NY Developer Ross Donates $100M to Alma Mater

ANN ARBOR, MI-A New York real estate developer has made the largest donation to the University of Michigan in the school’s 187-yearhistory. The $100-million donation prompted the U-M board to rename its business school in honor of Stephen M. Ross.

Ross is chairman and chief executive of the Related Cos. and now also the namesake of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at U-M in Ann Arbor. Ross graduated from Michigan with a bachelor’s degree inbusiness administration in 1962. Ross, 64, is perhaps best known for being the lead developer on the $1.7-billion Time Warner Center, aluxury residential and retail complex that opened in February in New York City. His Related Cos. has a portfolio of real estate holdings valued in excess of $8 billion.

“The days I spent at U-M laid the foundation for my career, and made it possible for me to build the kind of business that the Related Cos. has become,” Ross says. “I am giving what I know best–the creation of new and improved space,” Ross said during a news conference at the university to announce the gift.

About $75 million of the gift is earmarked for new and renovated facilities, and the remainder goes toward the school’s endowment. University president Mary Sue Coleman called it “a gift that will inspire and transform our business school.”

A $33-million gift from the Lincoln Knorr Estate in March 2000 was the previous largest individual gift to the university.