Related Ross Nears Deal for 'Micro City' at $320M Boca Raton Innovation Campus

• Related Ross is nearing closing on the Boca Raton Innovation Campus (BRiC) at 5000 T-Rex Avenue, Boca's 1.7 million SF ex-IBM complex on 123 acres
• Price undisclosed; the campus last changed hands in 2021 at a ~$320.2 million valuation
• Existing city approvals allow 1,200+ residential units, 125,000 SF of retail, 85,000 SF of medical offices, a 55,000 SF entertainment venue, and a potential 140-key hotel
• Ross's plan: a "micro city" built out on the campus's surface parking lots and vacant parcels

Steve Ross Is Bringing His West Palm Playbook to Boca

Steve Ross isn't done with South Florida. The billionaire developer whose Related Ross has been remaking West Palm Beach since 2024 is nearing a deal to buy the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, better known as BRiC, the 1.7 million-square-foot former IBM complex at 5000 T-Rex Avenue. The campus sits on 123 acres and already carries city approvals for a sweeping mixed-use build-out.

Related Ross confirmed the acquisition plans to the Palm Beach Post, calling the vision a "mixed-use destination." The purchase price hasn't been disclosed.

The Site: IBM's Brutalist Legacy, Ready to Rebuild

The campus dates to the 1960s, when IBM built it as its North American Research and Development headquarters, where the first personal computer was reportedly invented. The compound's brutalist architecture has defined it ever since.

In 2018, CP Group (then Crocker Partners) and Rialto Capital Management paid $179.3 million for the property. Three years later, New York-based DRA Advisors bought in, pushing the total valuation to roughly $320.2 million with all three firms retaining stakes.

In 2023, the ownership group won city approval to build out the campus's parking lots and vacant parcels in a multi-phased development. Those entitlements are what make BRiC immediately actionable for Ross: more than 1,200 residential units, 125,000 square feet of retail (including a grocery store), 85,000 square feet of medical offices, a 55,000-square-foot entertainment venue, and a possible 140-key hotel.

The Micro City

Ross's plan, per the Palm Beach Post, calls for new construction surrounding the existing IBM building on the campus's current surface parking. The campus already has tenants: D-Wave Quantum is relocating its headquarters from Palo Alto to 25,000 square feet at BRiC; medical software firm ModMed is based there; and Everglades University operates on-site. Fiserv offices are also said to be in the works, according to the publication's sources.

Ross's Second Swing at Boca

This isn't Ross's first move in the city. In early 2025, Related Ross lost its bid to redevelop Boca's city hall to a competing proposal from David Martin's Terra and Frisbie Group. That project subsequently failed in a March 2026 voter referendum. BRiC arrives pre-approved and without a public-vote hurdle.

Meanwhile, CP Group is resetting. With BRiC heading to Ross, the firm is pivoting to Mizner Park, the mixed-use complex its founder, Tom Crocker, originally developed in 1991.

What's Next

The deal hasn't closed. When it does, it will be one of the most significant land plays in Boca Raton in years: a developer with a proven appetite for campus-scale urban transformation taking over one of South Florida's most storied sites, with the entitlements to build a small city already in hand.