The city is emerging from the shadow of Palm Beach, just across the water, with new condo and office towers.
West Palm Beach is emerging from the shadow of its affluent world-famous neighbor, Palm Beach, with new luxury condo and office towers as well as a billionaire developer aiming to transform it into the Wall Street of the South.
In Palm Beach today, President Donald Trump occupies his Mar-a-Lago compound as the rich and famous continue to snap up multi-million-dollar mansions. But since the Covid-19 pandemic, West Palm Beach, too, has attracted wealthy newcomers and big-name financial firms, as well as world-class art, entertainment, and shopping.
Location: Palm Beach County, 70 miles north of Miami and 45 miles north of Fort
Lauderdale
Population: 127,744 (2024 U.S. Census Bureau estimate)
Area: 54 square miles
Housing: 50 percent homeownership rate
The vibe: A palm tree-lined, sun-drenched, laid-back city with a few high-rises and world-class amenities.
Henry Flagler, the oil magnate, founded Palm Beach during the Gilded Age, building an oceanfront resort on a barrier island. West Palm Beach, on the mainland, housed the workers who serviced the wealthy,"For decades, if you lived in West Palm Beach, people would say 'Oh my God, you're across the bridge'," said Robert Kemp, a real estate broker with Douglas Elliman who's worked and lived in West Palm Beach for over 30 years. "Then, West Palm became almost like a part of Palm Beach."
New luxury condos are rising on the city's waterfront. The Bristol, completed in 2019, launched the trend. The 25-story condo tower has a private restaurant, a spa and a 75-foot lap pool. It lured Sydell
L. Miller, the late beauty mogul, who traded in her large Palm Beach estate and moved in.
Other upscale waterfront developments include the Olara, South Flagler House, Alba, The Ritz-Carlton Residences, and Forté on Flagler. Units in these developments, many of which are still under construction, typically start at over $1 million.
The billionaire developer Stephen M. Ross is leading the makeover.
Mr. Ross, who built much of Hudson Yards in New York and owns the N.F.L. Miami Dolphins team, opened CityPlace, a mixed-use, outdoor mall, in 2000. He is now renovating and expanding the 72-acre property, adding two office complexes and attracting new retail offerings, such as the Eataly market and restaurant, as well as the fashion brands Alo and Reformation.
Ross's ambitions go beyond a simple mall. He's spending $10 billion to turn West Palm Beach into a leading business hub and has already completed two top-tier office buildings, where Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase are tenants. This year, he successfully lobbied Vanderbilt University to create a $520 million graduate campus in the city.
