A former lighting and hardware showroom in Coconut Grove is about to become something nobody in the neighborhood has seen before: a 51,000-square-foot zoo with no actual animals. Holozoo Florida Corp. has signed a lease for the entire building at 3000 SW 28th Lane, with founder Tan Umut Koker planning to display roughly 100 animal visuals rendered through holographic technology rather than live creatures behind glass.
The lease, signed in June 2026, marks Holozoo's first permanent location after what Koker describes as a nearly three-year worldwide search that included scouting London and Paris, according to Bisnow. Koker told the outlet that Florida is a very good location because the weather is hot, and he called the Coconut Grove site probably the best location in greater Miami. The deal, according to the same report, ended up as the largest retail lease signed in Miami during the third quarter.
The building itself carries its own century-old history. Family-founded in 1924 as a Miami Beach hardware store, Farrey's Lighting & Bath operated its 30,000-square-foot Coconut Grove showroom at the address from 2002 until selling the property to Constellation Group for nearly $12 million in late 2025, according to South Florida Business & Wealth. Bisnow's reporting confirms Farrey's had owned and operated the building since 2001 and had vacated it ahead of the Holozoo deal. Per Bisnow, Constellation Group representatives Jonathan Carter and Pablo Camposano handled the lease negotiations.
From Residential Pivot to Zoo Tenant
Constellation Group, which is based in Coral Gables, had originally weighed building a residential component at the site after acquiring it, Bisnow reports. That instinct lines up with earlier coverage from Condoblackbook, which detailed how the developer initially considered redeveloping the commercial building into housing designed to connect with the nearby Underline linear park. Instead, the landlord pivoted to leasing the full footprint to a single, unconventional retail tenant.
The site's location is part of the appeal. The 3000 SW 28th Lane property sits immediately adjacent to US-1, the Grove Central transit-oriented development, and The Underline, the 10-mile linear park and trail running beneath the Miami Metrorail line, as Bisnow notes in its reporting on the deal. Constellation Group is no stranger to large-scale projects elsewhere in the county; the firm is also co-developing HQ Residences Miami, a 35-story condominium tower in Edgewater set for completion in 2028, alongside Black Salmon and The Boschetti Group, as Hoodline previously reported.
A Second Attempt After Boca Raton Fell Through
Coconut Grove wasn't Koker's first pick for a Florida debut. Holozoo had planned to open at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, but that plan fell apart after Stephen Ross's real estate firm, Related Ross, purchased the 124-acre former IBM campus in September 2026, per Bisnow's reporting. Capdex had earlier detailed that acquisition, noting Related Ross secured nearly $300 million from Ares Real Estate to fund the campus purchase.
Before any of that, Holozoo tested its concept inside South Florida's academic innovation hubs. The company showcased prototype holographic fish tanks at Nova Southeastern University's library in late 2024 while operating out of the Alan B. Levan NSU Broward Center of Innovation in Davie, according to Refresh Miami. That outlet also reported that Koker previously launched an inaugural holographic zoo exhibit in Ankara, Turkey, that drew more than 700,000 visitors in six months before he relocated operations to Texas and South Florida.
The Technology and the Numbers
Per Bisnow, Holozoo's system relies on five unique technologies designed to transform the real zoo experience into a digital format. Koker acknowledged to the outlet that opening a first location is harder than expanding later ones, since it requires capital and lacks proof of concept. Holozoo itself states that its visual system draws on technology developed by sister entity Holocity, featuring 16K Holoarc Hyper 3D projections and Arcone technology engineered to operate in direct sunlight and boost headset resolutions.
Bisnow reports the Coconut Grove build-out will require between $2 million and $3 million, with Koker targeting a November opening and average ticket prices around $30. Holozoo expects to attract 1.5 million annual visitors at the location, and the company is already surveying additional sites in Orlando and New York City while fundraising for locations in Istanbul and Antalya, Turkey, according to the same report.
Part of a Broader Shift Toward Digital Wildlife Attractions
Holozoo's arrival fits a pattern playing out well beyond Miami. Australian firm Axiom Holographics opened what it calls the world's first Hologram Zoo in Brisbane in July 2023, earning a spot on Time's Best Inventions list, as Forbes has reported. That exhibit uses 3D laser projection and 4D sensory effects, placing Holozoo within a growing international movement toward animal-free digital entertainment.
The lease also lands amid a tight commercial real estate market in Coconut Grove. Bisnow's figures show Coconut Grove retail vacancy stood at 1.2% at the end of the third quarter, with asking rents hitting $96.84 per square foot — second only to Miami Beach, per Colliers. That compares with countywide average asking rents of $44.34 triple-net per square foot and overall Miami retail vacancy that has hovered around 3% for roughly a year. Other notable leases that quarter included a 14,000-square-foot deal for Addison House Home Collections in Aventura and a 10,000-square-foot lease for Spirit Halloween Superstores at Kendall Place, Bisnow reports.
Coconut Grove has drawn plenty of other corporate attention in 2026, including IT-security firm Iru's 92,000-square-foot office lease at Mayfair in the Grove, which Hoodline reported in April. Whether a $30 holographic ticket can draw the volume needed to sustain a 51,000-square-foot footprint in one of the county's priciest retail corridors remains to be seen once the doors open next month.
