Shady
construction magnate from
Melbourne,
Australia whose declared mission is to make Melbourne the home of the world's tallest building. He has twice been thwarted on the brink of suceess but has achieved partial realisation of his dream with the
Eureka Tower, which
when complete will be the world's tallest
residential tower. Unless, of course, some other fat mustached megalomaniac overseas slaps one up in the meantime.
His company, Grocon, is one of Melbourne's largest builders along with Mirvac, Multiplex and Baulderstone Hornibrook. Grollo was very cushy with former Liberal Party Premier Jeff Kennett and during said despot's reign became a regular feature in the Premier's offices and
local newspapers, where he was portrayed as some sort of loveable buffoon with the best interests of his Melbourne at heart.
Grocon walks a fine line, pleasing both political parties with a reputation as an "industrial moderate". However, Bruno Grollo has in recent times let go the reins of the company, leaving it under the direction of his son, Daniel. Grocon's attitude has changed significantly, encouraged by an anti-labor Federal Government, and in October 2002 Grocon sued members of the CFMEU for time lost due to a stopwork meeting.
Bruno Grollo's landmark is the 63-storey Rialto building, the higher tower of which is the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere. Admittedly it is not bad-looking for a skyscraper, and makes good use of the original brick structure. Grollo's reaction to the WTC bombing was typical: "When the planes hit, that was just plain madness but when the buildings fell I thought, 'what the hell is going on here'", Grollo said. "If they'd had a concrete core in New York, you would have got most of the people out."
Currently Grocon is involved with 75% of all construction projects in Melbourne, including the renovations to the MCG, the aforementioned Eureka Tower, and the new RACV centre. They continue to be favoured with State contracts under Steve Bracks' Labor government.
Grollo has two sons who each control a slice of the empire. His wife Dina died in 2001 and since then Grollo has lessened his involvement in business
Sources:
1.
http://www.skyscrapers.com/english/company/0.9/104388/
2. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/03/1033538723574.html
3. http://www.butterpaper.com/resource/news/news_archive_2001a.htm