The factory at 15th Street and 11th Ave was initially constructed by Menendez Bros. & Verplanck and built as a 2-story structure manufacturing the “El Genio” cigar brand. The original building had a large storage cellar on the first floor and manufacturing on the second. The brothers had practical experience, but this was their first commercial endeavor. Their business grew swiftly, and by the following year, they found the need to add two more stories. In 1911, the Menendez Brothers sold their interests to P. Verplanck, and in 1913 Verplanck merged with three other independent Havana cigar manufacturers.

Cyrilla was a brand of cigar manufactured by several factories. The 1924 Burgert photo shows what was most likely the Jose Arango & Co factory that had moved in. J A Suarez Tobacco Leaf Co, founded by Emilio Suarez Y Arango in 1940, then resided in the building through the 1950s. In 1961 there was some legal wrangling with the inventory held at the company warehouse and possibly owned by the Republic of Cuba. The circuit court of Dade County ordered the sale of 846 cartons of tobacco products emptying the warehouse here. By the early 1990s, the Robbins-Bell architecture firm resided here after it had turned into an office building. In the early 2000s, the structure became part of the Hillsborough Community College and now serves as their administration building.