Race to Build Miami's Tallest Building Heats Up as Tibor Hollo Plans 1,044-Foot Tower

Miami's tallest building is currently the Four Seasons Hotel and Tower. It tops out at 789 feet high, making it the tallest building in Florida, but it's still a relatively modest height compared to the mega-skyscrapers in other American cities. Skyscraper heights in Miami have been capped for years by the Federal Aviation Administration, which claimed taller buildings could interfere with safe flight paths in and out of Miami International Airport. 

Well, buckling to developer concerns, the FAA has recently set new, higher limits in certain parts of Miami, and the race to build Miami's biggest tower is on.

In fact, Florida East Coast, the development company of Tibor Hollo, filed plans yesterday to build a 1,044-foot tower in Brickell on the former site of Villa Magna at 1201 Brickell Bay Dr. According to the Next Miami, the tower would reach 1,049 feet above sea level, which is the maximum height allowed under the revised FAA restrictions. Hollo had previously planned to build twin 995-foot towers on the site but has decided to up the ante. 

The building would not only become the tallest in Miami and Florida but also the entire southern United States. Atlanta's Bank of America Plaza currently holds that title by standing 1,023 feet high. 

The site is just down the street from Panorama Tower, another project of Hallo's. It's already under construction. It will reach 822 feet and will, however briefly, hold the title of Miami's tallest building once completed sometimes in 2017 or 2018. 

Hollo is also behind the approved One Bayfront Plaza, which will be located at 100 S. Biscayne Blvd. That tower will be 1,010 feet tall and is expected to be completed in 2018. 

Hollo isn't the only developer in the super-tall skyscraper game, though. 

Related Group currently has six projects that have been approved that would reach over 800 feet. 

Swire Properties, the developers behind Brickell City Centre, also have tentative plans to build a tower that would reach the maximum 1,049 feet in the later stages of that project. However, the tower hasn't been approved. 

Once any of these mega-tall skyscrapers are completed, New York and Chicago would be the only two cities in America to boast larger skyscrapers than Miami. Los Angeles's largest tower, the U.S. Bank Tower, is just 1,018 feet tall.