They are a trio of power performers in the luxury real estate sector. Maritza Meza Giusti and her son, Gianpierre Giusti are the core of The Meza Group, which Maritza co-founded with Gianpierre, who is president. Giordanna “Gigi” Giusti, daughter and sister to the duo, is a sales manager for new development projects at Douglas Elliman Las Olas.
“All three of us have this overwhelming passion to help others,” says Gianpierre. “And it’s that same mentality we share because we have a huge admiration and appreciation for what we do.”
Maritza is a self-made businesswoman. Her children attribute their success to what they learned from her determination and following her example.
“I moved to South Florida in 1988 when I was married with two kids who were little at the time. I had no money,” says Maritza. She was a housewife raising her children, but after her divorce decided that she was going to pursue something she had wanted to do for a long time—get her real estate license. Maritza already had a bachelor’s degree in business management.
Growing up in Lima, Peru, she remembers her father, a developer, wanting to take his little girl with him to every project. “I grew up in that world. At the time, I wanted nothing to do with it. I just wanted to play,” she recalls. “But then here, he kind of helped me when I definitely saw the opportunity.”
In what she says was being at the right place at the right time, a broker approached her to work in pre-construction sales for the Related Group’s Las Olas Beach Club. “I was going for my real estate exam that Monday and I passed—the rest is history because he hired me.” She sold 11 of the 12 oceanfront penthouses in record time and had more than $125 million in personal sales there. Her career skyrocketed.
Gigi, a University of Florida graduate, and her mother had been working together at a real estate firm while Gianpierre was working in promotions and marketing.
“I thought that real estate was great, but I liked doing other things. I was involved in other businesses.” He referred to the proverb, “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it’s yours. If not, it was never meant to be” and added, “So, I let it go and found my way back.”
Out of that eventually came The Meza Group. “We started working successfully alongside each other and penetrating the luxury market in general. It created an opportunity where we not only learned from each other and learned a wealth of information about the locations and the neighborhoods, but I also had the opportunity to really become skilled as a seller’s agent and understand that process.”
He remembers during his marketing and promotions days when he was working with a club owner who hosted Latin salsa contests. “He would be part of the contest himself, and I guess I gravitated to that idea of not only doing something for a living but being part of it, too.”
Out of that came an idea that Gianpierre says sets The Meza Group apart from many others in the same field: They live the lifestyle that they sell.
“It took a lot of sales and a lot of development to get to the level of saying that we can now share the lifestyle with [our clients] and it is a very bold statement that speaks on its own. Almost every development we sell, or every community that we are specialists in, we are also owners ourselves,” says Gianpierre.
Selling and living the Fort Lauderdale lifestyle brings with it a personal passion, and what the family says is what drives them. “Miami is oversaturated and transient; West Palm Beach is beautiful but very expensive. Fort Lauderdale is the best of both worlds,” says Gigi. “You are close to the beach scene, the downtown area, you have access to everything. For us, it is home.”
