Houston-based Hines has developed world class projects in twelve countries and four continents. The firm’s project portfolio boggles the mind in its use and design versatility. For 19 years two buildings dominated the Miami skyline. Both were built by Hines:
Continue Reading Add comment June 22, 2007
Native Miamian developer Craig Robbins has been around the block. In South Beach, the influence of his development firm, Dacra, bounces all over the place. While Jorge Perez slams his influence down at the southern tip of the island, Dacra has brought life to the heart of the island community. Dacra is attributed with having ignited the spark of Lincoln Road at a time when the funky strip was underground and unstable. Today, bustling Lincoln Road is the main East/West economic artery in South Beach. The north side of Espanola Way is another major trace that Dacra has imprinted upon South Beach.
Continue Reading 7 comments June 15, 2007
New York-based Extell Development has a broad and impressive portfolio of office, residential, and hotel towers mostly in Manhattan and Boston. Their latest venture represents their first foray into the Miami market: Avenue Brickell.
Avenue has gone up rapidly, with no negative publicity, and the project, despite it being light on glass and heavy on concrete, is looking sweet.
Continue Reading 1 comment June 6, 2007
Jorge Perez of the Related Group is a giant in Florida. In Tampa, his firm is being relied on to complete the Trump Tower, which ironically Trump pulled out of. In Palm Beach he’s building another Trump-brand tower. He has major projects in Georgia and elsewhere in the U.S., but now, his firm plans to aggressively transcend the U.S. market with Related International.
Related International is planning projects in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Argentina, and Uruguay. In Mexico, Related already has $1 billion worth of development in the pipeline. Mr. Perez’s expansion is that of Miami’s as well. His techniques and resources were formed, for the most part, in the Magic City, and his foray into international markets is Miami’s as well.
2 comments June 4, 2007
What do Hong Kong and Miami have in common? Well, for one, they are nearly on the same latitude. The city’s both deal with massive tropical storms, except call them by different names (hurricane and typhoons). Both metropolises are a hub for hundreds of multinational corporations, but Hong Kong is still leaps and bounds ahead of Miami. Aside from these basic similarities, the Magic City has a little bit of Hong Kong in it: Swire Properties Ltd. This international conglomerate is a big part of Hong Kong’s vertical evolution. The firm is one of the largest developers in the Chinese island-metropolis. They are the builders of Taikoo Shing, a 61 tower development. Swire also developed the monolithic multi-phase Pacific Place project, which includes four towers with three hotels (Shangri-La Hotel, Conrad Hotel, and J.W. Marriot - all with a presence in Miami: SLH in Island Gardens). Pacific Place also includes a high end shopping mall. Also in Hong Kong, the firm is the master mind behind the highly successful City Plaza project.
Their Far East projects are not confined to Hong Kong. They are building Taikoo Hui Cultural Plaza in Guangzhou (formerly Canton), north of Hong Kong. The impressively designed three tower project looks more like a new United Nations than a cultural plaza. The three towers are connected by a major hub in the center that includes a convention center, shopping mall, commercial spaces, along with a major transit interchange. The building’s main lobby is a massive glass-encased cube. Swire has built and is building dozens more major projects in Hong Kong and throughout the region.
The multi-faceted international conglomerate has the ability to build more than just “big”. Now, consider their involvement in Miami’s urban market. Swire has all but claimed Brickell Key (Claughton Island) as their own Miami outpost. As of late, Swire is responsible for all three Tequesta towers, the Courts, Courvoisier Courts, the Mandarin Oriental, the Carbonell, and their latest development, Asia (pun intended). As a result, Brickell Key has evolved into a highly unique urban island community. Swire Properties has played the role of catalyst.
What is amazing about Swire is that their projects go vertical consistently, quickly, with minimal buzz, and the result is always an excellent development. Strikingly, since the 1970’s, Swire has focused its North American real estate activity solely on Miami. From their site:
Swire Properties Inc., the USA real estate operation of Swire Pacific, has been active in the development of investment and trading properties in Florida since the 1970s. Its primary focus is on Brickell Key in downtown Miami, where a number of commercial and residential properties have been developed.
Could there be something in Miami that reminds Swire of Hong Kong? There is, and you can rest assured that it isn’t the weather. Miami’s abuzz with economic activity and Swire’s latest Miami developments have been their most ambitious to date. The Far East firm has a proven track record of success on Brickell Key. Its efforts have largely remained within the quaint man made island, but there have been mini-forays into other nearby markets: South Beach’s Floridian and Jade Brickell. A mini-foray however is nothing compared to what this quiet giant could really accomplish.
Swire’s activity on Brickell Key could be a microcosm of what might happen in mainland Miami should the firm delve heavily into it. Let’s just say that Swire is running out of space on Brickell Key, and the mainland looms temptingly close. Should Swire move more aggressively into the Miami urban market, there will be no doubt of its ability to execute and in grand style. The resulting development could bring Miami closer to Hong Kong than previously thought.
2 comments April 9, 2007
Jacobo Cababie is originally from Mexico City. His family founded GICSA–Mexico’s largest development firm. According to the Sun Post, he came to Miami in 2000 and started CABI Corp. Development. Cababie is a relative newcomer in the Miami development scene but has made some serious strides with high-quality projects in Aventura and Sunny Isles.
Continue Reading 1 comment March 1, 2007
Jorge Perez is the quintessential hotshot developer. He’s not just educated in Urban Planning and Development, but in fact, graduated Suma Cum Laude and attained his Masters degree in the discipline. It should be rather clear to most that Mr. Perez is the foremost developer in Florida and arguably one of the most preeminent in the country. According to the Related Group’s official website, his firm is the largest Hispanic-owned business in the United States with a current portfolio of over $10.7 billion. The Jorge Perez effect, which has so drastically altered the Sunny Isles, South Beach, and Miami cityscape, was first set into motion in the late 1970’s with affordable housing projects throughout the county.
Continue Reading 1 comment January 18, 2007
Hungarian-born Tibor Hollo, who arrived to this country in NYC in 1948, is the builder of the first high rise in Brickell, first pioneered high density development in the Omni/Venetia area, and is developing what East Coast Florida Realty—his company—considers to be the last great waterfront parcel in Brickell Village. His life is one of adversity and triumph. He studied architecture in France during a time where Europe was on the verge of being covered in a conflagration of hate and war. His mother was a Holocaust victim. From these circumstances, Mr. Hollo learned his lessons and devleoped his business acumen. Mr. Hollo’s legacy is one of setting the stage for future development. In many respects, he has laid the groundwork by which other developers have been able to capitalize.
Continue Reading 2 comments December 5, 2006
Tel-Aviv-based Lev Leviev is a man of Jewish decent who was born in the former Soviet satellite of Uzbekistan. He also happens to be an international diamond magnate. In Miami, we don’t know much about him, but now we will. He competes directly with the De Beers diamond cartel—pretty serious. Now you know why he named two of his towers after a diamond shape (Marquis and Marquis West) and alludes to the diamond in his building’s marketing campaign.
Continue Reading 1 comment November 3, 2006
Jim Clark is considered by some to be America’s most effective and successful serial entrepreneur. His worth is estimated at 2 billion dollars. He founded Silicon Graphics, Inc., Netscape Communications Corp., and Healtheon Corp. All have been monumentally successful. He has competed with Bill Gates and is considered a legend in technology sector.
Continue Reading 1 comment October 26, 2006
Pedro Martin has moved from Greenberg Traurig to the steep and dizzying heights of the top of Miami’s development scene. The evolution of his projects has been mesmerizing to observe (from Nautica to Metropolis to Quantum to 900 Biscayne to 600 Biscayne to his proposed plans for the ten acre former Knight Ridder property). Certainly such a dramatic rise to preeminence is well deserved. It must have required long and hard planning, calculation, coordination, patience, fund raising, and a whole lot of guts. His rise to power, although dizzying and worrisome, is reflective of Miami’s dramatic rise to urban eminence; a fitting comparison.
Continue Reading 3 comments October 25, 2006
Mr. Ugo Colombo is a living legend. Many don’t know who he is. They don’t know that he owns The Collection exotic car dealership, or that he recently bought the Carl Fisher mansion valued at 42 million. Even less know that he is responsible for having initiated the era of residential skyscrapers in Miami with the 54 story Santa Maria.
Continue Reading 5 comments October 23, 2006
 | Dan Hoboen on Condo Assocation Politics: Rec… |
 | Bob Flanders on Biscayne Blvd. Planned Resurfa… |
 | suzanne on The Powers Behind the Jewelry… |
 | phillip on Sacred Spaces in Downtown: Cen… |
| phillip on Sacred Spaces in Downtown: Cen… |
|
Theme: Blix by Sebastian Schmieg . Blog at WordPress.com.
