Silicon Valley in West Palm Beach? What Stephen Ross plans for the city

• Real estate mogul Stephen Ross envisions Palm Beach County becoming a new Silicon Valley.
• Ross believes Florida's business-friendly environment will attract companies leaving California.

Real estate mogul Stephen Ross sees Palm Beach County becoming akin to Silicon Valley, filled with technology and engineering professionals, including those fleeing California's high taxes, he told a small group in Palm Beach on Jan. 14.

During an event hosted by Bloomberg at the Brazilian Court hotel, Ross gushed about West Palm Beach's rising status as a "model city," even as he mostly stayed mum about his Miami Dolphins football team, which just wrapped up a losing season.

The exceptions: Ross said he had been offered $15 billion for the team, which he turned down; and he has one major requirement for a new head coach: "I’m interested in a winning coach,” Ross told a reporter after his on-stage talk.

Here are four things Ross said to the Palm Beach group about his plans for Palm Beach County:

Will identity shift from Palm Beach to Silicon Beach?

Ross said he envisions the county becoming the new version of Silicon Valley. "I believe it will happen, and it will be here in Palm Beach County," he said.

Key to creating this reality is an environment where engineers and business entrepreneurs want to live and start the next generation of companies.

Once these start-up companies gain ground, they in turn will attract venture capital firms willing to invest in them and help grow them, he said.

California's loss will be Florida's gain

Ross said California's high cost of living, combined with its regulatory environment, already have driven companies away from the state.

Now there's a new reason for tech leaders to leave: a proposed tax on billionaires.

"That's frightened every person that's there," he said.

Florida, on the other hand, has many advantages, including a business-friendly environment and no state income tax.

But to make West Palm Beach even more appealing to companies, Ross said he knows the city needs advancement in education and healthcare.

Vanderbilt U. campus to boost tech, defense industries

"You've never seen a place growth without a great university," said Ross, citing Stanford University's presence in San Francisco as a catalyst for that community.

That's why Ross said he helped swing a deal to attract Nashville-based Vanderbilt University to build a graduate business school in downtown West Palm Beach.

On Jan. 12, Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier announced the private school had raised the $300 million needed to build the school downtown. Ross contributed $50 million for the campus.

The Nashville-based private university, set to open the campus in the fall of 2029, will feature degrees in business management, finance and engineering.

The university's presence also will complement the coming arrival of a major office of ServiceNow, a Silicon Valley-based AI software firm planning to employ up to 850 in West Palm Beach.

Ross also highlighted expected growth in work related to the defense industry, noting that numerous defense contractors already do business in Palm Beach County.

He also pointed out that Vanderbilt already has unique programs in the defense field. These include cybersecurity and defense technology research.

Top hospital needed for the city, Ross said

As part of building a model city, Ross said West Palm Beach also needs "a great hospital, or at least a very good hospital. We don't have that."

That's why he said he helped pave the way for Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic to open a hospital in downtown West Palm Beach.

"We found the site and kicked off the campaign," he said.

Ross said the non-profit Cleveland Clinic plans to build a new, 200-bed hospital, plus a cancer center.

"It will be a first-class hospital, much like in London or Abu Dhabi," he said.

Ross personally gave $50 million for the hospital.

Downtown West Palm Beach has one other hospital now: Good Samaritan Medical Center, owned by for-profit Tenet Healthcare of Texas.

Alexandra Clough covers business and real estate for The Palm Beach Post. She can be reached at [email protected].