Billionaire Steve Ross, a dominant force in West Palm Beach real estate, proposes his second convention center hotel in the city.
Ross’ Related Ross plans a $290 million Curio by Hilton with 400 keys at its site at 900 South Rosemary Avenue, and is seeking to sell the property to Palm Beach County for $1 and then lease it back for 99 years. The deal would allow the firm to pay no property taxes on the site, The Palm Beach Post reported.
Related Ross won a county request for proposals for a new convention center hotel last year. At the time, the firm planned a 20-story, 404-key Hilton Signia. It withdrew that plan, and on Wednesday it filed a redrawn unsolicited proposal, citing more costly financing due to higher interest rates and the Trump administration’s tariffs. Under the new terms, the county would get the land worth about $20 million and annual rent of about $2 million, a Related Ross representative told the publication.
The 1.8-acre site, now a parking lot, is immediately south of CityPlace South Tower condominium, and east across the street from Related Ross’ existing 12-story, 400-key Hilton West Palm Beach at 600 Okeechobee Boulevard. That hotel was completed in 2016 on a site Related Ross leases from the county, meaning the developer has a similar arrangement with the county as that proposed for the Curio.
In its latest proposal, Related Ross referred to Trump’s announcement last month of “furniture-specific” tariffs, ranging from 30 percent to 50 percent, and added that the tariff’s effects are “not yet fully understood.”
Despite the difficult lending climate, Related Ross remained confident the Curio hotel would obtain a loan due to West Palm’s robust growth.
Ross, who owns the Miami Dolphins, Formula One Miami and Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, is defying the norms for most octogenarians by starting his latest career move in his 80s. Ross, who founded New York-based Related Companies over 50 years ago, last year carved out the firm’s Southeast division into his newly formed West Palm-based Related Ross. Related Ross primarily focuses on West Palm, where it owns about nine office buildings, including those developed, purchased, under construction and planned. It also has developed apartments and condo projects, and completed the CityPlace mixed-use complex in 2000.
Ross, 85, tapped his New York network to lease his new office towers, attracting financial service firms, a move that aligns with Palm Beach County’s yearslong push to make the area “Wall Street South.” Ross, who owns a Palm Beach estate and is a major county benefactor, more recently pushed to also make the area into a tech mecca. ServiceNow, a Fortune 500 cloud computing company, preleased at Related Ross’ 10 CityPlace office building that the firm is developing on a portion of CityPlace.
— Lidia Dinkova
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