Sterling Bay Tapped To Develop Tech HQ On Fort Lauderdale Superfund Site
A South Florida-based tech company is partnering on a Fort Lauderdale campus with the developer originally selected by Ken Griffin to develop Citadel's Miami HQ.
Infinite Reality tapped Chicago developer Sterling Bay to codevelop a 60-acre campus in Fort Lauderdale on a long-abandoned incinerator site that would serve as the tech firm's headquarters.
“This isn’t just a headquarters — it’s the heart of Infinite Reality’s future,” co-founder and CEO John Acunto said in a statement. “As a proud South Florida resident, this project is deeply personal to me.”
The company raised $3B this year from an affiliate of Sterling Equities, the investment firm run by the Wilpon and Katz families that used to own the New York Mets baseball franchise. It initially won the rights to develop the site, which is owned by the city of Fort Lauderdale, last year, when it was largely billed as a film studio campus.
But with Sterling Bay in the fold, the vision has been tweaked to be centered around a headquarters for the software company while still including plans for production facilities, retail and entertainment venues.
Sterling Bay, led by Andy Gloor, is working with Infinite Reality on infrastructure planning and design strategy. The partners expect to begin construction by early 2026, according to a release.
Sterling Bay did not respond to Bisnow’s request for comment. An Infinite Reality spokesperson declined to provide more specifics.
Plans call for more than 100K SF of Class-A office space at 1400 NW 31st Ave. Infinite Reality expects the project will create more than 1,000 jobs at an average six-figure salary.
The site, home to the Wingate Road incinerator from the 1950s to the '70s, was designated a Superfund site in 1989 due to environmental contamination. It has since been cleared for redevelopment.
Infinite Reality's initial proposal was in partnership with Fort Lauderdale Studio Initiative, led by developer Michael Ullian, and was set to include a full-service movie, television and streaming production studio as well as a film school, the Miami Herald reported last year.
The joint venture’s plans for the film studio were first approved by the city in 2022 with a projected $164M budget, and construction was originally slated to begin in 2024, Commercial Observer reported at the time. It is unclear if Ullian still has a role in the project.
The city’s agreement includes leasing the land to developers for $1 per year over a 50-year term, the Herald reported.
“This land was sitting vacant and unused for many decades, and this becomes an opportunity for us,” Mayor Dean Trantalis of Fort Lauderdale said in a statement last year. “And we’re willing to make that investment with them because we know it’s going to bring jobs and that jobs will have the ripple effect of bringing more jobs, businesses and greater opportunities for everybody in the area.”
Harvard Investment Group, a Los Angeles-based real estate firm founded by Greg Cullen, is an investor in Infinite Reality and is coleading the project.
Sterling Bay's selection is a win for the company's South Florida ambitions. It was tapped in 2022 by Citadel to build Ken Griffin's planned Brickell tower, then dropped from the project in 2023 to ultimately be replaced by Related Cos. Last year it teamed up with Key International for a proposed 51-story office tower in Brickell, but like most planned Miami office towers, that has yet to begin construction.
“Sterling Bay has over 30 years of expertise in developing connected and collaborative spaces for world-class companies,” Gloor said in a statement. “Together with Infinite Reality, we are building more than just real estate — we are setting the stage for a new era of immersive media and innovation.”
