Миллиардер Стивен Росс инвестирует 10 млрд долларов в превращение Уэст-Палм-Бич в ведущий деловой центр США

During the Gilded Age, oil tycoon Henry Flagler carved a path of development from St. Augustine down to the Florida Keys. He built both the railroad that would shuttle people down the coast and the luxury hotels they’d stay in, transforming what had been sparsely populated agricultural land into a major tourism destination, and establishing the town of Palm Beach. While Palm Beach was designed for the rich and famous, Flagler built a separate city, West Palm Beach, across the Intracoastal Waterway, to house the laborers who served them. More than a century later, billionaire developer Stephen Ross is carrying Flagler’s torch with a project that’s equally ambitious: To rebuild the working-class city, almost entirely on his own. After reshaping New York City a decade ago with the 28-acre Hudson Yards development on the West Side of Manhattan, Ross, 86, is making a $10 billion bet that he can turn West Palm Beach, a city of about 130,000 residents, into one of the country’s premier business hubs. His aim is to build the offices that companies want to lease, plus the housing, schools, hospitals and entertainment that their executives will seek. “I wanted to do something that nobody else had ever done. I saw all the possibilities and, obviously, no competition because no one was thinking that way,” said Ross, the chair and CEO of Related Ross, a venture he launched for his Florida ambitions. He also acknowledged another motivation: “I can’t stay retired.” Ross’ campaign has divided some residents, even as he has paired his development push with community initiatives. In just a few years, he has turned the once-sleepy city into a metropolis packed with building cranes for luxury projects that many longtime residents cannot afford. Proponents, though, see Ross as a once-in-a-generation benefactor, key to modernizing South Florida’s economy to include more than tourism. “What Flagler did with a raw landscape 100 years ago, Ross is trying to do with a raw, largely undeveloped business landscape,” said Lester Standiford, a professor at Florida International University and author of a book on Flagler’s railroad. “I see him engaged in an equal kind of pioneering effort.” A supercharged investment Stephen Ross is no stranger to West Palm Beach. He built CityPlace, the 72-acre, open-air mall that has anchored the city’s downtown for 26 years, helping to attract tenants following an era when vacancies soared. Crime and cocaine had become so prevalent in the area that in 1987 then-Sen. Lawton Chiles described downtown West Palm Beach as a “war zone.” Two years later, HBO released “Crack USA: County Under Siege,” which highlighted the city. Even as crime dropped in the ensuing decades, West Palm Beach had remained mostly detached from Palm Beach, with the wealthy rarely venturing out across the water. CityPlace struggled, defaulting twice in the aftermath of the Great Recession. The pandemic blurred the lines between the two towns as demand from Palm Beach spilled across the border, presenting Ross with a new opportunity. Attracted by Florida’s welcoming business environment and lack of COVID-era restrictions, the biggest names in finance, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Elliott Management, began flocking to a 20-story office development that Ross was building. Since then, his portfolio has grown to an estimated 10.4 million square feet, including office space, luxury condo buildings and hotels. Related Ross secured $772 million in financing, the largest construction loan in Florida’s history, to build two new office buildings. A luxury condo development, backed by $600 million in financing, is expected to be completed next year, with prices for apartments topping out at $72 million. This year alone, Ross has purchased a waterfront hotel for $190 million, secured a $157 million loan to build a 28-story condo high-rise, launched sales for a two-tower luxury condo development and spent $55 million on land for yet another condo venture, all while negotiating the approvals to build a new $290 million convention center hotel. He was also the builder of the existing one. While Ross isn’t the only developer focused on West Palm Beach, he is by far the most prolific, and the rate at which he’s been acquiring and building properties is astonishing to experts in the business. “It’s a tear for any developer, let alone a developer that’s in his 80s,” said Scott Wadler, a Miami-based commercial real estate broker with Berkadia. The Silicon Valley of the Southeast Ross is used to making big bets. In 1972, he founded Related Cos. and built it into one of the largest private developers in the country, taking on ambitious mixed-use projects like the Deutsche Bank Center at Columbus Circle in New York, and the Grand LA in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Gehry. As his real estate empire blossomed, Ross built ties in South Florida, where he spent his teenage years, buying the Miami Dolphins for $1.1 billion in 2009 and spending an additional $755 million to renovate the team’s 65,000-seat Hard Rock stadium. During the pandemic, Ross left New York and decamped to his oceanfront Palm Beach mansion, eventually becoming a permanent Florida resident. He began to envision a “new Silicon Valley” in the Southeast, setting out to expand his portfolio and woo both tech and finance companies. But for West Palm Beach to thrive, Ross thought, the city couldn’t just house luxury condos and offices. It needed to offer all the attractions found in a major city. “As opposed to waiting for it to happen just with time and the government, someone had to really bring it together and invest in it, you know, and take a leadership role,” Ross said. “You can’t go and sell something if you don’t have the assets there.” To upgrade Palm Beach County’s healthcare, he donated $50 million for an expansion of the local Cleveland Clinic hospital. To lure executives and their families, he made a large donation to the exclusive Pine Crest School, which will build a campus in West Palm Beach. One of his mixed-use developments will include another private school. To create a steady supply of employable graduates, he gave $50 million to Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, which has agreed to build a $520 million graduate campus in the town. And to make sure that the newcomers don’t get bored, Related Ross sponsored a music festival in February headlined by globe-trotting DJs Calvin Harris and Kygo. “They’re playing Monopoly,” said Julien Gremaud, a restaurateur based in West Palm Beach. “It’s crazy to watch.” The price of progress The growth spurt, and the speed at which it has arrived, has worried some local residents, who believe the addition of luxury housing and related amenities will raise prices for residents of the working-class city. In the past five years, the median price of a West Palm Beach home has jumped about 66% to $500,000, according to Redfin, outpacing statewide Florida averages. Monthly rents have risen to an average of $2,154, growing nearly 3% year-over-year, according to Apartments.com. “We have a situation of corporate colonialism, pure and simple,” said Richard Ryles, a community activist and personal injury lawyer who previously served as a West Palm Beach commissioner. He said he’s concerned about the impact that gentrification could have on the Black communities of West Palm Beach and the lack of input they’ve been granted into what’s being built. Ryles, who lost his recent bid to join the Palm Beach County Commission, fears that the corporate migration will exacerbate issues of housing affordability, and doubts many locals will be hired into high-paying jobs. For the city’s leaders, the tensions represent the price of progress. “I tell my staff every day, I’d much rather have the problems of a growing city than a dying city,” said Keith James, the mayor of West Palm Beach. “When you have these businesses move to town, they themselves generate demand for services, which are often met by smaller businesses.” In response to criticisms, Ross is building a 191-unit affordable housing project, using a Florida law that grants developers tax breaks for building below-market apartments. Two other affordable housing projects are in the pipeline. The Related Ross Foundation has also committed $12.7 million toward scholarships for students of two local high schools to attend Palm Beach State College. Ross and James recently had to pause the construction of a waterfront park after pushback by the community. With $30 million pledged by Related Ross, the city considered using eminent domain to develop the land, relocating restaurants that operate by the waterfront. After landlords and operators complained, the mayor has now pledged to hold listening sessions. “Change is inevitable, and progress is good for a city, but thoughtful and managed growth is paramount,” said Gail Coniglio, a former mayor of Palm Beach and one of the landlords affected. Charging forward About every other week, Related Ross employees venture out around the country, selling Ross’ vision for West Palm Beach to other companies. In May, they were in Boston and New York. In June, they traveled to the Bay Area to meet with 15 firms over two days. “If we had gone on that California trip five years ago, people would be like, why are we taking this meeting?” said Jordan Bargas, a Related Ross executive vice president. “Now when you enter the room, they’re like, ‘Oh, tell me what it’s actually like to do business in Florida.’ They’re hearing about it. There’s this natural buzz.” Wells Fargo is a typical new West Palm Beach tenant. Barry Sommers, the CEO of the bank’s wealth and investment management division, was working at Hudson Yards in New York City and wanted to open another office, to remain close to clients and attract new talent. After flying down and meeting with Ross and his team, Sommers decided to open a 50,000-square-foot office this summer that will house between 80 and 100 full-time employees. Josh Kahn, the executive who will lead artificial intelligence platform ServiceNow’s 200,000-square-foot West Palm Beach office, was similarly sold on the Ross vision. “As that takes shape and gets critical mass, a lot of other companies will start to come here, too,” he said. Given his advanced age, Ross will step aside in the coming years, and it remains an open question whether Related Ross will remain as prolific without the founder’s close involvement and deep pockets. For now, he has no plans to stop building. Otherwise, he said, “I’d be very bored.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times.