Related Ross Maps Air-Taxi Stop at CityPlace, West Palm Beach

Related Ross is planning a vertistop for electric air taxis at the Hibiscus garage inside its CityPlace complex in downtown West Palm Beach, after the city approved a zoning change this week clearing the garage for the use.

Why it matters

The stop would plug CityPlace into a wider air-taxi network Steve Ross’ Related Ross is assembling with Archer Aviation, which last year announced plans to link Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach by eVTOL. Related Ross is also lining up vertiports at Hard Rock Stadium and Dragon Global’s Magic City Innovation District in Little Haiti. For a developer, a vertistop is a new amenity to market alongside office and retail space, and an early bet on which West Palm Beach property gets first access to a mobility network still years from FAA approval. “We want to be part of and add as many components to the mobility network as possible,” said Jordan Rathlev, an executive vice president at Related Ross. “And vertiports and eVTOLs are one of those.”

The numbers

The eVTOL aircraft eyed for the stop carry four passengers and a pilot on short trips, pitched by backers as a faster alternative to driving across South Florida traffic. The vehicles are not yet approved for commercial use anywhere in the country, though test flights have flown this year in California and New York. Related Ross told the city’s planning board that CityPlace’s stops would eventually support multiple eVTOL operators, and the garage would not be used for combustion-engine helicopters.

What’s next

The zoning change only clears the garage for the use. Related Ross still has to bring the city a formal site plan and win FAA approval before any aircraft lands there, a process with no set timeline. Planning board member Sam Fisch called the concept “a flying car in our lifetime,” while some residents at the hearing argued eVTOL flights would do nothing to ease ground traffic.