Tibor Hollo, founder of Florida East Coast Realty and developer of Florida’s tallest tower, is remembered for leaving his mark on the Miami landscape during his 60-year career.
Hollo, who died last week at age 96, worked on projects including Panoramic tour, the more than 800-foot-tall structure with mostly apartments, as well as the United States Department of Justice building in downtown Miami, the predominantly residential 56-story Opera Tower, and the Venetia/The Grand in the city’s 3.4 million square foot arts and entertainment district.
“Where there was a horizontal city, Tibor saw a vertical city and moved forward to help make that a reality,” Alicia Cervera Lamadrid, managing partner of Cervera Real Estate, told CoStar News after having attended his memorial service. His company is one of Miami’s oldest family-owned real estate brokerages and was founded by Cervera Lamadrid’s mother, Alicia Cervera, in 1969.
A representative for Hollo’s company, Florida East Coast Realty, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hollo’s influence on the city has been recognized over the years by the city, local businesses, 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 World War II, Hollo, who was Jewish, was sent to concentration camps, where his mother died, according to interviews he conducted with various media outlets.
He returned to France after the war, where he obtained a degree in architecture at the Institut Polytechnique before emigrating to New York and creating a general business.
In 1956, Hollo moved to Miami and founded Florida East Coast Realty.
Other notable projects developed by Hollo in Miami include the Omni Mall, Rivergate Plaza, Biscayne Bay Marriott Hotel and Marina, and Plaza Venetia.
Hollo’s work culminated with the 2018 opening of the 868-foot-tall Panorama Tower. In total, Florida East Coast Realty has developed more than 60 million square feet of space across the country, according to its website.
Florida East Coast Realty counted among its directors Hollo’s two sons, Wayne and Jerome, and his grandson Austin.
In 2022, the company was responsible for selling a 2.5-acre waterfront parcel in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood for $363 million to billionaire Ken Griffin. Griffin moved alongside his Citadel hedge fund to the city in 2021. The Brickell site is expected to be home to a future Citadel headquarters tower.
“Where it was a small town, it was projects and people like Tibor that took Miami’s message to the world,” Cervera Lamadrid said. “He is definitely a pillar of South Florida real estate.”
