolly Parton.
There is Latitude Margaritaville Watersound in Panama City Beach, Fla., a deliberate grownup group of houses for these age 55 and up, and the Margaritaville Vacation Club by Wyndham on St. Thomas. There are luxurious condominiums and a cruise ship, in addition to a brand new podcast, “License to Chill.”
According to Forbes, Mr. Buffett had an estimated 28 p.c stake within the firm, which is headquartered in Orlando, Fla. Margaritaville additionally has different traders, together with non-public fairness companies. The billionaire investor Warren Buffett — a longtime buddy, however not a relative, of the musician — is an investor in Margaritaville by way of subsidiaries of his firm Berkshire Hathaway.
Last yr, the corporate mentioned its companions had invested, or dedicated to take a position, $7.5 billion in its hospitality actual property initiatives.
More Buffett-related properties are coming, together with a restaurant in Boston. A resort not too long ago opened in San Diego, as did a LandShark Bar & Grill in Miramar Beach, Fla. But Margaritaville might danger overextending itself, Ms. Kahn mentioned.
“This is a lifestyle, and it’s a chill, fun island lifestyle,” Ms. Kahn mentioned, including that if it isn’t managed correctly, it “can be something that loses some of its esteem without the founder’s identity.”
The Margaritaville Casino in Biloxi, Miss., closed simply two years after opening in 2012, after which sat empty for 9 years earlier than being purchased final month by one other resort firm. The final location of Mr. Buffett’s fast-food chain, Cheeseburger in Paradise, closed in Secaucus, N.J., in 2020; Mr. Buffett bought his stake to the restaurant operator Luby’s for $11 million in 2012.
In 2021, Margaritaville Resort Times Square opened in New York to nice fanfare. The $370 million property, which encompasses a 32-foot-tall reproduction of the Statue of Liberty hoisting a margarita glass, is owned by Soho Properties. Soho’s accomplice, IMCMV Holdings, leased the situation and struck a trademark license settlement with Margaritaville Enterprises.
In July, the resort entered Chapter 11 chapter proceedings in an try and cease a foreclosures public sale sale after Soho didn’t make a debt fee, in keeping with courtroom filings. The lodge was valued between $266 million and $350 million as of May, with revenues anticipated to exceed $25 million by the top of subsequent yr — an indication of the property’s potential regardless of the pressures of the pandemic, in keeping with the filings.
Soho Properties didn’t reply to requests for remark.
When reached on Sunday by cellphone, a employee on the Times Square location mentioned folks had been leaving flowers by the towering statue of a shiny blue flip-flop within the foyer as a part of a makeshift memorial to Mr. Buffett.
Lauren Hirsch contributed reporting.
Source: www.nytimes.com