Masterworks
The world’s largest collection of Rembrandts in private hands is on display at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach through March. The show, “Art and Life in Rembrandt’s Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” features 17 works from the master. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has only five more than that. The West Palm Beach exhibit occupies the Norton’s third floor with the Rembrandts and works from other artists. Collectors Thomas Kaplan and his wife, Daphne Recanati Kaplan, assembled the works on display at the show. Thomas Kaplan spent part of his childhood in Fort Lauderdale.
Related Ross
Economic interests in Palm Beach County hope 85-year-old New York transplant Stephen Ross has the longevity of Methuselah.
Ross, a philanthropist and owner of the Miami Dolphins and the F1 Miami race, became a player in West Palm Beach real estate in 2000 when his Related Cos. completed CityPlace, then a retail, dining and entertainment development. In the pandemic, the Palm Beach resident began buying and building properties in West Palm before folding his Florida real estate into his new company, Related Ross, in 2024. West Palm Beach’s largest commercial property owner, last year he created with eMerge Americas and the Florida Council of 100 the Gold Coast Tech Accelerator to increase growth of defense, dual-purpose and fintech companies. His recent coup: enticing AI company ServiceNow to open a regional headquarters that will grow to 850 jobs, paying $170,000 on average, by 2030.
Timber and Tech
Year-end will see Hines’ and Urban Street Development’s 5.5- acre, $500-million FAT Village leasing up its 630 units, opening some of its 75,000 square feet of retail and finishing Hines’ first-in-market 175,000-sq.-ft. timber office building in Flagler Village, a one-time warehouse and residential section of Fort Lauderdale. Urban Street co-founder and CEO Alan Hooper says the residential project is hitting at the right time: New towers completed a couple years ago have leased up while dozens of proposed projects are hanging fire. “I think the window is going to be a good one for leasing up,” Hooper says. The T3 office building — “timber, transit and technology” — is seeing interest from major users, Hooper said.
Among other new projects coming in Flagler Village, New York developer Dependable Equities should be underway this year on its Ombelle, a two-tower, 43-story residential “downtown resort” project scheduled to open in 2028.
“That little section of Flagler Village is really hot,” says real estate attorney Stephanie Toothaker, who represents developers there.
- LAW
Michael Denberg
Managing Partner
Saul Ewing, Fort Lauderdale
OUTLOOK: “Our Florida operation is heavily involved in real estate. I expect that 2026 and moving forward should be excellent years for South Florida. Of course, a couple of things need to come into place. There has to be a little bit more certainty around interest rates, a little more certainty around insurance and tariffs.
“When things are gray and not cut and dry, everybody needs a lawyer.
“There’s really nothing that would stop us. You may like L.A. This is L.A. without taxes. I would think the population would continue to grow. The only thing that would hold it back is some chaos up in Washington, and they’re pretty good at that.”
- COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE LENDING
Brett Forman
Managing Partner
Forman Capital, Delray Beach
OUTLOOK: “We’re very bullish. We think there is a lot of pressure on the banks to continue curtailing their real estate lending. We feel like we have the wind in our sails, if you will. Twenty years ago, there wasn’t nearly the strength in the economy of Florida there is now.”
TARIFF IMPACT: “The cost of construction is always a concern. It can be the cost of labor, even tariffs, the availability of commodities, steel, wood, cabinetry. There’s always geopolitical, economic, interest rates. As a lender I worry about everything.”
- RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE
Dan Grosswald
Southeast Florida Division President
Mattamy Homes, Boca Raton
OUTLOOK: “We’re very optimistic. The Treasure Coast draws a solid buyer interest. There are a lot of people relocating from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach because the value of home ownership is much better. There are some growing tailwinds in regard to interest rates that are changing in our favor, which we think could be a big pickup for the industry at the second half of the year.
“The larger supply and demand factors are favorable for home building. You know, we haven’t built enough homes over the years — I’m sure you’ve heard that many times. The population is still growing.”
- HOSPITALITY
Paul N. Leone
CEO
The Breakers, Palm Beach
OUTLOOK: “The Breakers will enter 2026 from a position of strength, with sustained momentum across leisure, group and social/event segments. Demand for luxury travel and highly personalized experiences remains strong, and we anticipate continued performance across key metrics — ADR (average daily rate), occupancy and bookings.”
TARIFF IMPACT: “Overall, tariffs have contributed to rising costs — particularly for internationally sourced goods — and have caused additional shipping and receiving delays as global supply chains adjust.”
HIRING: “We are absolutely in hiring mode — not due to turnover, but because of growth and our continued pursuit of excellence. With more than 2,400 team members, The Breakers is one of the largest private employers in Palm Beach County. This past fiscal year, we received over 20,000 job applications — a record-setting milestone.”
- CONSTRUCTION
Burk Hedrick
President, Hedrick Brothers Development
West Palm Beach
OUTLOOK: Construction was up 10% in 2025. “We’ve been blessed to grow when other groups doing similar kinds of product have contracted 50%, so we’re doing really well and blessed.”
TARIFF IMPACT: Hedrick has noticed designers and developers specifying more domestic product in their plans and moving away from imports. “I know a few cabinet factories that are now — that weren’t three years ago — producing cabinets here domestically, locally in Central Florida and in Georgia. And so we’re buying a lot of that product.”
CHALLENGES: Overall, Trump tariffs and policies haven’t had much of an impact, he says. It’s interest rates that stalled construction starts industrywide. Material and labor costs are up but subcontractor profit margins have compressed for an overall decrease in prices.
Business Briefs
BROWARD COUNTY
- In Coral Springs, aviation company CTS Engines opened a new global headquarters and maintenance, repair and overhaul hub for legacy engines, doubling CTS’ space and adding 41 high-skill jobs to 125 created in 2024.
- Tropic Air Rescue, a Fort Lauderdale-based helicopter air medical service, launched air ambulance service in Florida and The Bahamas. The company says in its first year it had 35 rescues, including nighttime trauma lifts from private islands, yachts and cruise ships.
- Miami developer Moder-no Development Group won city approval for its 26-story, 265-unit Arthaus tower one block south of the New River on Southwest Second Avenue in Fort Lauderdale. It will include 43 units set aside for workforce housing under the state’s Live Local Act.
- Serial entrepreneur Rony Abovitz secured $20 million in seed funding from Menlo Park, Calif.-based Crosspoint Capital Partners for his SynthBee, a computing intelligence platform. Abovitz previously built robotic company Mako Surgical and augmented reality company Magic Leap.
- • ST. LUCIE COUNTY
- Pete Tesch, longtime president of St. Lucie’s Economic Development Council, moved into a senior advisor role as Wes McCurry, senior vice president, became president Jan. 1.
- Costco is scheduled by late summer to complete its $149-million, 1.7-million-sq.- ft. regional distribution center in Port St. Lucie, employing at least 370.
- Treasure Coast International Airport got its FAA certification to allow commercial airline service. Upgrades, including a 30,000-sq.-ft. hangar and terminal renovations, will be completed this year.
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY
- The Vero Beach Museum of Art broke ground on its 90,000-sq.-ft. “Museum in the Garden” expansion.
- American Airlines will begin daily flights to Charlotte, N.C., from Vero Beach Regional Airport in February, becoming the third airline along with Breeze and JetBlue to fly from Vero.
MARTIN COUNTY
- French-owned aviation manufacturer Daher this year will continue work on its aircraft final assembly factory within Stuart’s Witham Field. The factory, when finished in 2027, will turn out TBM and Kodiak turboprops. Daher currently makes the six-seat TBM — “world’s fastest single-engine turboprop” — in France for the general aviation market. The Kodiak’s niche is in the bush-pilot, law enforcement and U.S. Forest Service market.
- Juno Beach businessman Nelson Ferreira has proposed building a 2-million-sq.-ft. data center in Indiantown.
OKEECHOBEE COUNTY
- Promoter Soundslinger brings back the Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival to its Sunshine Grove venue on March 19-22 after a two-year hiatus. Four-day general admission runs $470. Tickets top out at $27,205 for an all-in RV stay with a stocked mini-fridge, a backstage tour and VIP passes for four days for five people.
PALM BEACH COUNTY
- Delray Beach-based frozen fruit company Heinlein Foods USA, maker of the Karinat brand and an affiliate of an Argentine company, laid off 72.
- Seeing demand and operating at capacity, Pennsylvania-based PAM Health plans to expand the 42-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital it opened in Jupiter in 2023, adding 21 beds and outpatient services.
- Oregon-based vehicle retailer Lithia & Driveway paid $51.4 million for Palm Beach Acura, West Palm Beach Hyundai and West Palm Beach Genesis.