I have spent my career working in and around economic development, and what has always been clear to me is that growth only matters if people actually see it in their daily lives.
Miami-Dade County is reaching an inflection point where residents not only see it, but they also feel it.
New companies are arriving. Jobs are being created. Neighborhoods are changing. For some residents, that growth brings opportunity and optimism. For others, it raises questions about access, affordability, and how growth is experienced across the community.
That raises a simple but important question: who makes sure growth works for the people who live and work here?
For the past 40 years, one organization has quietly played that role: The Miami-Dade Beacon Council.
The Beacon Council is the county’s official economic development organization. Our job is to attract investment, create quality jobs, and strengthen Miami-Dade’s long-term competitiveness — while working across business, government, education, and community partners to ensure growth is durable, meaningful, and sustainable.
In the last year alone, Beacon-supported projects helped generate more than $1.2 billion in private investment, create thousands of new jobs, and deliver millions in new tax revenue that support public services like schools, infrastructure, and transit. These aren’t just financial wins. They are wins that translate into real opportunities for companies expanding here, for workers building careers, and for neighborhoods benefiting from sustained investment.
But economic development today is about more than announcements or ribbon cuttings and the headlines they garner.
It’s about the young professional who can build a career in finance or technology without leaving Miami.
It’s about the parent who can work closer to home because a global company chose to locate its offices in their neighborhood.
And it’s about small businesses, the backbone of our economy, that want to grow alongside Miami’s success, not be pushed to the margins by it.
Miami-Dade has arrived at that inflection point while positioning itself on the global stage. Growth alone won’t determine our future; the choices we make today will. Without coordination, growth can bypass local talent, small businesses can get squeezed out, and opportunity can become more difficult to reach.
That’s why The Beacon Council’s work has evolved.
Attracting companies remains essential. But today, the bigger challenge is building the systems that allow growth to last. The Miami-Dade Beacon Council is focused on three priorities shaping the next chapter of our economy: talent, small business growth, and data-driven insight.
This month, that focus begins with small businesses.
Small businesses are the foundation of Miami-Dade’s economy, yet many face rising costs, limited access to capital, and fragmented support. As growth accelerates, scaling can feel out of reach even as opportunity grows all around them.
That’s why, at its recent Annual Meeting, The Beacon Council announced its new stewardship of Strive305, a small business initiative launched under Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. Building on that foundation, Beacon is strengthening the ecosystem around small businesses — connecting entrepreneurs to partners, customers, talent, and opportunities so growth is something they can participate in, not something that happens around them.
This work isn’t about replacing what already exists. It’s about coordinating efforts, closing gaps, and helping small businesses move from survival to scale.
What makes The Beacon Council different is not just what we do, but how we do it.
The Beacon Council is the only organization in Miami-Dade focused full-time on aligning business, government, education, and community around economic outcomes. We are not a lobbying organization. We don’t represent one industry or one political administration. For four decades, The Beacon Council has convened leaders across sectors at a common table, focused on results, not headlines.
Today, The Beacon Council is expanding capacity and opening new ways for local businesses and organizations to engage whether that means mentoring an entrepreneur, connecting to talent pipelines, participating in small business networks, or helping shape the strategies guiding our economy. (More on how we are connecting and uplifting with small businesses in upcoming issues of this series.)
There’s no question that we need to build it together – with intention, coordination, and opportunity at the center. What we build together will outlast this moment.
Economic development is not something done to a community, it’s something built with it. The work of strengthening Miami-Dade’s economy depends on collaboration among residents, businesses, educators, and civic leaders. The Beacon Council exists to help connect those efforts, align priorities, and ensure growth creates real opportunity across our county.
In the months ahead, this column will explore how our economy is changing and challenging all of us to take part in shaping the decisions that will define what comes next.
This is an open invitation for everyone in our community to engage in shaping the future of Miami-Dade County.
¡Juntos ganamos!
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