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Old 05-24-2019, 09:37 PM
 
Location: Chicago
82 posts, read 93,019 times
Reputation: 230

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So my business partner and I are thinking of opening a small branch office in Florida, and we're debating either Tampa or Miami. Our business is financial/commodities trading, and we would need access to well-educated, quantitative-savvy employees.

We are sort of at an impasse due to differing opinions. While I don't think either city fits the bill perfectly for us, my feeling is that Miami is the better of the two. I don't think we'll find the talent we need in the Tampa-area. If we need to relocate some staff, I think Tampa is a slightly tougher sell as well.

Miami invokes a more cosmopolitan and international feeling to me that is conducive to our business, but he's worried that runaway real estate prices will mean our paid salaries will have to rise disproportionately relative to Tampa.

I don't have much experience with Tampa or the business climate there; that's why I'm posing this question to the forum. My business partner has family in the Tampa/St Pete-area and so he is somewhat biased.

I'd appreciate any insight from business owners, large and small, that have experience in operating out of Tampa or Miami. Are there major operating cost differences between the two? Surprising to me, our broker says Class A rents in the respective CBD's are within $5 sq.ft of each other, so not quite that large for us, with Tampa having much lower vacancy and higher absorption that Miami, so there must be something going on there.

Is Miami as business-friendly as I am assuming? Is the cost of living and traffic going to inhibit future growth there for businesses?
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Old 05-24-2019, 10:36 PM
 
24,323 posts, read 26,697,469 times
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Dont open business in Miami unless you are fluent in Spanish
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Old 05-25-2019, 10:23 AM
 
14,394 posts, read 11,084,599 times
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A lot more trading and finance in Miami vs. Tampa. COL is much higher, around 25% so expect the same for salaries.
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Old 05-25-2019, 03:06 PM
 
1,332 posts, read 2,168,897 times
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Raymond James has its corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg and is the largest investment bank in Florida with a solid middle market and regional presence in the South East so the idea that no talent would go to Tampa is not true. You could also set up relationships with the business school and the MBA program at UF in Gainesville. Raymond James has had a history of recruiting there to develop a pipeline of talent. UF has a top 20 national MBA program.

Jacksonville also has a large Deutsche Bank headquarters for middle and back office and compliance for their private and investment bank and also trading. Bank of America, Citibank, JP Morgan also have large operations in Jacksonville. Jacksonville has become a financial services hub for back office work.

Miami is very latin american dominated finance work centering on trade and private banking for businesses and high net worth individuals. West Palm Beach is centered around private banking and services to high net worth.

Some hedge funds have moved to Miami and West Palm from New York for tax purposes. Starwood Capital Group, a $50B+ fund is in planning for building a new six story headquarters on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach opposite the 1 Hotel.

So I'd say research Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Tampa, and Miami. If Miami is too latin dominated, look at office space on Miami Beach. It's likely where many of your employees will want to live anyway.
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Old 05-26-2019, 08:06 AM
 
Location: USA
1,599 posts, read 1,408,554 times
Reputation: 1550
Get free advice from the Small Business Administration and the local Chamber of Commerce

Good luck
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Old 05-27-2019, 08:35 PM
 
Location: Chicago
82 posts, read 93,019 times
Reputation: 230
Quote:
Originally Posted by bmw335xi View Post
Dont open business in Miami unless you are fluent in Spanish

While Spanish not a problem for us, since we do some business with Central/Latin American customers, I'm not concerned about any language-related barriers. I know some financial firms from the NYC-area (including one of our top brokers) that don't directly deal with Latin America that are relocating to the Miami-area. However, I think in terms of total employees, the net influx is relatively small.

Quote:
Originally Posted by logybogy View Post
Raymond James has its corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg and is the largest investment bank in Florida with a solid middle market and regional presence in the South East so the idea that no talent would go to Tampa is not true. You could also set up relationships with the business school and the MBA program at UF in Gainesville. Raymond James has had a history of recruiting there to develop a pipeline of talent. UF has a top 20 national MBA program.

Jacksonville also has a large Deutsche Bank headquarters for middle and back office and compliance for their private and investment bank and also trading. Bank of America, Citibank, JP Morgan also have large operations in Jacksonville. Jacksonville has become a financial services hub for back office work.

Miami is very latin american dominated finance work centering on trade and private banking for businesses and high net worth individuals. West Palm Beach is centered around private banking and services to high net worth.

Some hedge funds have moved to Miami and West Palm from New York for tax purposes. Starwood Capital Group, a $50B+ fund is in planning for building a new six story headquarters on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach opposite the 1 Hotel.

So I'd say research Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Tampa, and Miami. If Miami is too latin dominated, look at office space on Miami Beach. It's likely where many of your employees will want to live anyway.

Thanks for the thorough reply - I really didn't know that about Raymond James! And correct - I did read about Starwood and a few other hedge funds. One of the brokers we deal a lot with is relocationg from NYC Midtown to Boca Raton; obviously a lot of it stems from recent tax-related changes as I'm sure you're aware, so it got my partner and I think about it as well. I don't foresee a majority of our business getting run out of FL, but this is a sort of trial run for us, of sorts.

I should've clarified my post: when I say "Miami," I meant the greater Miami metro area, and same goes for Tampa/St. Pete.

I'll be honest, one of my biggest concerns about Miami metro is the cost of living. Our employees are well-compensated, but competing against foreign HNWI who are parking their assets in SoFLo real estate is a bit of concern.
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Old 05-27-2019, 08:37 PM
 
Location: Chicago
82 posts, read 93,019 times
Reputation: 230
Quote:
Originally Posted by FireStation46 View Post
Get free advice from the Small Business Administration and the local Chamber of Commerce

Good luck

Thanks...we're heading to Tampa in a few weeks to look at some office space, and we'll probably duck in there for a meeting with the CoC.
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Old 05-28-2019, 03:21 PM
 
Location: Orlando, FL
617 posts, read 824,153 times
Reputation: 555
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYEddy View Post
I should've clarified my post: when I say "Miami," I meant the greater Miami metro area, and same goes for Tampa/St. Pete.

I'll be honest, one of my biggest concerns about Miami metro is the cost of living. Our employees are well-compensated, but competing against foreign HNWI who are parking their assets in SoFLo real estate is a bit of concern.
Good that you're open to the entire metro area, as I feel your partner is correct about the high COL in Miami proper. Your salaries would need to increase drastically to account for being in Miami. The less expensive suburbs can be an hour commute each way in aggressive Miami traffic so I doubt most of your employees would want to do that. Ft. Lauderdale has a considerable amount of office space, as does West Palm and Boca Raton which are closer to the more affordable suburbs of Brevard & West Palm Counties.

Tampa certainly should not be overlooked either, as it does have a much lower COL while still providing big-city amenities. USF and University of Tampa are located here for young talent pool, as is UCF only an hour away. Tampa does have a large finance presence as others have mentioned with Ray James. Suntrust also has a large presence here, while USAA financial services also has a large operation in Tampa.

Your office space will be cheaper in the Tampa area compared to Miami. In addition to the downtown core, I would also look at the Westshore area near the airport. You'll find some office complexes around here that may be better value than DT, and it is near the int'l airport, hotels, fine dining, etc. in case you are entertaining clients/customers.

Either case make sure you find an experienced office broker to represent you as Landlords are the ones who pay commissions, so using a broker is essentially a free service to you as the prospective Tenant.
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Old 05-28-2019, 04:00 PM
 
Location: West Florida
16,826 posts, read 14,977,614 times
Reputation: 23381
Quote:
Originally Posted by OTownKnight View Post
Good that you're open to the entire metro area, as I feel your partner is correct about the high COL in Miami proper. Your salaries would need to increase drastically to account for being in Miami. The less expensive suburbs can be an hour commute each way in aggressive Miami traffic so I doubt most of your employees would want to do that. Ft. Lauderdale has a considerable amount of office space, as does West Palm and Boca Raton which are closer to the more affordable suburbs of Brevard & West Palm Counties.

Tampa certainly should not be overlooked either, as it does have a much lower COL while still providing big-city amenities. USF and University of Tampa are located here for young talent pool, as is UCF only an hour away. Tampa does have a large finance presence as others have mentioned with Ray James. Suntrust also has a large presence here, while USAA financial services also has a large operation in Tampa.

Your office space will be cheaper in the Tampa area compared to Miami. In addition to the downtown core, I would also look at the Westshore area near the airport. You'll find some office complexes around here that may be better value than DT, and it is near the int'l airport, hotels, fine dining, etc. in case you are entertaining clients/customers.

Either case make sure you find an experienced office broker to represent you as Landlords are the ones who pay commissions, so using a broker is essentially a free service to you as the prospective Tenant.
I second Westshore. We have an office suite out there, and its location is just as good as any "downtown," and in some ways better with the airport being right around the corner.
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Old 05-31-2019, 10:31 PM
 
Location: California
1,726 posts, read 1,694,974 times
Reputation: 3764
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYEddy View Post
If we need to relocate some staff, I think Tampa is a slightly tougher sell as well.
That's not necessarily true, if you plan to relocate any employees who originate in Chicago. Firstly, residential real estate costs in Tampa are more proportionate with residential real estate costs in Chicago than Miami. Secondly, Tampa is a much more of a magnet for people from Chicago relative to Miami, which pulls more domestic migrants from New York City. As you mentioned, your business partner has family in the Tampa Bay area, which somewhat illustrates my point (assuming he is also from Chicago).
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