Steve Ross buys major Boca Raton property as Related Ross plans large mixed-use development

Florida – Real estate developer Stephen Ross has taken a major step into Boca Raton with the purchase of the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, a massive property with a long history in the technology industry and plans for a much broader future.

Ross, the chairman and chief executive of Related Ross and owner of the Miami Dolphins, completed the purchase of the 124-acre property on Sept. 10. The site, known as BRiC, sits at 5000 T-Rex Ave., just west of Interstate 95 along Yamato Road. The company did not disclose how much it paid for the property.

The acquisition gives Ross a major presence in one of southern Palm Beach County’s most active business markets. It also represents the beginning of a larger effort by Related Ross to establish what company officials describe as a new urban center in Boca Raton.

The property has an important place in the history of American technology. BRiC includes a 700,000-square-foot office building designed for IBM by Marcel Breuer and Thomas Gatje in the Brutalist architectural style. IBM developed the world’s first personal computer at the facility, which remains the largest single-office complex in Florida.

Ross said the property’s past is an important part of its future.

“BRiC changed the course of technology, and it will play an important role in what comes next,” said Ross, chairman and chief executive of Related Ross, the West Palm Beach-based real estate development firm.

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Ross, who lives in Palm Beach, has already played a major role in the transformation of West Palm Beach, where Related Ross has helped attract financial companies and other businesses. The Boca Raton purchase gives him an opportunity to pursue a similar goal in another part of the county, this time around a property with an established technology identity.

Related Ross executives say Boca Raton already has many of the characteristics needed to attract technology and other high-skilled businesses.

“Boca Raton has many of the ingredients companies are looking for today, including access to talent, connectivity, a strong university, education ecosystem and a high quality of life,” said Jordan Bargas, executive vice president at Related Ross. “We’re excited to be in Boca.”

Bargas also pointed to D-Wave Quantum, the quantum computing company that is BRiC’s newest tenant, and nearby Florida Atlantic University as important pieces of the area’s technology ecosystem.

The campus is also about to gain another major business tenant. Fiserv, a global financial technology company, is moving its offices to BRiC from buildings in Coral Springs. Those Coral Springs properties were recently purchased by a Related Ross affiliate. A spokesperson for Related Ross declined to comment on the transaction.

While the purchase protects much of BRiC’s existing identity, Related Ross is looking at significant changes to the property.

The company plans to preserve the site’s iconic Y-shaped Breuer building, which covers about 700,000 square feet. At the same time, it is considering removing portions of a separate rectangular building measuring about 1 million square feet.

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That building has its own connection to IBM’s history. It was used for manufacturing personal computers. A final decision about whether portions of the structure will be removed has not been made, according to real estate sources.

The larger vision involves using some of the property’s expansive, tree-covered parking areas for new construction. Those developments have already received approval from the city of Boca Raton.

The plans could eventually add a wide mix of uses to the campus, turning what was once primarily an office complex into a much more active destination.

Potential development includes 1,243 residential units, 125,000 square feet of retail space and 85,000 square feet of medical offices. The retail portion could include a 40,000-square-foot grocery store.

Plans also call for the possibility of a 55,000-square-foot entertainment venue with seating for as many as 5,000 people. A 140-room hotel could also be part of the project.

The development would not appear all at once. Related Ross plans to create the new “micro-city” in phases over several years.

Bargas said the company also sees an opportunity to improve the area around BRiC for people who already work there.

Related Ross looks forward to adding retail and restaurant options that could make the surrounding office properties more attractive and useful throughout the day, rather than leaving the campus primarily as a place where people arrive for work and leave afterward.

The purchase also brings Related Ross into Boca Raton after an earlier attempt to establish a major presence in the city ended unsuccessfully.

In 2025, the company lost a bid to develop about 30 acres of city-owned property that included Boca Raton’s City Hall. The proposed project would have been located along Second Avenue near the Brightline station.

That proposal eventually collapsed after local residents organized against redevelopment of the property. The opposition grew into a voter referendum, reflecting concerns about growth and changes to the area.

The experience appears to have influenced Related Ross’ approach. Rather than pursuing a new development on publicly owned land, the company turned toward an existing private property with transportation access and a long-established business history.

BRiC is located just west of the Boca Raton Tri-Rail station, giving the project a connection to public transportation that was important to Related Ross.

The company is also expanding its holdings nearby. Related Ross confirmed on Sept. 10 that it is buying the North 40 office buildings at 5201 Congress Ave., directly across Yamato Road from BRiC.

Together, the properties could give Ross control over a substantial section of central Boca Raton and provide more room for future business and mixed-use development.

The BRiC property was previously owned by a group of companies led by Boca Raton-based CP Partners. In 2018, CP Group and a partner purchased the campus for $179 million and later invested another $100 million in improvements and new amenities.

CP Group co-owned the property with Rialto, DRA Advisors and Las Olas Capital Advisors.

Their work changed the campus considerably. What had once been a relatively quiet back-office complex was repositioned as a destination for companies in financial services, technology and health care.

“This has been a rewarding experience for me, professionally,” said Angelo Bianco, managing partner of CP Partners. “We took something left for dead and resurrected it.”

Now, the property is entering another chapter.

Ross’ plans would preserve some of the most recognizable elements of BRiC while adding housing, retail, restaurants, medical offices, entertainment and potentially a hotel. The result could be a very different kind of development from the office campus that occupied the site for decades.

Financing for the purchase was arranged by Ares Real Estate funds, although the financial terms were not made public.

For Related Ross, the acquisition is more than the purchase of a large commercial property. It is the company’s first successful major move into Boca Raton and could become the foundation for a broader effort to make the area a stronger center for technology, business and mixed-use development.

The project will take years to complete, but the direction is already clear. A property once known mainly for IBM’s role in creating the personal computer could become a much larger community where offices, homes, stores, restaurants, medical facilities and entertainment operate alongside one another.