The county of Palm Beach, Florida, is becoming known as ‘The Wall Street South.’ This is due to a movement of new companies arriving in the region, many coming from the traditional financial district of New York, Wall Street. There are already over 18,000 companies calling the county home, according to the Business Development Board (BDB) of Palm Beach.
“Currently, we are working with 100 companies from the Northeast, mainly from New York, Boston, and Greenwich (CT). In fact, there are 1.5 million square feet of Class A office space currently under construction,” said Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board. “We help, for free, with anything from property searches and expedited permitting to presentations of public and private educational offerings.”
Data on the movement, according to the BDB
• 1.6 million Florida residents are natives of New York (Census Data Report).
• 61,728 New Yorkers changed their driver’s licenses to Florida in one year (The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles).
• Palm Beach is the number 1 county in the U.S. among the 343 largest counties in average weekly wage gain (Source: SIA).
• 16,818 people were added to the Palm Beach County workforce in one year (Emsi).
• Number 1 county in Florida in growth by income and population (Unacast study).
• 41% of the moves to Palm Beach County were from New York (Unacast study).
• Palm Beach is home to 45 billionaire families and 71,000 millionaire families (Forbes).
What are these companies looking for in Florida?
According to recent residents, they are free from the stress of traffic and public transportation in New York, as well as finding cheaper operational costs.
Siris Capital is opening an office in West Palm Beach. Its co-founder says, “Compared to New York, I gain 10 to 15 hours of commuting every week that I can spend with my family.” He also highlights that easy access to Palm Beach International Airport allows for easy travel.
Virtu Financial has moved to a Class A office in Palm Beach Gardens. “I live just a few minutes from our office, so there’s no stress involved in commuting in Manhattan,” shared Doug Cifu, the company’s CEO.
But it’s not just companies that make up this group leaving large urban centers, a movement that intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic. Statistics show that some families are moving to areas like Palm Beach in search of better local schools. They also want a lifestyle closer to nature, with opportunities for outdoor recreation year-round and more time to dedicate to family and hobbies.