Media Coverage Reveals Palm Beach County Approval of $26 Million Related Ross Deal Despite Formal Residents Objection

The Real Deal, South Florida Business Journal, CBS 12, Palm Beach Post, WPTV, and ABC 25 reported that the County Commissioners voted 6-1, approving the $26 million Related Ross hotel transaction that slipped onto the meeting agenda just days prior.

The West Palm Beach Neighborhoods Alliance formally objected to Palm Beach County’s decision to push the hotel transaction to the top of its September 29, 2026 board meeting agenda as an “add-on” – a mechanism reserved for “unforeseen or emergency situation[s]” significantly relevant to the “health, safety, or general welfare of the residents of Palm Beach County.”

Residents of Grandview Heights submitted a formal objection letter to County Attorney David R.F. Ottey and County Administrator Joe Abruzzo, highlighting how a transaction of this scope and duration is, by definition, not an emergency and therefore, not properly rushed past voters.

The item occupied the opening six pages of the County’s additions packet, asking County Commissioners to rubber-stamp a constellation of financial commitments surrounding a proposed 18-story, 400-room Hilton Curio hotel at 940 South Rosemary Avenue.

The package asks Commissioners to approve a $26 million County acquisition, a lease that could run 97 years, parking and room-block agreements, tax-related changes, amendments to existing hotel arrangements, a $26 million transfer from General Fund reserves, bond measures, and repeated delegations of authority to the County Administrator or designee.

The deal sits directly across the street from Grandview Heights’ century-old bungalows, the latest in a string of Related Ross approvals in the immediate area, all cleared by unanimous votes at every city review stage.

The paper trail for this deal goes back months. Related Ross first approached County Administrator Joe Abruzzo directly about the hotel in January, and in February, County Commissioners directed staff to continue negotiations. By June, the Planning Board endorsed the project, and by August, the West Palm Beach City Commission unanimously approved it on first reading and was preparing for final city approval. At that point, the County transaction was the next major hurdle. And then, on September 18, the County’s Property Review Committee evaluated the acquisition and recommended approval without comment.

Five days later, months of negotiation arrived on the agenda as a last-minute “add-on.”

“These may look like line items on a page, but they decide what happens to a neighborhood people have spent a century building,” said Margaret Frazzini, president of the Grandview Heights Neighborhood Association. “An 18-story hotel across the street from our historic bungalows isn’t an abstract zoning debate. It brings traffic, parking pressure, construction impacts and a building scale that no historic district was designed to absorb. Related Ross has now won approval after approval next to Grandview, each one unanimous, and each one making the next easier. Residents aren’t asking the County to stop downtown from growing. We’re asking it to stop treating historic neighborhoods as the space left over once the deal is done.”

“Pages of agreements do not materialize overnight,” said William A. Brewer III, partner at Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors and counsel to the West Palm Beach Neighborhood Alliance, a coalition of residents from the Grandview Heights Neighborhood Association, the Convention Center Townhomes and neighborhoods across West Palm Beach. “The County has spent months negotiating this transaction. The objection is simple: a deal negotiated since January does not become an emergency in September just because residents are finally paying attention.”

The Real Deal: Read more here.

South Florida Business Journal: Read more here.

CBS 12: Read more here.

Palm Beach Post: Read more here.

WPTV: Read more here.

ABC 25: Read more here.