Stephen Ross and Related: A $10,000 Loan, Columbus Circle and Quantum Shore

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Stephen M. Ross started in 1972 with a $10,000 loan from his mother, founding Related Housing Companies to build subsidized low and moderate income apartments. Working with federal tax credits, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, state finance agencies and local zoning boards taught him how to combine public policy and private capital. In 1998 Related announced the $1.7 billion Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, later renamed the Deutsche Bank Center, which combined luxury residences, a Mandarin Oriental hotel opened in December 2003 and the Shops at Columbus Circle in 2004. Within four years of opening, retail rents in the surrounding area rose 400%.

Ross became chairman in September 2012 and handed the CEO title to Jeff Blau as Related took on Hudson Yards, a 28-acre site over an active rail yard covering parts of Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen that opened its first phase in 2019 as the largest private real estate development in U.S. history. Related also built the $1.3 billion Grand LA designed by Frank Gehry and remains the largest private owner of affordable housing in the country. It broke ground on Willets Point, New York City's largest affordable housing project in 40 years, in December 2023. In July 2024, at 84, Ross moved to non-executive chairman, leaving Jeff Blau, Bruce Beal Jr. and Kenneth Wong in charge.

• At Hudson Yards, caissons were sunk into bedrock between active tracks to carry platforms for towers, public squares and The Shed.
• In 2014 the Department of Justice sued Related and other New York developers over alleged failures to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Related Argent is developing Brent Cross Town, a 180-acre neighborhood in North London, and a merger with Boston's Beal Companies created Related Beal.
• Related Digital broke ground on a $1.2 billion data center campus in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in October 2025.
• Related Midwest's 128-acre Quantum Shore Chicago site is set to host the country's first utility-scale quantum computer.