The Developer Who’s Transforming West Palm Beach

Stephen Ross reflects on life, legacy and a capstone deal in Florida’s richest county.

When the ubiquitous ServiceNow of Silicon Valley announced on September 16 that it will expand into South Florida and locate hundreds of high-tech workers in the heart of West Palm Beach, it signaled that this isn’t your grandfather’s Palm Beach County.

A place that forged a reputation as playland of the rich has morphed in recent years into a thriving financial center and tech mecca. Even before landing America’s fastest-growing AI company and leader in cloud-based workflow management technology, West Palm Beach grabbed headlines as Florida’s rising tech hub on the Gold Coast — and no one has done more to make that happen than Stephen M. Ross.

You know him as the legendary real estate developer of Hudson Yards, founder of the Related Companies and Related Ross, and owner of the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League, but when he discusses his life’s work, he makes one thing abundantly clear: None of that success matters unless it improves the lives of the people who reside in the communities he serves.

During a recent interview with Site Selection magazine, Ross reflected on not just his career triumphs, but also on what drives him to invest so much of himself and his business empire into the transformation of West Palm Beach.

“We recognized how great a business state Florida is,” he says. “It is second to none. The state constitution says there will never be a state income tax. Florida does not want to be California or New York. It is a very conservative state. It is very business friendly.”

So how does a New York legend like Ross become South Florida’s chief business advocate? The answer to that question is complex, but part of it involves Ross’s sustained success in Palm Beach County about an hour north of Miami, as well as his decision to retreat to his luxury estate known as “The Reef” on the island of Palm Beach during the pandemic. Ross started as a tax attorney in New York and founded the Related Companies in 1972. Related was recently named one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World by Fast Company Magazine. Ross is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Wayne State University Law School and New York University School of Law. Now 85, Ross has a net worth of $18.4 billion, per Forbes magazine.

The developer of CityPlace in downtown West Palm Beach, Ross championed mixed-use development long before virtually every other developer did. “Palm Beach County is the fourth-largest and the wealthiest county in the country,” he says, noting it’s also one of the largest counties east of the Mississippi River. “This is a great spot to grow. What is stopping that?”

He then answered his own question: Lack of talent-attracting infrastructure is the roadblock, he says.

“We started with hospitals because there was nothing in West Palm Beach. We went out and found a hospital. We got the best one available — a 220-bed hospital and cancer treatment center by the Cleveland Clinic. Then we needed education, both K-12 and post-secondary. We found a K-12 school that is internationally recognized; and then we got Vanderbilt University, which is bringing graduate engineering and AI curriculums to West Palm Beach,” he says.

Ross’s plan is to create the amenities needed to attract younger, highly educated people.

“Anything you could think of to attract young people — we have that now,” he said. “Companies make location decisions based on where they know they can recruit people.”

A Silicon Valley Giant Bets on West Palm Beach
Ross’s thesis came true when ServiceNow, based in Santa Clara, California, announced this week that it will establish a new tech hub loaded with skilled talent in one of two new Class A office towers being developed by Related Ross in downtown West Palm Beach.

Billed in state and city documents as a “regional headquarters” and “innovation hub,” the project brings 850 jobs at an average annual wage of $170,000. Per a report in The Palm Beach Post, incentives include $2 million in city grants and $15 million from the Florida Department of Commerce.

ServiceNow is a Silicon Valley unicorn that employs 27,000 workers worldwide. In the second quarter of 2025, ServiceNow reported revenue of $3.215 billion. One of its biggest customers is the federal government. By establishing a foothold in South Florida, the AI tech giant is sending a message that Palm Beach County is ripe for high-tech growth.

For Ross, it represents a signature win for his twin towers — 15 CityPlace and 10 CityPlace.

Upon completion in 2027, these two high-rise office buildings will add more than 1 million sq. ft. of Class A space to the city and make room for as many as 4,700 new office workers in the CBD. ServiceNow has committed to leasing 200,000 sq. ft. of office space in 10 CityPlace when it takes occupancy in 2028.

“This is a million square feet of office space that is 60% pre-leased,” says Ross. “When you look at the environment we are creating for these offices, the whole point is to create a place that allows a corporation to attract people. We addressed that as a recruiting tool when we created Hudson Yards [a project that could total $25 billion in investment upon buildout] in New York. Before we had even completed that project, we were securing the highest office rents in New York City.”

The office rents won’t be nearly as high in West Palm Beach for ServiceNow, but they won’t be cheap either. ServiceNow is a $195 billion company that remains on a rapid rise to global dominance in the highly competitive field of AI software.

Led by its colorful Chairman and CEO Bill McDermott, ServiceNow has been hailed as the company with the fastest organic growth in the history of enterprise software. “DOGE loves us,” McDermott said recently of the Department of Government Efficiency created by President Trump and formerly run by Elon Musk.

Since McDermott joined ServiceNow in 2019, the company has nearly tripled its annual revenue and solidified its status in the Fortune 500. McDermott guided his firm to a 5-year return of 82.4% and elevated the status of ServiceNow as a resume builder. Fortune named it one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For and placed it among the World’s Most Admired Companies; Forbes named it one of the Most Trusted Companies in America.

ServiceNow turned down a request to be interviewed for this story, but Johnna Hoff, the firm’s vice president of media relations, said that the deal in West Palm Beach represents “an expansion of ServiceNow’s current footprint.”

The firm also cited a study that projects the new regional innovation hub and AI institute to deliver a $1.8 billion economic impact over five years. The company said it selected West Palm Beach for its “fast-growing talent pool, favorable business environment, and proximity to major customers and partners in the Southeast U.S.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was on hand for the announcement and said, “Florida continues to lead on economic opportunity. ServiceNow, a global leader in secure data technology, is opening a regional headquarters and innovation hub in West Palm Beach. With this expansion, ServiceNow will become one of Palm Beach County’s largest employers by bringing more than 850 new jobs with an average salary of $170,000 to the area. This project will also bring in a private capital investment of over $50 million. Today, I was proud to announce ServiceNow’s major investment in South Florida and welcome the opportunities it will create for Floridians.”

ServiceNow is a Silicon Valley AI software firm taking 200,000 sq. ft. of new Class A office space in one of Stephen Ross’s twin CityPlace towers in West Palm Beach. The tech firm will hire 850 workers at an average annual wage of $170,000.

For Ross, landing ServiceNow validates the decades of work he has done in Palm Beach County. Through Related Ross, he now oversees more than 6.5 million sq. ft. of development across residential, office, hospitality, medical and retail projects in the area. In addition to bringing Vanderbilt’s first-ever satellite graduate campus to town, he was instrumental in partnering with Guident Corp. to launch a pilot program of MiCa, a fully autonomous electric shuttle, marking its first U.S. deployment in West Palm Beach.

His other landmark win is the Cleveland Clinic deal. The Ohio mainstay health care provider is leasing 120,000 sq. ft. at 15 CityPlace for a new outpatient facility offering chemotherapy and infusion therapy, imaging, endoscopy and outpatient surgery.

$60 Billion in Assets and Growing
It is all part of a growing empire that has amassed over $60 billion in real estate assets owned or under development, including a $600 million project known as the South Flagler House, where penthouses go for as much as $72.5 million. Ross also ranks as one of the largest owners of affordable housing in the country and the largest commercial property owner in downtown West Palm Beach. Altogether, Ross could end up spending around $10 billion on various projects around this city of 128,545 people.

This success prompted Ross to embark on a media blitz spreading the gospel of why West Palm Beach ought to be considered a top-tier destination for financial, medical and innovation companies. He refers to this moment as “the city’s emergence as a next-generation economic and cultural destination.”

He purposely cites Silicon Valley’s example. “How did Silicon Valley grow? It has Stanford and the wealth from San Francisco,” says Ross. “We will have Vanderbilt University and the wealth of Palm Beach County.”

How much wealth is that? One metric that county leaders use is the plethora of rich residents.

“Palm Beach County has 69 billionaires and 71,000 millionaires,” says Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County. “The money fuels the entrepreneurs and the innovation. We brought a ton of financial services firms from New York. Today, everybody knows Palm Beach. We call ourselves the Sixth Borough of New York. With all the talent, young families and money that moved here, that has changed the dynamic of this county. We are now big in fintech, financial services and health tech.”

The county even has a nickname for it: Wall Street South. “We welcome Stephen Ross’s public relations tour,” Smallridge says. “The more he promotes West Palm Beach, the greater it is for us. We love it when developers think bigger than just signing deals. Stephen has a super-comprehensive approach to his development style. He believes in quality of life, attractive amenities and making a city a great place to work. He imagines and delivers large-scale, mixed-use destinations.”

One of these destinations is The Laurel, a new luxury rental property in CityPlace in West Palm Beach. Just last week, Ross secured $250 million to refinance The Laurel, a 21-story building that has 322 units and 304,000 total sq. ft. It was completed in 2024 and brings a new type of luxury living to Ross’s CityPlace mixed-use development.

For Palm Beach County, this is par for the course today, but it was not always this way. A lot has changed in this county of 2,000 square miles and 1.56 million people. About 40 years ago, the majority of county residents were retired senior citizens hoping to enjoy their golden years on the beach. Today, the median age in West Palm Beach is just 40.2.

This has led to a lot of big corporate wins. Hoerbiger recently expanded with 200,000 sq. ft. of new manufacturing space in Delray Beach. Amazon opened five new facilities in the county over the last five years. And the Wall Street South initiative keeps tallying wins. “The entire Wall Street South campaign has attracted over 200 companies to Palm Beach County,” says Smallridge. “That represents the biggest economic development win as a whole for our county over the last five years.”

From January 2020 to the present, 96 corporate facility investment projects selected Palm Beach County, according to the Conway Projects Database of Site Selection magazine and Conway Data Inc. The biggest employment generators during that time were New Day Financial, which added 600 jobs, and NuVision Solar, which added 500, both in West Palm Beach. The county’s largest capital investment in that period came from Atlantic Aviation Corp., which invested $40 million in Boca Raton.

For context, consider that over the last 18 months, only two counties along the entire length of the Interstate 95 Corridor attracted more projects. Palm Beach County garnered 37 deals, tying its neighbor Broward County for third place. Only Suffolk County, Massachusetts (Boston), and Duval County, Florida (Jacksonville, also known for its financial services cluster) tallied more.

Smallridge says many factors make a difference in Palm Beach County. “When you are the golf capital of the world, the equestrian capital of the world, and the home of the President of the United States of America — all in a tropical oasis with the best restaurants and the best entertainment options — that adds up to a great place to attract a workforce.”

John Boyd Jr., a prominent site consultant and principal of The Boyd Company Inc. with offices in Jupiter and Boca Raton, says that in many ways, Stephen Ross is responsible for the success Palm Beach County enjoys today.

“He has been a major force — a bridge builder –—behind Palm Beach being the sixth borough of New York City,” says Boyd. “In fact, I will go further than that. Steve Ross is the de facto mayor of the sixth borough.”

Boyd says the migration of wealthy magnates from New York to South Florida occurred naturally.

“Many top CEOs have homes in both Manhattan and South Florida,” he says. “Many companies have a physical presence in New York and South Florida — and both places are global landing spots for the same kinds of foreign direct investment like finance, fintech, AI and multimedia. Companies like Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, JPMorganChase, Related Group, Swire Properties, JDS Development Group, and restaurants like Rao’s, Carbone and Gallagher’s all have flagships in South Florida.”

He adds, “My firm has clients that do business in the morning in Manhattan and land at Boca Executive Airport in time for dinner at Trattoria Romano.” When they’re not dining at 5-star restaurants or overseeing key business moves, many of these executives stop by Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach to talk policy with President Trump, notes Boyd.

Motivation Goes Beyond the Bottom Line
Boyd says that for Ross, the motivation to build up Palm Beach County’s stature is not just about business. Ross’s approach works, Boyd says, because “Ross is invested in the community and cares about sustainable economic development.”

From a location attractiveness standpoint, Boyd says that Boca Raton and West Palm Beach will continue to win their share of corporate investment deals. “We expect Boca to be in the mix for many exciting projects. West Palm Beach will be too,” he says. “West Palm, despite the sharp rise in business costs, remains a top destination for banking companies.”

Boyd says firms can still find Class A offices in Boca Raton for $42 per sq. ft., compared to rental rates of $114 in New York City and $90 in Miami Brickell. “There are also many quality suburbs in Palm Beach County. Palm Beach Gardens is one of them.”

And with Florida eliminating its commercial rent tax, effective October 1, look for more tenants to take advantage of this cost savings, which can be up to 6% annually on rent.

Ross says he’s just getting started. The 85-year-old Detroit native says that what motivates him is seeing people happily relocate to a community that bustles with youthful energy.

“We worked with the Florida Council of 100 to create the Tech Gold Coast,” he says. “This will be just like Silicon Valley and San Francisco. We will create that environment from Miami to West Palm Beach. The capital is here, and by adding Vanderbilt and the other key ingredients, we will create the new Tech Gold Coast right here in South Florida.”

Ross, who lives in an 11,000-sq.-ft. mansion on the island of Palm Beach, says, “You can feel the vibe. Just 10 years ago, a Wednesday night in August would have been very quiet. Today, all the restaurants are packed. It is just a whole different vibe today.”

Ross wants folks to know that he’s not just creating more income-producing property. “We are involved in trying to make this a model community for the country,” he says. “We are involved in every aspect of growth. You don’t find that elsewhere in this country.”

He also wants to shatter old stereotypes. “Most people think that Palm Beach is for your grandparents,” he says. “We are converting this into a place for young people. If you look and see what places can really grow in the 21st century, Palm Beach offers more than any other place in the country. We’re just starting to tell the story. Site selectors need to hear this now. This is a very unique story, and this is the right time to tell it.”