Steve Ross Buying Boca Raton’s BRiC, Plans Mixed-Use Project

Steve Ross, the billionaire developer who is reshaping West Palm Beach, has set his sights on Boca Raton’s former IBM campus, the state’s largest single office complex, seizing on existing approvals for a mixed-use project.

Ross is nearing closing on a deal to purchase the 1.7 million-square-foot Boca Raton Innovation Campus, at 5000 T-Rex Avenue, for an undisclosed price, with plans for a “micro city” created through additional construction on parking lots around the former IBM building, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Related Ross, the West Palm-based real estate firm Ross founded in 2024, confirmed the firm plans to buy BRiC in a statement to the publication, adding that the plan is for a “mixed-use destination.”

The plan also is to add Fiserv offices to the campus, the publication reported, citing anonymous sources.

The 123-acre BRiC was developed in the 1960s as IBM’s North American Research and Development, where reportedly the first personal computer was invented. The complex is known for its brutalist architecture.

Ross’ bid to buy the property marks at least his second whack at expanding his West Palm empire to Boca Raton. Last year, Related Ross lost its effort to redevelop Boca’s city hall, after council members voted in favor of a competing project proposal by David Martin’s Terra and Frisbie Group.

The Terra-Frisbie proposal subsequently fizzled as residents’ mounted opposition and the project failed to get voter approval in a March referendum.

BRiC, on the other hand, is posed for development. In 2023, the ownership group won city approval to build out parking lots or other vacant parcels. The entitlements allow for a multi-phased development with more than 1,200 residential units; 85,000 square feet of medical offices; 125,000 square feet of retail, including a grocery store; and a 55,000-square-foot entertainment venue. A hotel with 140 keys also is a possibility.

The office complex has reaped some rewards from the influx of out-of-state companies to South Florida, with many seizing on the region’s and state’s business-friendly climate and lack of personal income tax. D-Wave Quantum, a quantum computing company now based in Palo Alton, California, will move its headquarters to BRiC, where it leased about 25,000 square feet.

Other BRiC tenants include medical software firm ModMen and Everglades University.

BRiC’s ownership group includes Boca Raton-based CP Group, formerly called Crocker Partners. In 2018, CP and Rialto Capital Management bought the property for $179.3 million. The campus traded again in 2021 when New York-based DRA Advisors bought a stake, with CP Group and Rialto remaining co-owners as well. That deal was valued at about $320.2 million.

Amid the pending deal with Ross, CP Group is resetting its sights on another marquee Boca Raton property. The firm plans to purchase and renovate the mixed-use Mizner Park. CP’s founder, Tom Crocker, originally developed Mizner Park in 1991.

—Lidia Dinkova