Tag Archive for: stephen ross

Related Ross Eyes Boca Raton Innovation Campus As Next Palm Beach County Growth Play

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Related Ross is looking beyond West Palm Beach as it weighs a major move into Boca Raton.

The West Palm Beach-based development firm, led by billionaire Stephen M. Ross, is in active discussions to acquire Boca Raton Innovation Campus, commonly known as BRIC. The 123-acre office campus is located at 5000 T-Rex Avenue, though no purchase agreement has been finalized.

The potential deal would give Related Ross control of one of Palm Beach County’s largest office properties and a site already positioned for a broader mixed-use future. BRIC, once home to IBM operations and known as the birthplace of the personal computer, has long been one of Boca Raton’s most recognizable business campuses.

Jordan Bargas, executive vice president at Related Ross, confirmed the firm’s interest in the property, calling BRIC a significant asset with a strong history. He said the company sees an opportunity to create a mixed-use destination that supports innovation, employment and long-term economic growth in Boca Raton and Palm Beach County.

The interest follows several years of major investment by Related Ross in West Palm Beach, where the company has delivered new office towers, luxury residential projects and retail improvements at CityPlace. Ross has repeatedly identified Palm Beach County as one of the strongest growth opportunities in South Florida, and Boca Raton appears to be an increasingly important part of that strategy.

Related Ross previously pursued Boca Raton’s government center redevelopment, proposing a plan that included office space. Although another developer was selected and the broader proposal was later rejected by voters, the process underscored the firm’s interest in the city’s office market.

BRIC has also been gaining traction with tenants. D-Wave Quantum, a Palo Alto, California-based quantum computing company, announced in January that it would relocate its headquarters to the campus. All Star Healthcare Solutions followed in February, moving its headquarters from Deerfield Beach to BRIC.

The property is currently owned by CP Group, Rialto, DRA Advisors and Las Olas Capital Advisors. Since acquiring the campus, ownership has invested in upgrades intended to modernize the property and improve tenant appeal, including new amenity areas, a food market, conference facilities and a fitness center. Those improvements have helped raise occupancy and rental rates.

The city has already approved a broader redevelopment vision for BRIC. The plan would preserve most of the existing office space while adding new uses on the campus’ large parking areas. Proposed additions include 1,243 residential units, 125,000 square feet of retail, a 55,000-square-foot entertainment component, 85,000 square feet of medical office space and a 140-room hotel.

Terra, based in Miami, has been brought in as the residential development partner. The project has not yet broken ground, as final site plan approvals are still moving through the city process.

If Related Ross completes the acquisition, BRIC could become the firm’s most significant platform yet for expanding its Palm Beach County development strategy outside of downtown West Palm Beach.

 

Source:  SFBJ

Stephen Ross’ Company Buys Broward Tech Office For $37M

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Related Ross has expanded into Broward County with the acquisition of Fiserv’s Coral Springs office campus in a $36.5 million sale-leaseback deal.

An affiliate of Stephen M. Ross’ West Palm Beach-based firm purchased two office buildings totaling nearly 206,000 square feet, along with a 2.13-acre vacant parcel. The assets are located at 4000 Coral Ridge Drive, 3975 NW 120th Ave., and 11900 NW 41st St. Fiserv, through First Data Corp., sold the properties and then leased the office buildings back for 36 months.

The transaction also included $18.25 million in seller financing, underscoring the deal’s investment nature. The purchase gives Related Ross a foothold in a Broward submarket where it has had limited activity compared with its extensive presence in West Palm Beach.

The two office properties have long operating histories. The building at 3975 NW 120th Ave. was completed in 1999 and had not previously traded hands. The Coral Ridge Drive property dates to 1965, was expanded in 1990, and last sold in 1996 for $5.6 million.

 

Source: SFBJ

Palm Beach County Suburban Office Market Heats-Up

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Downtown West Palm Beach’s office market is thriving—but rising rents are making it harder for some longtime tenants to keep a foothold in the city core.

The surge is largely fueled by billionaire developer Stephen Ross, whose aggressive investment and development strategy has helped transform downtown West Palm into one of South Florida’s most competitive office markets. His projects have drawn a steady stream of high-profile tenants and helped accelerate the city and county’s long-term growth vision.

That momentum, however, has driven rents sharply higher across downtown, including in buildings Ross does not own. As a result, some established tenants are being priced out and are relocating to suburban areas of Palm Beach County, where new office development is beginning to follow demand.

One notable example is law firm Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath, which last year moved most of its operations from the Northbridge Centre in downtown West Palm—where it had leased space for roughly 40 years—to Palm Beach Gardens. The firm cited renewal proposals that were several times higher than its previous rent, reflecting what some tenants describe as unsustainable downtown pricing.

According to local brokers, asking rents in excess of $100 per square foot are prompting more companies to explore suburban alternatives. That shift is helping spark new office construction outside the urban core.

In Palm Beach Gardens, Gatsby Florida—an affiliate of Gatsby Enterprises—is planning The Modern, an eight-story, 220,000-square-foot office building with a six-story parking garage at 11200 RCA Center Drive. The project, expected to deliver in 2027, is being positioned in part to attract out-of-state firms and executives relocating to South Florida. Gatsby acquired the site for $17.5 million in 2022.

Meanwhile, in Boca Raton, construction is underway on The Aletto, a two-building office campus totaling 140,000 square feet that is already approximately 60 percent pre-leased.

Developers and brokers say these projects reflect growing demand for high-quality suburban office space that offers modern amenities without downtown pricing.

Ross, who launched Related Ross after stepping back from New York-based Related Companies in 2024, has made downtown West Palm the centerpiece of his development focus. His portfolio includes roughly a dozen office buildings in various stages, along with residential, hotel, and mixed-use projects.

By leveraging longstanding relationships—particularly within the financial services sector—Ross quickly filled many of his office properties with out-of-state tenants. More recently, his firm has also pushed to position Palm Beach County as an emerging technology hub.

While downtown West Palm continues to gain national attention, the ripple effects of its success are reshaping the broader county office market—creating new opportunities, but also new challenges, for tenants navigating the region’s rapid growth.

West Palm Office Tower Trades For $55 Million

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Stephen Ross has expanded his footprint in downtown West Palm Beach with the $55.4 million purchase of the One Clearlake office tower. His firm, Related Ross, acquired the 18-story building at 250 South Australian Avenue from Bradford Allen Investment Advisors and financed the deal with a $40 million loan from City National Bank of Florida.

Built in 1987 on nearly 3 acres, One Clearlake totals roughly 221,700 square feet and includes a four-story parking garage with 669 spaces. About 20 percent of the office space is currently available for lease, according to the company. Current tenants range from financial and legal services firms to nutrition and loan offices.

This acquisition adds to Related Ross’ growing West Palm Beach portfolio, bringing the firm to at least 11 office assets downtown when accounting for existing, newly acquired, and planned projects. The building also sits next to the WPTV studio and office property on Banyan Boulevard—another nearby site the company purchased for $40 million earlier this year. Together, the two properties give Related Ross control of approximately 7.6 contiguous acres along Clear Lake.

While the combined sites present long-term redevelopment potential, any major changes will have to wait. WPTV’s parent company, The E.W. Scripps Company, has committed to remain in its building for at least another two and a half years.

One Clearlake has already changed hands twice in 2025. Bradford Allen bought it in May for $45 million—roughly 26 percent below its 2021 price, when a group of investors that included Rockpoint, New England Development, Tricera, and NDT Development paid $60.7 million for the property.

 

Source:  The Real Deal

A Tale Of Two Office Markets: Broward Vacancies Rose While Palm Beach County’s Decline

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New office leasing activity is on an upward trajectory in Broward and Palm Beach, but vacancy rates remain in the high double-digits in both counties, according to a recently released report.

Palm Beach County fared better than Broward in filling up vacant spaces in the fourth quarter of 2021, as well as boosting landlords’ confidence to raise rents. Palm Beach County also outperformed Miami-Dade County, where the overall vacancy rate hit 16 percent in the final quarter of 2021.

Broward landlords, on the other hand, were forced to provide more tenant concessions and space improvements, as new projects that came online affected vacancy rates, according to the report by Cushman & Wakefield.

Broward County

The vacancy rate in Broward jumped to 16.9 percent in 2021’s fourth quarter, compared to 14.7 percent during the same period of the previous year. The increase was due to new Class A office space coming online, including at The Main Las Olas mixed-use project (pictured above) in downtown Fort Lauderdale, according to the report. The project’s 387,402-square-foot office tower is more than 50 percent leased.

Still, new leases totaling 2.4 million square feet helped soften the vacancy blow in Broward during the last quarter of 2021, according to the report. Online pet retailer Chewy signed the tri-county region’s biggest lease of last year, inking a deal for 221,597-square-feet for the company’s new headquarters in a new two-building office project in Plantation developed by Midtown Capital Partners.

Most new tenants flocked to Broward’s suburban office submarkets in the fourth quarter, with only 20 percent of new leases in the Fort Lauderdale commercial business district, Cushman & Wakefield found. However, the number of new leases was not enough to offset tenants vacating spaces during the last 18 months, the report shows.

As a result, the overall average asking rent dipped to $35.30 in the most recent quarter, from $35.94 a square foot in 2020’s fourth quarter, according to the report.

“Landlords in both Class A and Class B assets were more aggressive with pricing, while offering more concessions, as well as higher tenant improvement amounts to make tenants sign deals,” the report states.

Palm Beach County

Palm Beach County’s office market outperformed Miami-Dade and Broward when it came to raising occupancy. The county’s overall vacancy rate ended the latest quarter at 13.2 percent, compared to 14.5 percent during the same period of 2020, according to the report.

New leasing activity jumped 77 percent, year over year, with tenants moving into more than 2.2 million square feet of new office space, the report shows. The Palm Beach market had a total positive absorption of 528,000 square feet in 2021, the highest since 2016.

As a result, landlords raised the average asking rent by 3.8 percent to $39.86 a square foot in the most recent quarter. In 2020’s fourth quarter, Palm Beach office tenants were paying an average rent of $38.40 a square foot. In the county’s commercial business district, which includes downtown West Palm Beach, Class A rents hit $65.42 a square foot, a 6.7 percent bump compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.

Palm Beach County’s office market performance likely fueled bullish investor activity, as a number of significant office deals closed last year, including a slate of acquisitions in West Palm Beach by developer Stephen Ross. On one of the sites, acquired for $20.1 million in July, Ross’ Related Companies is building the 25-story One Flagler, where two financial firms and a Greek restaurant have signed leases.

 

Source:  The Real Deal

Stephen Ross’s One Flagler Office Tower In West Palm Preserves 100-Year-Old Church, Scores Tenants

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In a modern-meets-classic project, Stephen Ross’ latest downtown West Palm Beach office tower will rise next to a nearly 100-year-old church that will be preserved.

Ross’ Related Companies embarked on the 25-story One Flagler, where two financial firms and a Greek restaurant signed leases. It will be on the western portion of a 2.5-acre site at the foot of the Royal Park Bridge and overlooking the Lake Worth Lagoon.

Private equity firm Siris Capital will move into One Flagler from nearby Phillips Point, also owned by Related. First Republic Bank will open a retail branch and office space at One Flagler, Gopal Rajegowda, partner at Related Southeast, told The Real Deal.

Chef Costas Spiliadis’ Greek seafood restaurant Estiatorio Milos, with its nearest location in Miami Beach, will open in a roughly 10,000-square-foot space on the ground floor and second level, with waterfront views, Rajegowda said.

The 275,000-square-foot One Flagler will be built west of the First Church of Christ Scientist and include a garage partly on the first floors of the tower and partly jutting out and rising eight stories, Rajegowda said.

Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s David Childs, One Flagler will have floor-to-glass windows, according to a news release and project renderings.

By contrast, the church has a Classical Revival architectural style and was built in 1928. It was designed by architects Horace Trumbauer and Julian Abele, and will remain open.

The eastern half of the site will be preserved as green space with the roughly 1-acre public park named after Abele, a prominent Black architect according to the release.

 

Source: The Real Deal