Stephen Ross: The BillionDollar Developer Shaping America’s Next Great City\”>Stephen Ross West Palm Beach Developer | Billionaire Vision

There are leaders who build empires, and then there are visionaries who build legacies. Stephen Ross is both. And so much more. From humble beginnings in Detroit to transforming skylines in New York and civic life in Florida, Stephen Ross has never chased headlines. He’s pursued purpose. With the heart of a builder, the mind of a strategist, and the soul of a servant-leader, he has redefined what it means to lead with vision and impact.
Whether founding Related Companies with a $10,000 loan from his mother, reshaping Manhattan with Hudson Yards, or spearheading West Palm Beach’s transformation into a global model for intelligent growth, Ross has remained grounded in humility, integrity, and a deep sense of responsibility. He doesn’t just develop cities. He elevates them. And in doing so, he’s quietly become not just one of the most influential developers of our time, but arguably one of the greatest people in the world.
Stephen Ross isn’t just building. He’s reimagining what cities can be. To trace his legacy is to follow the shape of modern ambition: clean lines, long views, and bold moves that push not only concrete but culture forward. From the towers of Manhattan to the fast-rising corridors of West Palm Beach, Ross has never simply developed land. He’s developed ideas. Big ones. Lasting ones.Stephen Ross West Palm Beach Developer | Billionaire Vision”>“He’s someone who’s always looking forward, not backward,” says Tom Garfinkel, his long-time partner and CEO of the Miami Dolphins. “He’s always learning and building. He has a big heart and really cares about people.”
That mind-set has made Ross a defining figure in modern American real estate. As founder and chairman of Related Companies, he has led the development of more than $60 billion in real estate, including over 100 million square feet of office, residential, retail, and mixed-use space across major cities. He led the creation of Hudson Yards—the largest private real estate development in U.S. history, and transformed Hard Rock Stadium into a global venue that now hosts everything from the Miami Open to Formula 1 and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. He also owns a 95% stake in the Miami Dolphins, a franchise now valued at approximately $10 billion.  His ventures extend into sports, tech, philanthropy, and hospitality, with each initiative reinforcing his broader thesis: that cities thrive when infrastructure, culture, and capital move in sync.
Now in his 80s, Ross is channeling his efforts into what may be his most far-reaching project yet: transforming West Palm Beach into a next-generation business and civic hub, and one of the most desirable places to live, work and play.  With $10 billion committed to the region—including major investments in education, healthcare, and workforce housing—alongside high-end developments like South Flagler House, a landmark luxury residential tower on the Intracoastal, and Apogee, a world-class private golf and lifestyle club, he’s helping shape not just a region, but a model for growth across the country.
He owns over 90% of the Class A commercial real estate in West Palm Beach, where he’s spearheading a bold transformation of the city into a next-generation hub for finance and technology—drawing top firms not just from Miami, but from California and New York, as they choose West Palm as the new headquarters for Wall Street South.
In this exclusive conversation, Ross reflects on what he’s built, what’s next, and why he still believes the most interesting opportunities lie ahead.Stephen Ross West Palm Beach Developer | Billionaire Vision”>

The Drive to Build: From Detroit to Related

The Early Years and Starting Related

You grew up in Detroit and later moved to Miami Beach for high school. What shaped your outlook early on, and who inspired you?

I didn’t grow up thinking I’d be a developer. I was just a regular kid from Detroit in a middle-class family. When we moved to Miami Beach, I struggled in school. At one point, a guidance counselor told me I’d be wasting my time going to college. That sticks with you.
But I pushed through. I got into the University of Florida, studied hard, and eventually transferred to the University of Michigan, where everything changed for me. Michigan gave me the structure, the drive, the direction. It’s why I’ve stayed so connected to the university all these years. It really shaped who I became.
There was also my uncle, Max Fisher. He was a huge figure in my life, one of the most respected businessmen and philanthropists in the country. I’d go to events where he was being honored and see the way people responded to him. It was inspiring. If he could do it, I thought, maybe I could too.
After college, my uncle Max offered me a chance to join the family business. He was someone I looked up to deeply. I saw first-hand how much he accomplished and the impact he had on people.
Being around him gave me a real sense of what was possible. He wasn’t just successful. He stood for something. But as much as I admired him, I felt a pull to build something of my own. I didn’t want to step into a structure that was already there. I wanted to see what I could create from the ground up. That choice wasn’t about rejecting his path. It was about defining mine. I wasn’t looking for the easy way or the guaranteed outcome. I was looking for ownership, not just in business, but in the journey.

You founded Related in 1972 with a $10,000 loan from your mother. What gave you the conviction to launch your own company, and how did you go from affordable housing to becoming the country’s leading force in urban transformation?

The conviction came because I didn’t really have a choice. I had been let go from Bear Stearns just before Thanksgiving, not due to performance, but internal politics. It was a setback, but one that forced me to think clearly about what I wanted next. That weekend, I sat down and started writing a business plan. I didn’t dwell on what happened. I focused on what I could build. That was the start of Related.
I asked my mother for $10,000—not to invest in a deal, but just to stay in New York long enough to try something. That was the moment I bet on myself. I didn’t have investors. I didn’t have connections. What I had was a plan, and a lot of determination.
I started in affordable housing because it was one of the few areas where you could do well and do good at the same time. I knew I had to build a track record, and that space gave me an opening. Then I got some early deals done and made about $150,000 in the first year. Instead of raising equity or giving up control, I reinvested everything. I bootstrapped the company from the ground up.
People offered to back me, but the terms didn’t make sense. One offer would have left me with ten percent. I turned it down. I said, “I’m not going to give this away before I’ve even started.” And that decision, to grow slowly, keep control, and build sustainably, defined everything that came after.
As we grew, we expanded into every asset class: market-rate housing, condos, office, retail, hotels. Each phase prepared us for the next. By the time Hudson Yards came around, we had the capabilities, the people, and the structure to take on a project at that scale.
I never raised equity for the parent company. Related was built deal by deal. No outside capital. Just belief in the work and a willingness to take the long view.Stephen Ross West Palm Beach Developer | Billionaire Vision”>

Hudson Yards and the Art of Urban Integration

Transforming Cities at Scale

Hudson Yards is the largest private real estate development in U.S. history, spanning 28 acres and more than 18 million square feet, and also one of the most expensive, with an estimated cost of over $25 billion. When you reflect on the magnitude of that project, what made Hudson Yards possible, and how did it reflect your evolution as a developer?

By the time Hudson Yards came along in 2008, I had been in the business for about 35 years. We had just completed Time Warner Center, which was the most complex project I’d ever done up to that point, and really the first major live-work-play development in New York. That was the turning point. We proved that you could bring residential, hotel, office, retail, restaurants, and culture together in one vertical project and make it work.
But that evolution didn’t happen all at once. I started out doing affordable housing, then moved into market-rate apartments, condos, office buildings, retail, and hotels. We learned each asset class from the inside out, and with every step, we built a stronger platform. So when the Hudson Yards opportunity came up, we weren’t starting from theory. We had the experience and the internal capabilities to execute something at that scale.
Hudson Yards was different. Building over active rail yards in the middle of Manhattan isn’t something you just take on because it looks good on paper. It took conviction. It took long-term thinking. And it took precision planning. Every use—residential, office, retail, culture—needed its own entrance, its own systems, its own engineering. And yet, it all had to work together perfectly. Honestly, it was like building a Swiss watch. Everything had to sync; every gear, every layer.
What made it viable was that we knew how to put the pieces together. It wasn’t just a collection of buildings. It was a coordinated ecosystem. Infrastructure, transit, open space, commerce, lifestyle. It all had to align. And that’s what I think made Hudson Yards possible. We weren’t trying to chase a trend. We were trying to build something that would define the next era of urban life.Stephen Ross West Palm Beach Developer | Billionaire Vision”>

From the Dolphins to the Grand Prix

Sports as Strategy, Stadium as City

You’ve made a major impact in the world of sports, from acquiring the Miami Dolphins to bringing Formula One and the Miami Open to South Florida. What inspired that crossover from real estate into sports, and how do you see global entertainment, civic infrastructure, and real estate converging today?

Owning a football team was always a dream of mine. I played sports growing up, and while I was never quite good enough to go anywhere with it, I always had that love for the game. The idea of owning an NFL team; of being part of something that brings people together at that scale, was something I carried with me for a long time.
But it wasn’t just about sports. I saw it as a strategic opportunity. When I bought the Miami Dolphins, I knew it could open doors—not just in business, but in the community. Sports has a unique ability to bring people together. When a city rallies around a team, it creates energy, identity, and connection. And I wanted to build on that.
We didn’t stop with football. I looked at the stadium’s 275-acre campus and saw a blank canvas. We brought the Miami Open there when it was on the verge of leaving the city. We created an environment where world-class tennis could thrive. Then Formula One came to us. Originally, they wanted to race on the streets of downtown Miami. I didn’t think that was feasible, but I knew we could build something special at the stadium. And we did. We designed a track that winds around the campus, and the Miami Grand Prix has become one of the most prestigious races on the F1 calendar, some say second only to Monaco.
What we’ve built isn’t just a stadium. It’s a global entertainment district. We host concerts, international soccer matches, F1, tennis, and of course, the Dolphins. And we’ve done it in a way that integrates hospitality, food, culture, and technology. It’s more than programming. It is infrastructure. The stadium is now a platform for civic identity and economic growth.
That convergence of sports, entertainment, and real estate—that’s the future. It’s not about one building. It’s about creating places that connect people, fuel local economies, and give cities something to rally around. That’s what we’ve done in Miami, and I think it’s a model that can work in other parts of the country and the world.Stephen Ross West Palm Beach Developer | Billionaire Vision”>

West Palm Beach: Vision, Investment & Community

Strategic Growth, Institutional Development, and Civic Impact

You’ve described West Palm Beach as one of the greatest untapped growth markets in America; but you recognized it long before the migration trend. What first revealed its potential to you, and how has your vision evolved from those early days to today’s civic-scale developments?

I’ve lived in Palm Beach for over 25 years. I’ve watched it evolve. And even back then, I knew it had all the ingredients: it’s the largest county on the East Coast, one of the wealthiest in the country. But it didn’t have the infrastructure. No strong hospitals, no top schools, no cohesive commercial core.
At the same time, Miami and Broward were getting more and more congested. Florida is the best business state in the country, but Palm Beach County hadn’t been positioned to absorb the next wave of growth.
That’s when I asked the question that’s guided everything since: “Why isn’t this a great place to grow?”
Our strategy was simple: identify the friction points and remove them. That meant bringing in institutions, investing in planning, and making it easier for families and businesses to say yes. Today, that vision is becoming real. And I think we’re just getting started.

You’ve said this is just the beginning for West Palm Beach. What do you see in the next chapter, and are we already seeing it unfold?

The next chapter is incredibly exciting. We’re just scratching the surface.
We’ve already seen major firms from Boston, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and California move down here. Hedge funds, investment banks, tech start-ups, family offices. They are not just opening satellite offices. They’re putting roots down. West Palm Beach is undergoing explosive growth, fueled by a powerful influx of capital and top-tier talent, as leading tech firms from Silicon Valley and San Francisco flee California’s high taxes, rising crime, and increasingly burdensome regulatory environment.
Major companies are already making the move, and relocating their second headquarters to West Palm Beach. These are household names, and their decisions confirm what we’ve known all along: this is no longer just a vision on paper. West Palm Beach is becoming the real thing.

You’ve drawn comparisons between West Palm Beach and global tech and wealth hubs. Can you explain the analogies to Silicon Valley and Abu Dhabi, and why they apply here?

I always say: look at where great ecosystems were built. Silicon Valley didn’t grow inside San Francisco—it grew just outside of it, where there was space, talent, and capital to build something new. West Palm Beach is in that same position today.
Miami is like Dubai: vibrant, flashy, high-energy. But West Palm is more like Abu Dhabi: strategic, long-term, and grounded in substance. We’re not trying to be louder. We’re trying to be smarter.
We have the room to grow, the quality of life, and now we’re putting the infrastructure in place. If we do this right, West Palm Beach becomes not just a great city, but a model city for the U.S. and beyond.

A lot of developers focus on bringing wealth into a region. However, you’ve talked about growing the community from within. What does that look like in practice?

For me, it’s never been just about attracting outside capital. That’s the easy part. What matters more is building a community that’s designed to last. A place where people don’t just invest, but actually choose to live, raise families, and contribute. That’s what I mean when I say we’re working to build a model community for the United States.
Growing the community internally starts with asking: What does it take for a family to plant roots here? What does a business need to commit for the long haul? You need more than buildings. You need the systems that make a city resilient and liveable.
That’s why we’re bringing in Vanderbilt University. I gave a $50 million lead gift to help launch a $300 million graduate campus here. It’s not just about prestige. It’s about anchoring a brain trust in Palm Beach County, creating intellectual capital that supports innovation and leadership.
We’re also developing a top-tier K–12 school that rivals the best in the country. If you’re a CEO or fund manager moving from New York or California, you want to know your kids are getting the same level of education they’d get back home. That’s a critical factor in relocation.
And we’re tackling healthcare head-on. We’ve partnered with Cleveland Clinic to build a state-of-the-art cancer and specialty center, designed by Norman Foster, one of the world’s most celebrated architects. That kind of institutional commitment gives people confidence to truly make this home.
When I say we’re growing the community from within, I mean we’re building the full infrastructure of a modern city — education, healthcare, talent, culture — and doing it with excellence. That’s what makes a place enduring. That’s what makes Palm Beach not just a market, but a model.

You’ve welcomed co-investors on many of these developments, but you’ve also said you’re not dependent on outside capital. What does that mean for you and for others joining this growth story?

We’re not fundraising. We’re building. I provide the majority of the equity myself, because I believe in what we’re doing. This isn’t speculative. This is foundational.
That said, we’re always open to aligned capital. If someone wants to co-invest, great—same terms, same risk, same upside. But whether they join or not, we’re moving forward. The growth isn’t dependent on outside money.
I honestly think some of the best deals being offered today are in West Palm Beach. We’re early in the cycle. The infrastructure is coming together. And we’re committed for the long haul.

One of the most unique aspects of your Palm Beach vision is Apogee, a golf development that’s already become legendary. What was the inspiration behind it, and how does it fit into the broader picture?

It started with a simple idea: build something that had never been done before. I’ve always loved golf, not just the sport, but the experience of being in a world-class environment. With Apogee, I didn’t set out to create another club. I wanted to create something unmatched.
We brought together three 18-hole courses, each designed by champion golfer and golf course architect—Ernie Els. Over 750 members have already joined. The feedback has been incredible. Ernie said to me, “If you ever wanted to go to golf heaven, this is it.”
And it’s more than golf. There are villas, wellness programs, and curated experiences. It fits into the bigger vision: we’re not just building buildings, we’re building community. Apogee is another anchor in that lifestyle ecosystem.

Stephen Ross West Palm Beach Developer | Billionaire Vision”>

Sustainable Cities & Public Vision

Global Insights, Local Impact

As founding benefactor of the WRI Ross Center, how do those insights shape your approach to building in Palm Beach County?

The WRI Ross Center is part of the World Resources Institute, a global organization that works with cities around the world to improve how they grow, focusing on sustainability, transportation, infrastructure, and urban resilience. When we launched the Center, the goal was simple: help cities become more liveable, more efficient, and more prepared for the future.
That work gives us access to the best practices in urban planning—things like walkability, green infrastructure, water management, and long-term environmental performance. And we’re bringing that thinking directly to West Palm Beach.
This region has an incredible opportunity to grow intelligently. We’re not just putting up buildings. We are asking how to create communities that function well 10, 20, 30 years from now. That means integrating mobility, public space, and environmental design in a way that makes everyday life better for the people who live here.
In everything we’re doing, from new residential developments to public-private projects, we’re applying those WRI insights to make Palm Beach County a model for sustainable urban growth in the U.S.

Building with Cities, Not Just in Them

How listening, alignment, and quality define Ross’s public-private approach

Many of your projects involve public‑private partnerships. What’s your approach when working with cities and civic leaders?

It starts with listening. Too many developers show up with a plan and try to push it through without understanding what the community actually needs. We take the opposite approach. We ask: What’s your vision for this place? What’s missing? What would make life better for the people who live here?
If you frame the development around that civic vision—not just return on investment—you end up with a stronger project and a better relationship with the city. We’ve won major RFPs not because we were the highest bidder, but because we built the best solution. When municipalities know you’re committed to quality, execution, and long-term value, that makes all the difference.
Public-private partnerships only work if you see the city as a real partner, and not an obstacle. That’s how we’ve approached everything from platforms over rail yards to educational and healthcare projects here in Florida. It’s about alignment, trust, and delivering something people can be proud of.

What Legacy Looks Like

Vision, Values, and What’s Left Behind

With your reach from New York to Miami to West Palm Beach, what do you want your legacy to be?

At the end of the day, I want people to say I cared about the community. That I didn’t just build for the sake of building, but that I created places where people could live better lives.
Of course, I’m proud of the scale and the success of our developments: Hudson Yards, Time Warner Center, everything we’ve done in Florida. But legacy isn’t just about skylines. It’s about what those buildings enable. Jobs. Schools. Healthcare. Culture. Movement. Belonging.
If I’m remembered for building the best, most successful developments in America, that’s great. But even more than that, I hope people look at West Palm Beach one day and say: That city was built the right way. And it changed what we thought was possible.