5Qs for Jerome Hollo on Florida’s tallest building
Jerome Hollo’s family has deep roots in the Brickell neighborhood of Miami. His father Tibor, a World War II concentration camp survivor and then New York City contractor, visited Miami in the Fifties and fell in love. He bought six blocks of property on the Venetian Causeway and there built the Omni International Mall and the Venetia Tower. This year, the Florida East Coast Realty company that he runs with sons Jerome and Wayne, debuts the 85-story Panorama Tower in the neighborhood that also houses Swire’s billion-dollar project and has become the hottest in Miami.
Your Panorama Tower is the tallest building in Florida. What’s going on in Miami and, particularly, the Brickell neighborhood?
For years it was predominantly a business location active during the day, but now it has morphed into a 24/7 neighborhood. Lots of people now live there and work there and have created a lifestyle there. Used to be that everyone came to Miami and went to South Beach. Now they come here and say, “I want to go to Brickell and I want to stay in Brickell.” There’s easy access on our mass transit system, and there’s restaurants, bars, and retail.
The Tower itself is adding 821 residential units to Brickell. What kinds of retail are you adding to accommodate them?
The project itself is 2.3 million sq. ft. and includes a 208-room Hyatt hotel, two office buildings and about 100,000 sq. ft. of retail, mostly leased to shops convenient to our residents and office users. We’ve got markets where you can eat in or take out, a coffee shop, a Post Office. We’ve got Jackson Maximus, which is a company that specializes in men’s lifestyle retail. Existing offices on Brickell Avenue have additional retail opportunities.
What was the inspiration for building the Tower?
We started on this in ’09. We found that the site was underutilized along stretches from Brickell Avenue to Brickell Bay Drive with access to the bay. We thought the garage was very underutilized, so we created a plan to merge the existing office buildings with a tower.
And what a tower it is!
My family has been here doing this for 60 years. We’ve built the tallest building in Florida four times. As we saw the changes happening at Brickell and the reach of its mass transit connections, we knew it was time.
How is this product different from other projects in Brickell?
We do mixed use and gear retail to both office and residential users, so Panorama is really just three typical buildings in one. We opened leasing in June of ’18 and we’re already 50% leased. What you’re seeing is the creation of a truly walkable location where people live and work and play.
[Editor's note: Panorama Tower will soon surrender its "tallest" title to FECR's One Bayfront Plaza, which will soar 1,049 feet over Biscayne Bay.]
Your Panorama Tower is the tallest building in Florida. What’s going on in Miami and, particularly, the Brickell neighborhood?For years it was predominantly a business location active during the day, but now it has morphed into a 24/7 neighborhood. Lots of people now live there and work there and have created a lifestyle there. Used to be that everyone came to Miami and went to South Beach. Now they come here and say, “I want to go to Brickell and I want to stay in Brickell.” There’s easy access on our mass transit system, and there’s restaurants, bars, and retail.
The Tower itself is adding 821 residential units to Brickell. What kinds of retail are you adding to accommodate them?
The project itself is 2.3 million sq. ft. and includes a 208-room Hyatt hotel, two office buildings and about 100,000 sq. ft. of retail, mostly leased to shops convenient to our residents and office users. We’ve got markets where you can eat in or take out, a coffee shop, a Post Office. We’ve got Jackson Maximus, which is a company that specializes in men’s lifestyle retail. Existing offices on Brickell Avenue have additional retail opportunities.
What was the inspiration for building the Tower?
We started on this in ’09. We found that the site was underutilized along stretches from Brickell Avenue to Brickell Bay Drive with access to the bay. We thought the garage was very underutilized, so we created a plan to merge the existing office buildings with a tower.
And what a tower it is!
My family has been here doing this for 60 years. We’ve built the tallest building in Florida four times. As we saw the changes happening at Brickell and the reach of its mass transit connections, we knew it was time.
How is this product different from other projects in Brickell?
We do mixed use and gear retail to both office and residential users, so Panorama is really just three typical buildings in one. We opened leasing in June of ’18 and we’re already 50% leased. What you’re seeing is the creation of a truly walkable location where people live and work and play.
[Editor's note: Panorama Tower will soon surrender its "tallest" title to FECR's One Bayfront Plaza, which will soar 1,049 feet over Biscayne Bay.]