The partnership between two of the country’s megadevelopers, Jorge Pérez and Steve Ross, has come to an end.
Ross, whose New York-based Related Companies has been expanding in South Florida, dropped a bombshell this week about the split with Pérez’s Related Group.
The Real Deal‘s Katherine Kallergis, who broke the news of the split, spoke with Hiten Samtani on some of the factors that might have led to it.
“You could tell they were competing, which had not happened before,” Kallergis said, referring to a gentleman’s agreement between the two billionaires that they would stay out of each other’s turf.
Related Companies has long had a presence in West Palm Beach, and Related Group has focused largely on condos in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Recently, however, Related Group acquired sites in Palm Beach County and is moving forward with at least one project there, while Related Companies is expanding in Miami-Dade.
Before the split, Related Group’s territory was Miami-Dade and Broward, while Related Companies generally stuck to Palm Beach County. “You started to notice that Ross was really looking to make a push in Miami over the last year or so,” Kallergis said.
Samtani noted that the boundaries between the different South Florida regions had blurred as a result of the pandemic, which could have made the territory system more complicated.
“It’s all bled together,” he said.