from the Daily Mail
The city of West Palm Beach, long seen as Palm Beach’s poor relation neighbor, has experienced a flurry of economic development in recent years – spurred on in part by a notorious real estate tycoon.
Years ago, West Palm Beach began marketing to out-of-state employers to build a financial district. Now, a sizable chunk of businesses are finance and investment entities, earning it the moniker ‘Wall Street of the South.’
The area also saw a flood of newcomers during the first wave of Covid-19. As wealthy New Yorkers fled pandemic-era restrictions, many elected to settle down in the area, charmed by the warm weather and low property tax.
The city was initially intended as a neighborhood for hotel workers before it transformed into a middle- and working-class community.
In the 1980s, the downtown area was hit by a crack epidemic. Efforts to rebuild were underway a decade later, but the Great Recession stalled progress in the late 2000s.
And then Stephen Ross and The Related Companies blew into town.
Stephen Ross: The millionaire who helped West Palm Beach shine
Related, the real estate development group, developed the CityPlace Tower downtown in 2008. It featured 300,000 rentable square feet on 1.2 acres.
Stephen Ross, 83, and his firm, The Related Companies, developed CityPlace Tower in the city’s struggling downtown in 2008 before moving on to ambitious luxury condo projects
The tower sold for $126.5 million three years later.
All in all, the real estate group has been snapping up property in West Palm Beach for 25 years now, transforming lucrative seaside plots into skyscrapers and luxury condos.
And with the growth came new businesses. Yoga studios and art galleries sprung up. Beauty salons. Pizza shops and floating tiki bars…
read the rest in the Daily Mail here