Related Ross Pitches Palm Beach County a 99-Year Hotel Leaseback

Steve Ross’s Related Ross has proposed selling its second West Palm Beach convention-center hotel site to Palm Beach County for $26 million and leasing it back for up to 99 years, a structure that would hand the county a guaranteed $1 billion in rent while pulling the 1.8-acre parcel off the tax rolls, according to Stet News and The Real Deal.

Why it matters

For developers watching how public land gets monetized in downtown West Palm Beach, this is a template worth studying. Related Ross would sell the site at 900 South Rosemary Avenue, currently a 255-space surface lot, to the county for $26 million subject to appraisal, then lease it back for an initial 33 years with an option to extend to 99, Stet News reported. Related would still fund and build the 400-room Curio by Hilton tower itself, an 18-story, 204-foot project with a two-story meeting and event space and a 7,300-square-foot restaurant at the site, per CBS12. The county gets a long-dated, escalating rent stream instead of a one-time land sale, and Related gets to keep control of a site across from the convention center without carrying it on its own balance sheet as owned real estate.

The numbers

Stet News reported the rent structure calls for a $4 million payment before construction, $300,000 annually starting at groundbreaking, and $1.8 million a year after the hotel opens with 3% yearly increases, a schedule the outlet said totals at least $1 billion over 99 years and could reach $4 billion to $7 billion if hotel revenue grows 4% to 5% annually. Removing the parcel from the tax rolls as a public-private partnership would cost roughly $1.6 million a year in foregone property tax, Stet News reported, up from about $38,631 the surface lot currently generates, per CBS12. Related first floated the hotel in October 2025 at an estimated $290 million; Stet News later put construction at roughly $310 million. Related vice chairman Eric Silagy told Stet News, “This hotel unlocks a huge amount of value that’s potentially there.”

What’s next

South Florida developers should watch the approval sequence: West Palm Beach’s Planning Board cleared the project 4-0 on June 16, the city commission took it up in early August, and Palm Beach County commissioners, who The Real Deal reported voted in February to authorize staff to negotiate the deal, still have to approve the sale-leaseback and an amendment to the first hotel’s development agreement before Related can close on the site.