Tibor Hollo, the founder of Florida East Coast Realty and the developer of Florida’s tallest tower, is being remembered for putting his stamp on the Miami skyline over a 60-year career.
Hollo, who died last week at 96, worked on projects including Panorama Tower, the more than 800-foot-tall structure with mostly apartments, as well as the United States Justice Department building in downtown Miami, the 56-story predominantly residential Opera Tower and the 3.4 million-square-foot Venetia/The Grand in the city’s arts and entertainment district.
“Where there was a horizontal city, Tibor saw a vertical city and forged ahead to help make that come true,” Alicia Cervera Lamadrid, managing partner of Cervera Real Estate, told CoStar News after she attended his memorial service. Her firm is one of Miami’s oldest family-owned real estate brokerages and founded by Cervera Lamadrid’s mother, Alicia Cervera, in 1969.
A representative for Hollo’s firm, Florida East Coast Realty, did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
Hollo’s influence on the city has been recognized through the years by the city, local business and charitable organizations and the U.S. Congress. In 2012, Florida International University unveiled the Tibor and Sheila Hollo School of Real Estate.
Hollo was born in 1927 in Budapest, Hungary, and raised in France. During the Second World War, Hollo, who was Jewish, was sent to concentration camps, where his mother died, according to interviews he conducted with various media.
He returned to France after the war, where he received an architecture degree from the Ecole Polytechnique Institute before emigrating to New York and starting a general contracting firm.
In 1956, Hollo moved to Miami and founded Florida East Coast Realty.
Other notable Hollo-developed projects in Miami include the Omni Mall, Rivergate Plaza, Biscayne Bay Marriott Hotel and Marina, and Plaza Venetia.
Hollo’s work culminated in the 2018 opening of the 868-foot tall Panorama Tower. In all, Florida East Coast Realty has developed over 60 million square feet of space across the country, according to its website.
Florida East Coast Realty included among its executives two Hollo sons, Wayne and Jerome, and grandson Austin.
The company in 2022 was responsible for the sale of a 2.5-acre waterfront parcel in Miami's Brickell neighborhood for $363 million to billionaire Ken Griffin. Griffin relocated alongside his hedge fund Citadel to the city in 2021. The Brickell site is planned to hold a future headquarters tower for Citadel.
“Where it was a small town, it was projects and people like Tibor that propelled the message of Miami to the world,” Cervera Lamadrid said. "He's definitely a pillar of South Florida real estate."