Lissette Calderon is the founder and CEO of Neology Group, a vertically integrated lifestyle-driven residential and commercial real estate firm that specializes in the transformation of undervalued communities into sought-after neighborhoods. Calderon’s rapid rise in South Florida’s highly competitive real estate industry began with her ability to see the potential in overlooked waterfront land along the Miami River, the Allapattah neighborhood, and, more recently, the Palmer Lake District in Miami.
The native Miamian, Calderon, is one of the few female developers in the country who has achieved tremendous success and recognition through hard work, grit, and determination.
In 2002, she introduced the pioneering and trend-setting loft-style residential building Neo Lofts, known today as the Grande Dame of the Miami River, which sparked the Miami River’s renaissance. Inspired by Neo Lofts’ success, Calderon’s subsequent building concepts, Neo Vertika and Wind by Neo, caused her to be credited with transforming the Miami River District into one of the city’s hippest, most sought-after neighborhoods. With the addition of her fourth project on the Miami River, Pier 19 Residences & Marina, Calderon solidified her reputation as the “Queen of the Miami River” and one of South Florida’s most visionary developers.
Calderon is also credited with spearheading the residential revival of another historic Miami neighborhood: Allapattah. Neology completed its first Allapattah residential community in 2021: No. 17 Residences Allapattah. The firm’s second and third Allapattah projects –The Julia, named after Miami’s founding mother, Julia Tuttle, and Fourteen Allapattah Residences– will deliver in early 2024.
With her latest endeavor, further up the Miami River– across the street from the future site of Miami Freedom Park – Calderon’s firm is leading the reimagination of the Palmer Lake District, where she is developing a new 1,350-unit mixed-use waterfront community and marina on a seven-acre parcel of land, which is scheduled to break ground in late 2024.
Neology’s current ownership portfolio consists of 1,200 apartments recently built or under construction in Miami’s urban core, with another 1,400 apartment units in the predevelopment phase and a pipeline of 2,000 additional units in South Florida and beyond. Combined with 2,000 condo units previously built and sold, this represents a multifamily portfolio of over $2 billion.
A first-generation Cuban American, Calderon was born in Miami and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics, Cum Laude, from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Calderon serves on The University of Miami’s Master of Real Estate Development + Urbanism Advisory Board and is also on the Advisory Board of the SE Florida/ Caribbean Urban Land Institute (ULI) and a member of the International Women’s Forum of Florida.
Calderon is involved in numerous community organizations, including serving on the Executive Board of Amigos for Kids for the past 20 years, a nonprofit organization serving the needs of South Florida’s abused, abandoned, and neglected children. She also sits on the Board of the SAM Elimu Charity, an organization that supports the education and lives of children in poverty with high academic potential in Kenya. Calderon is also the publisher of a lifestyle magazine focused on the Allapattah neighborhood – AllaWay – which she launched in 2022.
CEO
