Jorge, Jon Paul and Nicholas Pérez

Related Group has long been touted as the largest condo developer in Miami, if not all of South Florida. Even as developers from across the country converged on the Magic City over the past three years since the start of the pandemic, Related still remained dominant. It has 33,600 units under construction or in the immediate pipeline, including 9,000 condo units, said to be worth about $15 billion.

The company’s highlights from 2022 included buying the last remaining parcel on Fisher Island, one of the country’s most expensive ZIP codes, to build a luxury condo, joining the $1 billion Bahia Mar project in Fort Lauderdale.

Stephen Ross, who helped found Related Group alongside Jorge Pérez in 1979, split the Miami-based company last year. The divestment could signal a greater expansion into Palm Beach County, where Ross’s Related Companies is a dominant player. Related Group has joined Transit Village, a $500 million mixed-use development near West Palm Beach’s Tri-Rail train station stop.

But the past year included misses and close calls, too. 

Related’s crown jewel project, the Baccarat-branded condo tower on a prime waterfront parcel in Brickell, garnered fierce backlash from Native American tribes and some locals following the discovery of human remains and artifacts that date back thousands of years. It’s still unclear whether Related will be able to build another tower on a portion of the site. 

The Miami-based developer also walked away from paying $500 million to buy out an oceanfront condo building in Miami Beach after it faced resistance from some unit owners and potential lenders. The firm is downsizing its uber-luxury St. Regis condo development in Brickell, which it had anticipated would sell out at $2 billion, from two towers to one.

These moves could prove to be smart in the long term, but for now they’re signs of a retrenchment for South Florida’s largest condo developer.