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A trajectory marked by work on the construction site, the early creation of a company, and real estate expansion shows how practical experience, discipline, and business vision transformed an initial opportunity into a lasting operation in Greater Florianópolis over nearly five decades.
Antônio Hillesheim entered the construction industry at 17 as a construction helper and, in just seven years, left the operational routine of construction sites to found his own company, starting a business journey linked to the urban growth of Greater Florianópolis.
At 24, he created AM Construções, a company that reports having delivered 4,600 units, 52 completed projects, and 652,000 square meters built, numbers that measure the transition from an initial job to a consolidated real estate operation.
Far from the buildings that would later become part of the construction company’s portfolio, the story began in Águas Mornas, a municipality in Greater Florianópolis, where Hillesheim was born into a family of farmers and decided, while still young, to seek professional opportunities in an urban area.
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From construction helper to creating his own company
It was through the foundation of the construction industry that he entered the sector, performing functions directly related to construction and learning, in practice, the routine of materials, deadlines, teams, and services needed to build a residence from the initial stages.
Before taking on his own projects, Hillesheim advanced from mason’s assistant to labor supplier and residential house builder, an experience that allowed him to understand both the work on the construction site and the organization needed to deliver properties.
Between the ages of 17 and 24, this professional evolution paved the way for the creation of AM Construções e Incorporações, located in São José, in the metropolitan region of Florianópolis, where the company would concentrate a significant part of its operations.
Founded on October 24, 1978, the company was born when the young entrepreneur decided to transform the services provided to third parties into his own operation, aimed not only at executing works but also at the incorporation of residential developments.
In the early years, according to the institutional presentation of AM Construções, the buildings were made possible with the support of financial institutions, while the resources obtained were directed to the projects and the company gradually expanded its capacity to undertake larger works.
First building marked the change of scale
The first vertical development recorded in the history of the construction company was the Uirapuru Building, located in the Capoeiras neighborhood, in Florianópolis, and presented in the institutional portfolio as a project delivered in 1985, seven years after the company’s founding.
With the completion of this building, the activity that started with residential houses gained another scale, as the buildings began to gather several units in the same project and required financial planning, technical coordination, and more rigorous control of the construction stages.
Subsequently, AM expanded its presence in neighborhoods of São José and neighboring municipalities, following the urban growth of Greater Florianópolis through projects distributed among Florianópolis, Palhoça, Campinas, Kobrasol, Barreiros, and other locations.
During the 1980s, the portfolio incorporated projects such as the Recanto das Pedras Condominium, the Pablo Picasso Condominium, the Laranjeiras Building, and the Boticcelli Building, consolidating a recurring production of residential buildings in the region.
In the following decade, the activity gained a new pace, with deliveries at shorter intervals and projects such as the Brasilar Building, the Carlos Drummond de Andrade Condominium, the Douglas Residential, the Ivory Tower Building, and the Mar del Plata Residential.
Expansion of AM Construções in Greater Florianópolis
A significant portion of these developments was concentrated in São José, a city that became one of the main axes of real estate expansion in the region and gathered favorable conditions for the growth of residential neighborhoods, commercial areas, and new urban services.
Among the most relevant projects, the Brasilar Building was pointed out as the first 12-story building in the Kobrasol neighborhood, an area that later consolidated as one of the busiest centers of São José, with housing, commerce, and services.
Without limiting itself to a single type of development, the construction company began to gather condominiums, residential buildings, and projects with different numbers of bedrooms, distributed across locations with diverse occupancy profiles and distinct audiences within the real estate market.
From the 2000s onwards, AM’s presence in Campinas, a neighborhood of São José, became more frequent, with deliveries such as the Parque dos Príncipes Residential, the Maryah Residential, the Ronald Residence, the Torres de Campinas Condominium, and the Millenium Palace.
In Palhoça, the company also registered projects such as the Residencial Mirante do Cambirela, the Condomínio Gustavo Kirchner, and the Dolce Vitta Residence, while Florianópolis received, in addition to the first building in Capoeiras, the Residencial Mário Quintana.
After the initial phase supported by financing, the company claims to have reached the capacity to build with its own resources, a change that reveals a financial structure different from the one found by Hillesheim when it still depended on institutional support to make the first buildings feasible.
Construction Company Totals 4,600 Units Delivered
The numbers released by the company itself help to measure this transformation, as the 4,600 units delivered are distributed across the 52 developments accounted for in its history, forming a portfolio built over almost five decades.
Also according to the company, the 652,000 square meters built include projects carried out in different phases of the urban expansion of Greater Florianópolis, from buildings erected in the 1980s to residential complexes presented in more recent periods.
The chronology of the portfolio allows tracking changes in the size and presentation of the properties, as the first records mainly highlighted names and locations, while later projects began to detail bedrooms, suites, common areas, and different floor plan formats.
Even after dozens of deliveries, the headquarters remain in São José, the municipality where the business was founded, reinforcing a regional strategy distinct from the national expansion adopted by groups that sought to grow in different states and real estate markets.
Social Engagement and Longevity in the Real Estate Market
In addition to business activities, Hillesheim maintains a connection with social actions in São José, and the institutional history records his participation in initiatives supporting the Association of Parents and Friends of the Exceptional of the municipality, especially in seeking resources for the entity.
On one side is the teenager who started performing basic construction tasks; on the other, the structure responsible for thousands of residential units and hundreds of thousands of square meters, bringing together two very different scales within the same sector.
Between these two phases, the company went through economic changes, urban transformations, and different cycles of the real estate market, sustaining its presence through a sequence of projects that began with houses, expanded by the Edifício Uirapuru, and spread throughout Greater Florianópolis.
To what extent can the experience gained directly on the construction site influence the decisions of someone who, years later, comes to lead a construction company responsible for thousands of properties and a lasting presence in the regional real estate market?
