Downtown West Palm Beach has seen a surge in office market activity, fueled in part by billionaire Steve Ross’s significant investments and development efforts. This growth has attracted many tenants to the area but has also led to rising rents, pricing out some longtime occupants.
Ross’s projects have driven up rents not only in his own buildings but throughout downtown West Palm Beach. According to the Palm Beach Post, this trend is pushing several established tenants to relocate to more affordable suburban areas within Palm Beach County. These suburban markets are now experiencing increased development as demand shifts.
Law firm Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath recently moved most of its operations from downtown’s Northbridge Centre—where it had been located for 40 years—to an office at 4300 TBC Way in Palm Beach Gardens. Northbridge Centre is owned by Vanderbilt Office Properties and Trinity Capital Advisors.
“The proposed renewal rate was three to four times what we were paying,” said Kevin Ryan of Lytal Reiter. He described the downtown rental rates as “out of control.”
Other businesses are considering similar moves after seeing downtown rents exceed $100 per square foot, according to Neil Merin of NAI/Merin Hunter Codman.
To meet growing demand for high-quality suburban offices, new projects are underway. Gatsby Florida, part of Gatsby Enterprises, is planning The Modern—a planned eight-story building with 220,000 square feet of office space and an adjacent six-story garage at 11200 RCA Center Drive in Palm Beach Gardens. Babak Ebrahimzadeh of Gatsby Florida told The Real Deal that the project will partly target New Yorkers moving south following Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win in New York last year. The Modern is expected to be completed in 2027; Gatsby acquired the site for $17.5 million in 2022 near its DiVosta Towers complex.
In Boca Raton, construction continues on The Aletto office complex—a two-building property totaling 140,000 square feet—which is already about 60 percent pre-leased.
Developers and brokers say these projects reflect a broader shift as companies seek premium offices outside urban centers due to cost pressures.
Ross stepped back from leading Related Companies—based in New York—in 2024 after founding it over five decades ago; he now heads West Palm-based Related Ross, which focuses mainly on downtown West Palm developments. In addition to his work with offices, Ross owns the Formula One Race and Miami Dolphins and has invested in residential and hospitality properties locally. His company holds around a dozen office properties across various stages of completion or planning within the submarket.
Ross used his connections from New York to attract primarily out-of-state financial services firms as tenants for his new buildings and has more recently aimed at establishing Palm Beach County as a tech hub. He remains nonexecutive chairman and largest shareholder of Related Companies.
