Related: BRiC evolving into a new focal point for city
By Mary Hladky
Now that Related Ross has acquired the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, the iconic former IBM campus is likely to undergo yet another transformation.
But Jordan Bargas, executive vice president at Related Ross, isn’t tipping his hand at present on what company officials have in mind for the 124-acre birthplace of the personal computer.
Bargas, though, is mindful of IBM’s rich history on the site which he said still “caters well to technology companies.” And Related Ross chairman and CEO Stephen Ross said in a statement that technology “will play an important role in what comes next.”
In an example of BRiC’s appeal to technology companies, the California-based quantum computing company D-Wave Quantum has announced it will move its headquarters and research and development facility to the campus by the end of this year.
For now, Related Ross officials know they want to add retail and restaurants that current BRiC tenants have told them they would like to see to “really elevate their office life.” And they want to continue former owner CP Group’s initiative to welcome the public to the property.
“We want to do more community events that bring people onto the campus,” Bargas said.
Before making firm decisions, company officials want to know the preferences of Boca Raton residents, business owners and current BRiC tenants.
“Our plan is to spend some time getting feedback from the community … to hear what people really want to see,” Bargas said. “This takes time and we want to make sure we get this right.”
But there’s no doubt that the 1.7 million-square-foot building designed by Marcel Breuer — a Hungarian-born architect who also designed the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan — will remain.
“It’s a beautiful building,” Bargas said. “There’s certainly opportunities to breathe new life into it, and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
Key developer bows out
For CP Group managing partner Angelo Bianco, the sale is “bittersweet.”
He wasn’t looking for a buyer when Related Ross approached. “That was the last thing on my mind,” he said.
CP Group, which acquired BRiC in 2018 for $179 million, completed a $100 million renovation one year ago that preserved the Marcel Breuer exterior but changed everything about the interior.
Now it has a conference center, banquet hall, fitness center that the public can join, a primary care facility that provides urgent care, cafés, an automated grab-and-go food station and outdoor spaces for socializing or eating. Weddings have been held there.
Art is a prominent feature adorning the main walls that is selected in collaborations with the Boca Raton Museum of Art, local universities and schools. Studios are available for artists. QR codes enable visitors to take self-guided tours.
More was in the works. CP Group planned a $1 billion “live, work, play” development and the Boca Raton City Council approved zoning code changes in 2023 to accommodate that. The plan was to add 1,240 residential units, retail and restaurants, a hotel, medical offices, a grocery and more to enhance BRiC’s appeal to companies and their employees.
Whether Related Ross sticks with those plans or revises them to suit its own goals remains to be seen.
The transaction was very complicated, Bianco said, but eventually the two sides reached a deal that he said gave investors “a very good return on their money.”
Even so, “I have been saddened that I cannot see through what I wanted to and someone else will have their own ideas,” he said.
But Bianco isn’t at a loss for what comes next. He now is in negotiations with Brookfield Properties to acquire another iconic Boca Raton property — Mizner Park.
Related Ross interest grows
Related Ross — founded by Ross, who owns the Miami Dolphins — became a major force in West Palm Beach development before moving into other parts of Palm Beach County.
The company made its foray into Boca Raton in early 2025 when it was one of four that submitted proposals to redevelop the city’s downtown campus.
It lost out to a joint venture of Terra and Frisbie Group after City Council members made clear they disliked the density of the Related Ross plan to build 975,000 square feet of office space in three buildings. (Boca Raton voters defeated the redevelopment plan in March.)
But Related Ross, which had been eyeing Boca Raton for some time, still wanted to build in the city.
Studying the city, its officials saw that BRiC was centrally located, near an airport and Tri-Rail station, flanked by good roads, and in a city with two universities, good schools and an abundance of parks, Bargas said. Stephen Ross, he said, “loved the site too.”
“You also have this incredible historic building that exists that has so much storytelling that ... would be a great opportunity to invest in,” Bargas said. Added to that, his company had clients who wanted to locate in Boca Raton.
Related Ross has since made its second move in the city. Less than two months after the company announced it had acquired BRiC on Sept. 11 for an undisclosed price, it bought North 40, a two-building, 350,000-square-foot office complex near the intersection of Congress Avenue and Yamato Road for $64 million. The site is immediately north of BRiC.
“North 40’s location next to BRiC makes it a natural complement to the campus and an important part of our long-term commitment to Boca Raton,” Bargas told the South Florida Business Journal.
Former IBMers like changes
The BRiC story begins in 1966 when IBM purchased 550 acres for a manufacturing plant to produce its System/360 Model 20 midsized computer.
The original site eventually grew to 3.6 million square feet in more than 40 buildings, according to the Boca Raton Historical Society. The company employed up to 12,000 people there.
By the late 1980s, IBM began to transfer operations elsewhere and finally sold its Boca Raton property in 1996.
But in that fairly short span of time, it made history and Boca Raton still bears the imprint of its success.
Former IBM engineer Dave Bradley came in 1975 to work on advanced technology for a system that would become the Series /1 minicomputer.
In 1980, he was one of a group of engineers given the task of creating a personal computer. They had one year to get the job done. As the world knows, they succeeded.
IBM lore has it that a group of 12 engineers worked on the personal computer. That, he believes, is a myth.
“I am one of 50 or 60 people who claim to be one of the original 12,” he quipped. But if it was in fact 12, he says he was ”the 12th of the 12.”
The PC was only one of IBM’s many significant endeavors, but “the PC was the most famous,” Bradley said.
And his role in it gave him a moment of fame. He adds, “My fame has not spread far and wide.”
He developed the control-alt-delete key combination that a user can press to terminate an application or reboot the operating system.
“I had no idea I was creating a cultural icon at the time,” he said.
In fact, it was a simple task. He had a list of things he had to work on and was moving down the list. “It was a five-minute job creating control-alt-delete,” he said.
“I hoped it would be successful,” he said of the PC. “It was a fun thing to work on. I was glad I had the opportunity.”
The PC, developed in great secrecy with the code name “Acorn,” was wildly successful. Other companies also were in the race, but IBM pulled ahead because its personal computer could be upgraded, had easy set-up and was compatible with non-IBM software.
A greatly enlarged replica of that keyboard is embedded on an outside patio floor at BRiC.
Asked about the changes CP Group has made to the IBM building interior, Bradley said, “It is fine. Times change.
“You wouldn’t expect a building built in the time of Don Draper and ‘Mad Men’ to retain its interior in the new millennium. I thought it was a reasonable thing to do.”
Pete Martinez also was among the engineers who worked on the personal computer before becoming a high-ranking IBM executive.
He was “thrilled” when CP Group bought the former IBM campus after a series of previous owners had done little to improve the property.
“They understood the legacy of innovation in the campus” and showed that in part by incorporating the word “innovation” in the campus’ name, he said.
The high-security IBM building was a sterile environment. When CP Group opened up the building, “we welcomed it,” Martinez said of former IBMers. “It was a beautiful transformation.”
Related Ross officials have met with him. “I am encouraged by their enthusiasm, vision, their continuation of the innovation path,” he said. Martinez anticipates they will be sensitive to the IBM history when they construct new buildings.
One addition by CP Group that has resonance for Martinez is the addition of the 30-foot-tall “Rocket” sculpture by artist Hubert Phipps that visitors see as soon as they arrive on the campus. The Boca Raton Museum of Art facilitated its location at BRiC.
That’s because IBM was involved in the Apollo space program to put a man on the moon.
Former IBM employees “saw things in (the sculpture) that most didn’t,” he said.
Martinez is among the many former IBMers who launched their own companies after IBM left Boca Raton.
He now is chairman and CEO of SIVOTEC, created to help physicians diagnose genetic diseases more accurately, quickly and at lower cost. It now focuses on rare genetic diseases in children.
SIVOTEC’s offices are located at BRiC.
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