Local leaders in Palm Beach County are wasting no time in capitalizing on the outcome of the New York City mayoral election, ramping up marketing efforts to New York-based businesses in an attempt to further boost the county’s economy.
The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County is spending somewhere between $80,000 and $100,000 on a campaign as part of overall efforts by the board to “convince companies to bring their business here,” said president and CEO Kelly Smallridge.
The privately funded initiative includes mailing out “Wall Street South” hats, reaching out to college counselors, participating in “numerous TV interviews” and, perhaps most notably, a billboard in New York City suggesting businesses break up with the city and rebound with Palm Beach County.
The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County is funding a campaign to advertise in New York City with hopes of drawing interest from New York-based businesses and industries. These efforts include advertisements that call on businesses to “break up” with New York. (Courtesy/Business Development Board of Palm Beach County)
“Instead of our normal marketing campaign of just spreading the word that Palm Beach County is a great location, I would say this is more targeted,” Smallridge said.
But what kind of industries is the business development board courting?
“The business development board was created over 45 years ago to bring in aviation aerospace, business and financial services, corporate headquarters, technology, life sciences and manufacturing, so we were hired to bring in more innovation-based companies in order to create a more stable, less cyclical economy and better paying jobs,” Smallridge said. “We are not bringing in just one or two industries, we realize that if we go through a recession, we want make sure that we’ve got several healthy industries.”
Other local leaders also view Zohran Mamdani’s recent New York City mayoral victory as an opportunity. Mamdani’s intent to bring down the cost of living by adding a 2% tax for New Yorkers who make more than $1 million annually, among other measures, has angered some New York residents and business leaders.
A day after Mamdani’s win, Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer sent out a letter addressed generally to “New York Business Leaders” outlining why he thinks they should relocate.
“New York’s message to the financial sector couldn’t be clearer after Mamdani’s election: Success is something to regulate, not celebrate,” Singer writes. “In Boca Raton, we take a different view. Here, we believe that thriving businesses lift communities — not burden them.”
“With this year’s election, there was a good deal more chatter and more inbound calls about people leaving, so we’re trying to seize a moment of opportunity to continue to make our city prominent in the eyes of the business world,” he said in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “It is not solely because of any one election.”
Singer said he’s received “a number of inquiries,” though he’s uncertain exactly how many, and not all of them go directly to him.
Singer’s recent letter builds on the momentum that began months before the New York City mayoral election. During the summer, Singer’s appeal to New York businesses drew attention from a string of news outlets, and Boca Raton officials paid $70,000 for an 82-day Times Square advertisement.
But Singer also wants to clarify — this is not a campaign to turn current New York residents into Boca Ratonians.
“We are a pretty built out city, and we’re nowhere near able to accommodate everyone who might want to live here,” he said. “This is a targeted and strategic effort to bring corporate headquarters and regional offices to provide high-paying job opportunities for our residents.”
However, as a city that “punches above (its) weight when it comes to business,” Boca Raton does have the capacity to host more companies, Singer said.
Noam Ziv, a developer with the team for Boca Raton’s Glass House project, pointed out how the time of year also could be playing a role in renewed interest for not just Boca Raton but all of South Florida.
“Northeasterners are starting to resurface after the long summer, to attribute that to the election, it’s a bit early,” he said. “People start to act and actually move when it affects their day-to-day life, so once it’s going to start to affect their day-to-day life, I’m sure we’re going to see more of it.”
The COVID-19 pandemic is a good example of how politics influenced migration trends, Ziv said, because Florida remained “open to business” while other big states had stricter rules. But the degree to which Mamdani’s win may affect migration of businesses and people remains to be seen, he said.
“To move a business it even requires more preparation and time,” Ziv said. “With your employees, with your infrastructure, finding a place, it takes a minute. The way I see it, in New York you have those people that were already ready to do that, so (the election) may make them pull the trigger a little bit faster.”
