Bruce Beal Jr. Sports Illustrated via Getty Images When the owners of the NBA’s Boston Celtics announced on March 20 that they were selling the team for $6.1 billion to a group of investors led by private equity executive William “Bill” Chisholm, the news shocked the sports world. Few even knew who Bill Chisholm was, though they quickly learned he went to his first Celtics game on his seventh birthday and had been a “rabid fan ever since” who “bleeds green.” But Chisholm isn’t the only die-hard billionaire fan buying into the Celtics for the first time. Boston native Bruce Beal Jr., a partner at real estate giant Related Companies, joined Chisholm and telecom billionaire Robert Hale in the deal. “I grew up in Boston, loving the Celtics," Beal said in a statement. Recalling the day he saw the Celtics win the 1984 NBA finals, he said “it was the best day ever. Fast forward to today, it’s come full circle.” At least one well-known person in sports was not surprised. NFL great Tom Brady congratulated Beal on his Instagram story shortly after the deal was announced. “The Boston boy is an owner of his Boston team,” he wrote, adding three fire emojis. “Congratulations Bruce Beal Jr.!!!” (Celtic punk rock band Dropkick Murphys' “I'm Shipping Up To Boston” provided the soundtrack for the post.) The Celtics investment, if it’s approved, won’t be Beal’s first foray into pro sports. The 55-year-old already owns a minority stake in the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, where he serves as vice chairman and was brought in after Related’s founder Stephen Ross bought a 95% stake in the team in 2009 at a $1.1 billion valuation. The Dolphins were valued at $8.1 billion (along with the Hard Rock Stadium, Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix and the Miami Open tennis tournament) when Ross sold a 13% stake last December. Forbes estimates Beal’s minority stake in the Dolphins is worth more than $100 million. Outside of his NFL bet, Beal owes most of his fortune to Related, the New York-based real estate developer founded by Ross in 1972. Beal joined the firm in 1995 and rose to become president in 2012. Forbes estimates Beal is worth more than $1 billion. A representative for Related Companies declined to comment on the net worth estimate or to make Beal available for an interview. Bruce Beal Jr. (left) and his father Bruce Beal Sr. (right) at the preview celebration for The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards in New York in 2019. Getty Images for Related Beal grew up in Boston in a real estate dynasty. His father, Bruce Sr., was the fourth generation of the family to run Boston-based property developer the Beal Companies, which was first established in 1878 by Beal Jr.’s great-great-grandfather Abraham Beal. As a child, Beal had different plans, telling Crain's New York in 2009 that he originally wanted to become the next Jacques Cousteau, going to marine biology camps and working at a fish market in Nantucket and a dolphin lab in Hawaii. He was also a rabid Celtics fan. “When I was 16, the Celtics were going public and I proudly used the money I made from summer landscaping to buy about 20 shares,” he said in a statement. “It was the first stock purchase I ever made.” After going public in 1986, the team delisted from the stock exchange in 2003 when it was purchased for $360 million by a group of investors led by Irving Grousbeck, whose family will retain a stake in the franchise until the second part of the $6.1 billion sale closes in 2028. Beal graduated from high school in 1988 at Concord Academy, a tony prep school in an affluent Boston suburb, and then went to Harvard, where he got a bachelor's of arts and was on the lightweight crew team. Two years after graduating from Harvard in 1993, he started working at Related. In 2003, he led Related’s joint venture with his father’s company to develop the Clarendon and One Back Bay, two apartment buildings with a combined 281 units in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. The apartments were completed in 2009, and four years later Beal Companies merged with Related to form Related Beal, which is now Related’s division in Boston. (Bruce Beal Sr. serves as Related Beal's chairman.) In 2007, Ross sold a 7.5% stake in Related to Goldman Sachs and Michael Dell’s MSD Capital. (MSD Capital later merged with Byron Trott’s merchant bank to form BDT & MSD Partners, run by Trott and Greg Lemkau, a former teammate of Bill Chisholm’s on Dartmouth’s varsity soccer team and also a Goldman Sachs alum. That firm was an advisor on the Celtics sale.) A year later, Ross bought 50% of the Miami Dolphins—plus the stadium and surrounding land—from billionaire Wayne Huizenga (d. 2018) for $550 million, buying another 45% stake in 2009 at a $1.1 billion valuation. By 2016, Beal had become a minority investor, and CBS Sports reported that the NFL had approved a succession plan with Ross granting Beal the right of first option to buy the Dolphins if Ross died or decided to sell his majority stake. In 2022, Ross reportedly changed his mind, giving that right to his daughter Jennifer instead. Bruce Beal Jr. (left), Jeff Blau (center) and Stephen Ross (right) in Hudson Yards in 2019, with the 150-foot tall Vessel behind them. Jamel Toppin for Forbes Together with Ross and Related’s current CEO, Jeff Blau, Beal helped build Related Companies into a behemoth that’s developed or acquired more than $60 billion worth of residential, retail, office, hospitality and data center properties across the U.S., London and Abu Dhabi. “The company started in affordable housing, then we did market-rate rentals, and we built offices for companies like Nestlé and MasterCard,” Beal told Forbes in 2023, pointing to its diversification across different types of real estate. “We're very customer-driven, so we're constantly thinking about what our customers want.” But Beal didn’t just ride Ross’ coattails. Ross handed off day-to-day operations to Beal and Blau in 2012, appointing them as president and CEO, respectively. Ross used to tell the pair “‘I'm going to give you a really long leash, just don't hang yourself,'" Beal told Forbes in 2019. The trio worked together on many of Related’s largest projects, including Hudson Yards, a neighborhood on Manhattan's west side with 12 million square feet of offices, apartments and retail that cost $25 billion to build and opened in 2019. Despite a downturn in New York’s office market during Covid, Hudson Yards has been a success, with its largest buildings more than 90% occupied by tenants including BlackRock, Facebook parent Meta, Wells Fargo and L’Oréal. “From a developer standpoint, you have to execute every day. We not only have to get the buildings built, we have to run them,” Beal told Forbes in 2023. “So we're constantly thinking about what we can do better and evolve as the markets change.” Then in July 2024, Ross stepped down as executive chairman and left to form a separate company, Related Ross, in Palm Beach, Florida; he still holds a stake in the company and remains the firm’s non-executive chairman. Beal and Blau are now pushing ahead with new developments, including a proposed $12 billion makeover of the unfinished railyards west of Hudson Yards, called Hudson Yards West, that would include a Wynn Resorts casino if it wins one of the New York state gaming licenses up for grabs in December. The project will also have office space, residential buildings, a public school and a 5.6 acre park. Unlike his partner Ross—who’s decamped to Florida—Beal is bullish on New York. “People still want to be in New York. It'll cycle through and it always comes back,” Beal told Forbes in 2023. “We felt like if we did our job and put our heads down and executed, people would not only want to be in New York, but be in Hudson Yards." Still, the longtime New York resident maintains ties to Boston. He owns at least two homes in Related developments in the city and one of his children goes to school there. Now Beal will have an extra reason to find the time to go home to watch the Celtics. “[Boston] still feels like home,” Beal said in a statement. “I love the Celtics and I am honored to be a part of this incredible organization that means so much to Boston and fans like me, who grew up loving this team.” Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Send me a secure tip. Editorial StandardsForbes Accolades