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Week of June 1, 2006 |
| Downtown luxury hotel gets OK By Deserae del CampoMiami commissioners granted a permit last week to veteran developer Tibor Hollo to build a 34-story, 350-room luxury hotel in the Omni area. "It will be 25 years since this area of Miami has had a hotel built," said his attorney, Vicky Garcia-Toledo. Mr. Hollo, president of Florida East Coast Realty who developed the Omni complex and nearby Grand and Marriott hotels, says the Hotel De L'Opera will be rated four stars. "I approve of this project for this site because it is relative to Miami 21," the city's land use initiative, said Commissioner Johnny Winton. "It will bring a perfect fit to the area." "As a hotel project it will provide jobs at an entry level," agreed Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. The 400-foot, 34-story hotel at 1771 NE Fourth Ave. is to offer 350 rooms and 44,606 square feet of offices between Bay Parc Plaza rental apartments and the Opera Tower, projects permitted to Mr. Hollo in 2001. "The original project started in the 1980s" as Miramar Center, said Philip Dahan, Florida East Coast senior vice president. It included Bay Parc Plaza, Opera Tower luxury condos and a site zoned institutional. "The institutional building could have included office space or an education facility," he said. Mr. Hollo said he was going to build the institutional building because the Miami-Dade School Board approached him in 2004 about the site. "I don't know what they had in mind," he said, "but it was going to be for school board use. But I haven't heard from them in about a year and a half, so I decided the next best thing would be a hotel on that land." "This hotel will be the only new hotel in that whole area," Mr. Hollo said, "and I think it should be pretty good, with views of Biscayne Bay and dock space for people who want to bring in their boats."
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