When Angelo Bianco’s real estate firm CP Group bought the Boca Raton Innovation Campus eight years ago, he said he saw the opportunity to turn a “broken-down has-been” into “an Apple or Google campus.”
CP Group went on to bring a surge of activity to the massive business park, known as BRiC, envisioning many improvements and attracting new businesses.
Now, with the recently announced sale of the property to a new owner, Bianco, who is CP Group’s founding and managing partner, recently spoke to the South Florida Sun Sentinel about the firm’s accomplishments at the site through the years.
The 124-acre campus, at 5000 T-Rex Ave., between Yamato Road and Spanish River Boulevard, used to house IBM operations decades ago.
CP Group owns many properties in the U.S. But “I don’t think there is anything remotely like” BRiC, Bianco said. “Anything of that scale by itself is a rarity.”
Many endeavors
CP Group has kept a strong presence in Boca Raton and beyond. Its projects include:
— One Town Center, office spaces along Lennox Drive.
— One Boca Place, an office building at 2255 Glades Road.
— Las Olas Square, an office and retail building at 515 Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale.
— Miami Tower, an office building at 100 SE Second St. in Miami.
For Bianco, he finds fulfillment not in building an entirely new building but in restoring old ones.
“That has been the capstone of my career,” he said.
The Innovation Campus
CP Group purchased the BRiC property for $179 million in 2018.
In the years that followed, CP Group pursued approvals from the city of Boca Raton for more than 1,200 residences, a hotel, concert hall, medical office space, shops and restaurants.
“The idea was for us to create a walkable village within Boca Raton,” Bianco said.
Bianco wanted to do this all while preserving the campus’ Brutalist-style architecture and history from IBM’s heyday decades ago.
CP Group filled BRiC with tech and healthcare companies like the autonomous vehicle company Guident, and, more recently, the quantum computing company D-Wave Quantum, which is relocating its corporate headquarters from Palo Alto, California.
BRiC was never supposed to be a lifeless hub. So over the years, CP Group created 16 art galleries on the campus through partnerships with schools and universities.
It brought on a pickleball court operator.
BRiC hosted more than 600 community events over the years.
“We have completely transformed the asset in adding amenities that are unparalleled in the Florida market, and integrated this project into the broader Boca Raton community, so it became a place,” Bianco said.
Early talks
The real estate company Related Ross announced Thursday that it purchased BRiC for an undisclosed price.
CP Group, along with DRA Advisors and Las Olas Capital, which are part of the business park’s ownership, sold the campus to Related Ross, Bianco confirmed.
Bianco recalled some of the early conversations that ultimately led to an ownership change.
In 2025, Bianco had a meeting with Stephen Ross, the CEO and chairman of Related Ross, to discuss a potential acquisition that was unrelated to the BRiC site, he said.
That deal didn’t work out.
But in Ross’ office that day, Bianco told Ross told about the Boca Raton Innovation Campus.
It intrigued Ross, Bianco said.
At the time, BRiC was not for sale, Bianco said.
But that would change over the months that followed that meeting.
“The conversation evolved over time to be: Would you consider selling it? What would it be like? How do you see that?” Bianco said. “It took us a very long time to work together to find a structure that would work for all the parties. … It was very complicated.”
What CP Group received approval to build — the homes, hotel, shops, restaurants, offices — could be developed by the new owner, Related Ross.
Related Ross “will continue operating BRiC as an office and technology campus while advancing a long-term vision for the property,” according to the company’s statement.
“The acquisition gives the company a significant presence in Boca Raton and an opportunity to bring its experience developing mixed-use destinations to one of the city’s most important commercial sites, at a time when the region is attracting companies across technology, finance and other high-growth industries.”
But Related Ross has yet to reveal additional the specifics behind what it will bring to BRiC.
Related Ross Executive Vice President Jordan Bargas told the Sun Sentinel about the purchase: “We’re really excited just to kind of get in there and get into the Boca community, speak to the right stakeholders and, figure out what the best vision is for this as we move forward.”
Moving forward
Bianco knew there was potential to do more with BRiC.
“I would have loved to have seen through all of those changes and developments over time,” Bianco said. “But overall it was a good transaction, and so we decided as partners that it was a time to pull the trigger.
“Nothing’s ever perfect, right? So, that’s why it’s bittersweet.”
Bianco declined to say what CP Group will be working on next, but offered that he’s “excited to move on to the next challenge.”
Bianco hopes, though, that one BRiC asset never changes, regardless of the ownership: the lake.
At BRiC’s center is a lake that holds enough water to fill 14 Olympic-sized swimming pools, and circling its perimeter is a walking path and the campus buildings.
“It’s one of the most beautiful expanses in Boca Raton,” he said.
