Alicia Cervera

Over four decades ago, she has crowned the Queen of Brickell; today, with a street named after her, "Alicia Cervera Way" and thriving new neighborhoods to her credit Alicia Cervera, Sr. has rightfully earned her title as the Grand Dame of real estate. Ms. Cervera founded the preeminent Cervera Real Estate, Miami's leading real estate firm.

Over the course of 53 years, Ms. Cervera has been responsible for breathing life into new communities and revitalizing existing ones, such as the once-dormant Brickell area, the cosmopolitan South of Fifth neighborhood in Miami Beach, the vibrant Downtown Miami, and the new urban East Edgewater. She has sold hundreds of thousands of luxury high-rise condominium units, served as an invaluable consultant to the most prolific developers, and amassed dozens of personal and professional accolades for her work in the real estate industry. Ms. Cervera's acute foresight, her comprehensive understanding of the local market, and her skill to attract clients from all over the globe, combined with an intrepid approach to selling have made Cervera a household name in the South Florida marketplace.

Early on in her career, she proved that vision and determination pay off.

Born in Peru in 1930, the daughter of a Peruvian ambassador, in 1954 she married Javier Cervera, a Cuban plantation owner. With two daughters born in Havana, she immigrated to the United States in 1961, as a result of the Cuban Communist Revolution, where her son Javier was born in 1967. Seeing the extraordinary potential of Brickell Avenue, in 1966 she and her husband purchased a piece of waterfront property which they had rezoned for multiple residences; this was the first official high-rise zoning in the area, the Brickell Avenue corridor.

Ms. Cervera soon opened her own firm and quickly earned the right to represent the 254-unit Palace on Brickell, a project by New York real estate magnate Harry Helmsley. The Helmsley approach required her presence in all aspects of the project, from meetings with the architect to providing input for the design of the units, to construction meetings and, almost daily meetings with the advertising and public relations firm.

The rigorous demand of this holistic marketing approach was the perfect real estate finishing school. Within one year, Alicia had landed several other major jobs on Brickell Avenue. Her vision of a futuristic Miami was turning into reality before her eyes.

In 1980 Ms. Cervera was joined by her daughters, Veronica Cervera Goeseke and Alicia Cervera Lamadrid; together, they grew Cervera Real Estate into a full-service organization. In addition to Residential and Commercial Real Estate sales, Cervera's real estate services include Rentals, Property Management, and Marketing Consulting. What distinguishes Cervera Real Estate, however, is the firm's ability to bring its expertise into a project at any phase of development or sales, reposition it, and guide it to success.

Cervera Real Estate continues to pioneer the real estate industry, and Alicia Cervera continues to mentor countless real estate professionals. As dynamic and active as ever, she thrives on sharing her secrets to closing and the art of negotiation with her staff. Yet it is not only the current generation that benefits from her wisdom and savvy. Ms. Cervera has left an indelible footprint on South Florida's colorful real estate landscape, placing undying resolve, honesty, integrity, and the constant quest for knowledge at the forefront of success.