Tishman Outlines Convention Center Plans

MIAMI—Miami's hospitality market is front and center nationally—and Daniel Tishman, head of Tishman Hotels & Realty, is finding his place in the market. The Manhattan-based firm is one of two finalists selected to bid on the right to redevelop the Miami Beach convention center and the surrounding 52 acres.

Tishman's chances of winning the bid are good, if experience counts. His firm owns and manages more than 8 million square feet of commercial real estate including eight hotels, 270,000 square feet of retail, 49 restaurants, and 560,000 square feet of meeting space. The Miami project would represent an up to $1 billion investment for the firm.

GlobeSt.com caught up with Tishman in an exclusive interview to discuss his interest in the Miami Beach convention center project, his site plans, and what it's like working with international architect Rem Koolhaas, who is part of the his team.

GlobeSt.com: Tishman has been short listed as a finalist to redevelop the City of Miami Beach's convention center and the surrounding land. Why did you take an interest in this project from the beginning?

Tishman: The convention center site is the last major unfinished, underutilized property in the City. The opportunity to redevelop the facility and the surrounding site is the type of thing we've done elsewhere in the country, both as a developer and as a builder—we are the most experienced convention center builder in the country and we have long term hotel and meeting space development, operational and ownership expertise, as well as significant retail holdings.

This redevelopment has the potential to create a new civic and cultural heart of Miami Beach that serves residents and visitors while stimulating the local economy by luring major events and the tourist spending that comes with them. The City has one chance to get this right, and we think our team is best equipped to deliver a successful project.

GlobeSt.com: With the public bid process now entering the home stretch and a vote scheduled for June, where do things stand from a development and design standpoint? What do your plans for the site entail?

Tishman: We have been listening to the public and looking at the history and DNA of Miami Beach to help inform our design direction. It is incredibly useful to hear from residents who live and work in the area and use—or don't use as is sometimes the case—the streets and open spaces around the convention center. They are lending us their expertise on how the site functions today and our early designs take into account some key things we've heard from the community.

Another tenet of our project is to be as low-impact as possible, in terms of the overall density we think is right for the site and in terms of which existing assets we will keep, renovate and reposition as part of the new project, like the Jackie Gleason Theater and City Hall.

In addition to a fully-renovated convention center and a convention hotel, our project will activate the area with public spaces and establish connections between the site and nearby neighborhoods. Happily, many people have asked that the project be sustainable. As Chairman of the Natural Resources Defense Council, I am a lifelong environmentalist and we wouldn't build this any other way.  

GlobeSt.com: OMA, led by international architect Rem Koolhaas, is a part of your team. What's it like working with someone of Koolhaas' stature, and what does he bring to this project?

Tishman: Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu, head of OMA in the Americas, have been involved in design and planning projects around the world. If you're going to enter a public competition for the privilege of developing a project of this size and scope, it is our belief that we should do it with the most qualified architecture firm in the world, and that is OMA. Rem, Shohei and their staff are creative, brilliant and great to work with. They have already proven why they have attained their current stature.

OMA's global experience is complemented by the local market expertise of our partner, Miami Beach-based UIA, led by Robert Wennett. UIA has reactivated the west end of Miami Beach's Lincoln Road Mall through the development of 1111 Lincoln Road, which is one of the great urban redevelopment projects to take shape in the US in recent years.