Stephen M. Ross

Stephen Michael Ross (born May 10, 1940) is an American real estate developer, philanthropist, and sports team owner.

He attended the University of Florida for two years before transferring to the University of Michigan, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1962.

He later received a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University in 1965 and a Master of Laws in Taxation from the New York University School of Law in 1966.

These later degrees were financed by a loan from his uncle, the businessman Max Fisher, who Ross has called "the most important role model and inspiration for me in life."

Ross began his career as a tax attorney at Coopers & Lybrand in Detroit.

In 1968, he moved to New York City and accepted a position as an assistant vice president in the real estate subsidiary of Laird Inc., then worked in the corporate finance department of Bear Stearns.

Ross is the chairman and founder of The Related Companies, a global real estate development firm he founded in 1972.

Related is best known for developing the Deutsche Bank Center, as well as the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project.

In 1972, he was fired from that company after clashing with a superior; living off $10,000 ($67,000 in 2021 dollars) lent to him by his mother, he utilized his federal tax law knowledge to organize deals for wealthy investors, allowing them to shelter income with the generous incentives granted by the federal government to promote the construction of federally subsidized affordable housing.

Ross was very successful, earning $150,000 in his first year, and he was soon arranging more complicated transactions.

In 1972, Ross founded The Related Companies, a real estate development company.

Related originally began as the Related Housing Companies, which built thousands of subsidized low and moderate income apartments nationwide.

By the 1980s, Ross turned towards higher-profile projects.

He hired architect Robert A.M. Stern in the 1990s to design The Chatham on the corner of 65th Street and Third Avenue.

Related soon began developing “some of the thorniest projects in the city,” such as Willets Point, an industrial field near Citi Field, and the New York Coliseum.

Headquartered in New York City, Related now has offices and real estate developments in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, D.C., South Florida, Abu Dhabi, and London.

The company directly employs approximately 4,000 people.

The company's existing portfolio of real estate assets, valued at over $60 billion, is made up of mixed-use, residential, retail, office, trade show and affordable properties in what the company calls "premier high-barrier-to-entry markets."

Related is the largest owner of luxury residential rental properties with over 40,000 units in its portfolio and has developed mixed-use projects such as Deutsche Bank Center in New York, CityPlace in West Palm Beach, The Grand in Los Angeles (designed by Frank Gehry) and the 28-acre Hudson Yards project on Manhattan's west side.

Hudson Yards is the largest and most expensive real-estate project in America — at almost a billion dollars an acre.

Ross constructed an atrium inside Hudson Yards specifically to entice Coach into moving into the development.

Related is also a major investor in Equinox Fitness Clubs, SoulCycle and fast casual restaurant chains.

The University of Michigan renamed its business school to the Ross School of Business in Ross's honor, in 2004, after he made a $100 million gift to fund a new business-school building.

The Stephen M. Ross Academic Center was completed in winter 2006.

In February 2008, Ross bought 50% of the Miami Dolphins franchise, Dolphin Stadium (now known as Hard Rock Stadium), and surrounding land from then-owner Wayne Huizenga for $550 million, with an agreement to later become the Dolphins' managing general partner.

On January 20, 2009, Ross closed on the purchase of an additional 45% of the team from Huizenga.

The total value of the deal was $1.1 billion.

This means Ross is now the owner of 95% of both the franchise and the stadium.

Ross announced his intention to keep Bill Parcells as the director of football operations.

Since buying the Dolphins, Ross has brought in Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony, Venus Williams, Tony Chesta and Serena Williams as minority owners of the team.

In September 2013, Ross donated $200 million to the university ($100 million to the business school and $100 million to Michigan athletics), the largest single gift in the history of the university; the University of Michigan announced plans to rename the university's athletics campus in his honor.

In 2013, Roger Goodell made a pitch to the Florida legislature on Ross’ behalf in order to obtain multimillion-dollar public funding from the state to help renovate Hard Rock Stadium, the Dolphins' home field.

Ross has a net worth of $10.1 billion in 2020, ranking him 185 on Forbes Billionaires List in 2020.

He is still featured on the list as of 2023.

Ross is also the principal owner of the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium.

Ross is a major benefactor of his alma mater, the University of Michigan; with lifetime contributions of $478 million to the university, he is the largest donor in the university's history.

According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, his higher education gifts rank behind only those of fellow American billionaire New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In 2020, Ross announced an additional $100 million donation to kickstart fundraising for the construction of the University of Michigan Detroit Center for Innovation.

Born and raised in Detroit, Stephen Michael Ross grew up in a Jewish family.

He first attended Mumford High School in Detroit and later graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School.