elected Zohran Mamdani<\/a> as mayor, a Democratic Socialist who critics insist will deliver more of the same.<\/p>\nIn interviews last week, the president\/CEOs of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance and Beacon Council in Miami-Dade suggested their mission really isn\u2019t a case of striking political irons while they\u2019re hot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe delegation\u2019s visit reflects the deep economic and industry connections shared by South Florida and New York City, with the two markets linked by companies and talent that actively operate across both geographies,\u201d the agencies said in a joint statement last week.<\/p>\n
The three-day visit, which starts Tuesday and runs through Thursday, will include meetings among corporate executives, site selectors, professional advisers, \u201cand other key market influencers to reinforce the strong business ties between the two regions and spotlight new cross-market opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Combined, South Florida has gross domestic product of more than $533 billion, and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) has more than 6.3 million residents, \u201ca multilingual workforce, and globally connected infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked to comment on the South Florida agencies\u2019 recruiting trip \u2014 and an array of prominent billboard ads promoting Palm Beach County in New York\u2019s Times Square \u2014 the city\u2019s economic development agency took the high road. In a statement, a spokesperson for the New York City Economic Development Corp. didn\u2019t mention either.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York City is the greatest city in the world and the premier place to do business,\u201d the statement said. \u201cBeyond its status as the financial capital, New York City is a global hub for commerce and innovation, with the second largest tech sector outside of Silicon Valley. New York City is home to the deepest, most diverse talent pool in the country, with over a million college students and recent graduates. We are leading the nation in talent attraction, office recovery, and commercial leasing, and companies like Chobani, OpenAI, and Bridgewater Associates want to build roots here \u2014 all for one simple reason: there\u2019s no place like New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Trump_92712_21655f.jpg\")
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is not a specific target of a campaign being waged by South Florida development agencies that are recruiting New York companies to relocate to Florida. But his political philosophies help. (Evan Vucci\/AP)
\nRegional approach<\/p>\n
Bob Swindell, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, said it has been a \u201clong time\u201d since the three agencies jointly engaged in a recruiting trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really about talking about the strength of the region,\u201d he said. \u201cThe companies get the benefit of us trying to make the case that our specific part of South Florida is best as a location. I think the three counties have distinct personalities and that\u2019s a strength. I like to think we [Greater Fort Lauderdale] are the magic in the middle. We have a great quality of life here that is special to us. We\u2019re also trying to make it clear that we welcome everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board, said the trip is designed in part to show the counties\u2019 collective interest in similar industries, most notably finance, technology and life sciences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is an opportunity to meet with companies who would like to explore relocating or expanding and get a better understanding of the business landscape in South Florida,\u201d she said. \u201cWe know South Florida\u00a0 has been a hotbed for companies in the Northeast for many, many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strategy is not new,\u201d Smallridge added.<\/p>\n
Pandemic a driving force<\/p>\n
All three counties say they benefitted from the COVID-19 pandemic, when residents of New York and other large metropolitan areas saw Florida take a lead in reopening for business. That, coupled with the absence of a state income tax and South Florida\u2019s outdoor-oriented lifestyle, became an incentive for a number of northern companies and families to move south.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pandemic was really the impetus,\u201d Swindell said. \u201cWe branded South Florida and Florida as a great business climate for decades. It was the pandemic that brought a lot of attention and focus to multiple benefits of being in South Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n
But initiatives to trigger relocations weren\u2019t \u201can overnight success.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people just need to be motivated,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are a lot of things that go into the decision to relocate whether it\u2019s a home or a business. \u2018At the end of the day, am I better off?\u2019 We\u2019re here to help with that transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bye bye<\/p>\n
From the standpoint of overt visibility campaigns, Palm Beach County probably has been the most aggressive of the three counties. For well over a decade, Smallridge has led a \u201cWall Street South\u201d campaign designed to attract financial industry firms including private equity and wealth management companies to her county.<\/p>\n
In mid-winter, the agency placed ads in Times Square to spread a continuing message that sunshine, beaches and wealth can go hand-in-hand, and that it\u2019s time to move.<\/p>\n
Recently, BDB-sponsored billboards went up bearing the breakup message: \u201cDear NYC, it\u2019s not you. It\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TFL-L-palm-beach-county-advertising.jpg\")
Palm Beach County’s Business Development Board has waged aggressive ad campaigns in New York’s Times Square to encourage businesses to relocate to Florida. Ads such as this one in 2023 have generated heavy phone and social media traffic. (Business Development Board of Palm Beach County\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
By the agency\u2019s reckoning, $10 billion of $39 billion in wealth that exited the Northeast for Florida post-pandemic ended up in Palm Beach County, which is now home to 70 billionaires and more than 70,000 millionaires.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt created a big stir,\u201d<\/a> Smallridge said of the campaign. \u201cIt was definitely the most clever campaign that has ever come out of our organization. The views and hits on our website spiked dramatically. Business leaders and influencers took pictures. Then you\u2019ve got these national media personalities using the term \u2018Wall Street South\u2019 over and over again. Wall Street South is now becoming a household name.\u201d<\/p>\nOver time, it seeped into the narratives of Miami-Dade County, which became home of the financial giant Citadel, which relocated from Chicago to Miami in 2022.<\/p>\n
But Rodrick Miller, president and CEO of Miami-Dade\u2019s Beacon Council, said the joint South Florida recruiting effort is not designed to diminish New York\u2019s capacity as a world financial capital or to serve as a commentary on its most recent political turn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re focusing on technology and finance and tax advisers,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
The focus of the joint agency trip, among other things, he said, is to promote a region that has a highly diversified population from multiple places in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the utility of three international airports and seaports within a three-county region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try not to lean into the political stuff,\u201d Miller added. \u201cNew York City is New York City. At the end of the day we are not going to make a big dent. New York City is a financial capital of the world and I don\u2019t see that changing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the December holiday season and time for many travel-minded celebrants to head for New York City to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33712,288,3365,3640,23174,85,267,33713,9,24,55,54,12,56,22678,7336],"class_list":["post-64441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-broward-county","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-miami-dade-county","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-palm-beach-county","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}