STEPHEN ROSS

Born in 1940 in Detroit, Michigan. Grew up in a middle-class Jewish family.

His mother was a schoolteacher. Got his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan — later donated $378 million to the school, the largest gift in its history.

Got a law degree from Wayne State and a master's in taxation from NYU. Worked as a tax attorney at Bear Stearns in the 1960s.

Founded Related Companies in 1972 with $10,000. Started by building affordable housing using government tax credits — a niche nobody else wanted.

Pivoted to luxury development in the 1990s as he scaled up. Built the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle in 2004 — a $1.7 billion mixed-use complex that proved he could do mega-projects.

Then the big one: Hudson Yards. Related Companies won the rights to develop the 28-acre site on Manhattan's far West Side in 2008.

Built an entirely new neighborhood over active rail yards — requiring a massive platform to be constructed over the trains. The $25 billion project includes 18 million square feet of commercial and residential space, a shopping mall, a hotel, a performing arts center, and the Vessel sculpture.

Bought the Miami Dolphins in 2009 for $1.1 billion. Also has stakes in Equinox, SoulCycle, and other lifestyle brands.

Related Companies — founder and chairman. One of the most prominent real estate firms in the US, with $60 billion in assets owned or under development.

Hudson Yards — the 28-acre, $25 billion mega-development on Manhattan's West Side. Time Warner Center — the twin-tower complex at Columbus Circle.

The Miami Dolphins — NFL team owner since 2009. Hard Rock Stadium — completely renovated.

Equinox — luxury fitness brand (Related is a major investor). SoulCycle — boutique cycling brand (Related was an early investor).

Related also develops affordable housing nationwide through its Related Affordable division.

Stephen Ross thinks bigger than almost anyone in real estate. His investing style is defined by mega-projects that other developers would not touch.

Hudson Yards required building a platform over active rail yards — an engineering challenge most developers would walk away from. He is comfortable with 10-year timelines and multi-billion-dollar budgets.

He diversifies within real estate — luxury residential, commercial office, retail, affordable housing, hospitality — but real estate is his entire world. He supplements with lifestyle investments (Equinox, SoulCycle) that align with his luxury demographic.

He finances through institutional partnerships, keeping Related's equity efficient while maintaining control.

Hudson Yards. There is no other answer.

Stephen Ross built an entirely new neighborhood on Manhattan's West Side — 28 acres, $25 billion, 18 million square feet — on top of an active rail yard. He had to construct a massive platform over running trains before a single building could go up.

The project includes 16 skyscrapers, a luxury shopping center, a hotel, thousands of apartments, millions of square feet of office space, and the Vessel — a 150-foot honeycomb sculpture. Hudson Yards created a new ZIP code.

It transformed the far West Side from an industrial wasteland into one of the most expensive addresses in New York. Nothing else in American real estate development comes close in scale.

The political backlash around Hudson Yards' tax incentives. Related Companies received approximately $6 billion in tax breaks and subsidies for Hudson Yards, which critics called a giveaway to a billionaire developer in an already-wealthy city.

The optics became a political liability — progressives used Hudson Yards as an example of everything wrong with developer-friendly tax policy. The Vessel also became a PR problem when it had to be closed due to multiple suicides.

None of these sunk the project financially, but they dented the narrative that Hudson Yards was a public benefit. Ross likely underestimated how much political scrutiny a $25 billion project would attract.

Think bigger than everyone else, build what nobody else will attempt, and surround yourself with institutional capital to share the risk. Ross believes that great real estate development is about creating places, not buildings.

He has said that anyone can build a tower — the hard part is building a community. He also believes in affordable housing as a business, not just a social mission — he started there and maintains a major affordable housing division.

His philosophy combines vision with practical deal-making: dream enormous, then structure the financing so you survive if it takes twice as long as planned.

Married to Kara Ross, a jewelry designer. Has children from previous marriages.

The family is prominent in New York and Palm Beach social circles. His relationship with the University of Michigan is essentially familial — he is the school's largest donor ever and its business school bears his name.

Born and raised in Detroit in a middle-class family.

Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan. Law degree from Wayne State University.

Master's in taxation from New York University School of Law. His tax expertise became the foundation of his career — he started by structuring affordable housing deals using tax credits, which taught him how to build complex financial structures around real estate projects.