Related Ross, led by billionaire developer and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, is one step closer to making flying taxis a reality in South Florida.
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West Palm Beach commissioners unanimously approved amending the CityPlace development's rules to permit an electric air taxi landing pad — a vertistop — on top of Related Ross' Hibiscus parking garage during a city commission meeting on Monday afternoon.
"This is the first step in the process and the vote reflects a shared commitment to forward looking infrastructure and innovative mobility technology," Related Ross Executive Vice President Jordan Rathlev said in a statement shared with Bisnow.
"These types of initiatives are central to the infrastructure solutions that are critical to a growing region and provide additional options within the broader mobility network," he said.
The approval comes after the Sunshine State was selected to be a part of the Federal Aviation Administration's new pilot program for electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, or eVTOLs, earlier this year and amid Ross' broader efforts to expand vertiports across his projects, stretching all the way to Boca Raton.
Shutts & Bowen's Roger Ramdeen represented Related Ross in the application and stated that the review of noise and flight plans would be conducted by the FAA.
At that point, the West Palm Beach City Commission, made up of Mayor Keith James and commissioners Cathleen Ward, Christy Fox, Joseph Peduzzi, Stephen Sylvester and Shalonda Warren, would be able to review the plans again.
"If we decide to move forward with the actual use of this, it will be because it comes back to us and we have determined that all of the things that we've heard make sense for our community, and we'll have further discussion at that point," Fox said at the meeting.
While some residents at the meeting voiced their support, others donned light-blue shirts with "Save West Palm Beach" in capital letters. Those against the vertistop's approval voiced concerns over noise, flight paths and how eVTOLs interact with existing air vehicles and emergency procedures, and questioned why it needed to be downtown rather than at the airport.
The vertistop, which landed recommended approval from the city's planning board in September, is planned for one of multiple locations Ross aims to incorporate into company projects and personal holdings after launching a partnership with San Jose-based Archer Aviation in December to build out infrastructure for its eVTOLs.
Ross is planning additional locations at the Miami Dolphins' Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens and the Apogee Golf Club in Hobe Sound. Archer also tapped Dragon Global to develop a vertiport site at its planned Magic City Innovation District in Little Haiti.
Rathlev said during a panel on eVTOLs at the Urban Land Institute's fall meeting in October that operators are looking all over the state, including Boca Raton, a market Ross entered this year after purchasing the 1.7M SF Boca Raton Innovation Campus in September and a two-building office complex nearby in October.
A Related Ross spokesperson said the company does not have current plans for Boca Raton.
While the company is not looking to invest its own dollars in the infrastructure, Rathlev said onstage in Miami Beach that eVTOLs are an amenity that adds to the allure of West Palm Beach, which Ross has pledged $10B to build and invest in, including multiple office towers, condo and apartment buildings, and retail space.
"This needs to be a business case that we can offer as something that adds value incrementally to our residents who are buying our condominiums or renting in our office buildings, or want to buy sponsorship dollars for the Dolphins," Rathlev said in October.
A lot of the process in incorporating air taxis over the next 10 years is gaining approvals, educating municipalities on the technology and integrating it within mobility systems, Rathlev said.
"At the end of the day, in our conversation with all the operators, this is going to be the Uber of the sky or the Lyft to the sky, and that's what we're excited about," he said.
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