Billionaire Steve Ross’ downtown West Palm Beach portfolio dominated in South Florida office leasing this year.
His 10 CityPlace and 15 CityPlace buildings accounted for three of the top-10 office deals in the tri-county region.
After stepping back from New York-based Related Companies last year, Ross made downtown West Palm his playground through his Related Ross firm. The company has about a dozen office properties in the area, including those purchased, built, under construction and planned.
As the pandemic-era influx of new-to-market firms to South Florida ended, few landlords signed major leases with out-of-state companies –– except for Ross.
Of this year’s 10 biggest office leases in South Florida, Related Ross was the only landlord to sign a new-to-market firm: tech company ServiceNow took space at one of Ross’ office buildings.
The 85-year-old has created an ecosystem of sorts in downtown West Palm, isolating it from a region-wide office market slowdown, by tapping his New York connections to quickly tenant his new buildings. Financial service firms signed a flurry of leases, aligning with Palm Beach County boosters’ vision to turn the area into “Wall Street South.”
In some of the other top office leases this year, a longtime Florida bank is consolidating its Miami-Dade County outposts in Coral Gables; two hospitals are expanding; a pair of law firms also signed leases; and Amazon moved from a co-working space to a permanent office in Wynwood.
Here’s the full list of this year’s 10 biggest office leases in South Florida.
The next Silicon Valley?
Billionaire Steve Ross scored an artificial intelligence company at one of his downtown West Palm Beach buildings, marking a boost to his plan to turn the city into a tech hub.
ServiceNow, a Fortune 500 firm that helps businesses automate and organize tasks, pre-leased 211,900 square feet at 10 CityPlace that’s under construction. Led by Bill McDermott, the cloud computing company is based in Santa Clara, California.
ServiceNow’s office will include an innovation hub to nurture tech startups. The firm has commitments for about $17 million in grants, including $13 million from Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, $2 million from the state and $2 million from the city.
Some of the grants are contingent on the creation of 856 jobs in six years and include clauses that the funds can be retrieved if ServiceNow fails to hire at least 400 employees.
Ross’ West Palm-based Related Ross is developing the 23-story, 470,000-square-foot 10 CityPlace and 26-story, 490,000-square-foot 15 CityPlace on a portion of the CityPlace mixed-use complex. Construction completion is expected in 2027, and ServiceNow is expected to open in 2028.
Bank plans Coral Gables HQ
City National Bank of Florida will move its headquarters to Coral Gables, consolidating its Miami-Dade County offices.
It leased 145,000 square feet in the 15-story building at 2701 South Le Jeune Road, where it will move next year. Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega’s Pontegadea family investment firm owns the building, which was completed in 2008 and formerly served as the headquarters for Bacardi USA.
The headquarters will bring together employees now working at City National Bank’s offices at Miami Tower, 100 Southeast Second Street, in downtown Miami; 1450 Brickell Avenue in Brickell; and the four-story, 124,200-square-foot Coral Gables building at 2855 South Le Jeune Road. The bank owns the Coral Gables building.
The new headquarters will centralize the bank’s private, small business and international banking divisions; wealth management; commercial and corporate banking; commercial and residential real estate banking; capital markets and specialty financing.
The lease came as City National Bank, which had about $27 billion in assets and roughly 1,000 employees as of this year, plans a 20 percent increase of its staff members over the next year and a half.
Cleveland Clinic’s outpatient center
Steve Ross scored another major deal at one of his downtown West Palm Beach buildings.
Cleveland Clinic pre-leased 129,700 square feet at 15 CityPlace, which Related Ross is building on a portion of the CityPlace mixed-use complex. The hospital will offer chemotherapy, infusion therapy, a concierge medicine program, imaging, endoscopy and outpatient surgery.
West Palm’s growth has necessitated more health care options in the city. Aside from the outpatient center, Cleveland Clinic plans a 150-bed inpatient hospital with an emergency department, a medical office building and ambulatory surgery center.
The hospital site hasn’t been disclosed. Sources have said it will be built at the two-building Reflections office campus at 400 and 450 South Australian Avenue in downtown West Palm, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Cleveland Clinic has an existing 30,000-square-foot Cleveland Clinic Tomsich Health and Medical Center at downtown West Palm’s CityPlace Tower, also owned by Ross.
Modernizing Medicine stays put at BRiC
DRA Advisors, Boston University)
A health care tech firm stayed put at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus.
Modernizing Medicine renewed its 127,800-square-foot lease at 4700 Exchange Court in Boca Raton. The firm uses AI and other tech tools to create specialty-specific systems for electronic health records. It was created by a physician and his patient, a software entrepreneur.
Boca Raton-based CP Group, led by Angelo Bianco and Chris Eachus, and New York-based DRA Advisors, led by David Luski, own the 1.7 million-square-foot BRiC. In 2021, DRA paid $320.2 million for a stake in the campus at 5000 T-Rex Avenue in Boca Raton.
Stearns Weaver Miller keeps downtown Miami office
Stearns Weaver Miller renewed its downtown Miami office lease.
The law firm has 96,800 square feet at 150 West Flagler Street. Moishe Mana, who is widely considered the biggest landlord in downtown Miami, owns the 28-story Museum Tower, reportedly paying $73.8 million for it in 2023.
Mana is working to redevelop his massive downtown Miami holdings into a college campus-like project with residences and offices targeting international tech companies and firms in other industries. Much of his plan is contingent on the still-ongoing renovation of Flagler Street, a public sector project, completion of which has been delayed. Mana’s plan for Museum Tower is to tailor it to attorneys and others in the legal profession.
ADP moving Miami-Dade office
Human resources and payroll services provider ADP will move its Miami-Dade County office to the Waterford Business District.
New Jersey-based ADP leased 78,300 square feet at 703 Waterford Way within the Waterford campus that’s in unincorporated Miami-Dade, across from Miami International Airport. The firm is expected to move from its office at 10200 Southwest Sunset Drive, near South Miami.
Chicago-based Nuveen Real Estate, led by Mike Sales, and Pimco Prime Real Estate, led by François Trausch, own the 250-acre Waterford Business District at Northwest 65th Avenue and Northwest Seventh Street. It has more than 3 million square feet of offices. Pimco is part of Munich-based global financial services firm Allianz Group.
Law firm shops around in Boca Raton
Kanner & Pintaluga will move its headquarters within Boca Raton.
The personal injury and property damage law firm leased 77,700 square feet at BH Group and Pebb Enterprises’ mixed-use project at 6600 North Military Trail.
Kanner & Pintaluga, founded in 2003 and with nearly 100 attorneys nationwide, will move next summer from 925 South Federal Highway. The new space is about 5,000 square feet larger.
The Toledano family’s Aventura-based BH Group and Boca Raton-based Pebb are redeveloping the 29-acre 6600 North Military Trail site, formerly known as Office Depot’s headquarters and recently rechristened The Eclipse.
The firms are renovating two of the office buildings, including the north building, where Kanner will occupy the entire second and fifth floors. BH Group and Pebb, led by Ian Weiner, plan to replace the third office building with an eight-story, 500-unit apartment project. The Pérez family’s Coconut Grove-based Related Group is a partner in the multifamily project.
ODP Corporation, which sold the site to BH and Pebb for $104 million in 2023, kept its headquarters at the campus, consolidating it in 214,700 square feet.
Amazon expands in Wynwood
and L&L Holding’s CEO David Levinson (Visual House, LinkedIn, L&L Holding’s, Shorenstein)
E-commerce giant Amazon leased space at a newly built office building in Miami’s Wynwood, marking a boost to neighborhood optimists’ yearslong push to turn it into a tech mecca.
In January, Seattle-based Amazon leased 50,300 square feet at the 12-story office building within the Wynwood Plaza mixed-use development at 95 Northwest 29th Street. By June, Amazon expanded its Wynwood Plaza office to 75,500 square feet by adding 25,200 square feet to its initial lease.
Amazon, led by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has had industrial and distribution outposts throughout South Florida, but this is its first known dedicated office in Miami-Dade County. Amazon previously leased a co-working space in Coral Gables.
Oak Row Equities, led by Erik Rutter and David Weitz; New York-based L&L Holding Company; San Francisco-based Shorenstein; and Marcelo Claure’s Claure Group completed Wynwood Plaza this year. The project includes a 12-story, 509-unit apartment building.
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital’s new office
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital leased 62,100 square feet for a new corporate office in Coral Gables.
The health care system leased at Columbus Center at 1 Alhambra Plaza. Nicklaus’ main campus is about 3 miles away at 3100 SW 62nd Avenue, near South Miami.
The lease came shortly after Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania-based Tourmaline Capital Partners bought the complex out of foreclosure for $76 million. Tourmaline is led by Brandon Huffman.
Completed in 1990, Columbus Center consists of a 14-story building and an eight-story building.
Related Ross expands HQ to 15 CityPlace
Ross’ Related Ross is expanding its headquarters within West Palm.
Related Ross, which is based at the 360 Rosemary office building Ross completed in 2021 in downtown West Palm, will open an additional office at 15 CityPlace. Related Ross leased 53,400 square feet at the building that’s under construction on a portion of the CityPlace mixed-use complex, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
Source(s): TRD analysis of deals reported by TRD, Colliers, Cushman & Wakefield and Commercial Observer as of Q3 2025.
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