In additional to the lure of no state income tax, companies choose to relocate to South Florida for a variety of other reasons.
The weather is an awesome bonus, too.
New Jersey-based corporate relocation firm Boyd Co. recently constructed a study of what attracts firms to low-cost suburban markets. Miramar was found to be among the most desirable locations.
In collecting data for 50 relatively low-cost suburban markets, the firm had in its mind’s eye finding the lowest operating costs for a company seeking to place its 500 office workers in 125,000 square feet of space.
If the imaginary company chose Miramar, they’d have an annual operating cost of $34.6 million. That was good for eighth place in the rankings.
In addition to Florida’s charms, there are several other factors that companies find appealing. Boyd said Miramar has relatively low labor costs because South Florida’s rapidly growing population makes the supply of clerical workers plentiful and the cultural diversity and foreign language skills of the workforce help companies reach Latin America. Its real estate occupancy and utility costs are also relatively low.
As proof of this trend, “South Florida Business Journal“ reported that a confidential company, which it identified as Ecolab, applied for job growth incentives to open a Latin American headquarters in Miramar.
Miramar business isn’t stifled by urban development
Quite a few companies have chosen to call Miramar home.
Those companies include some big names like Carnival Cruise Lines, Quest Diagnostics, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Elizabeth Arden, Spirit Airlines and CVS Caremark. United Data Technologies will soon join that list.
Millennials may be attracted to downtown office jobs – with restaurants, walkable neighborhoods and public transportation – but some companies eschew that type of draw and stick to suburban office parks for a variety of reasons.
Suburbs offer a great quality of life, lower crime rates, access to amenities and shopping, cheaper office rents and oftentimes free parking at their locations. And, yes, they are less expensive than their in-town counterparts.
Of course, competition is stiff, even between cities in The Sunshine State.
Estero, near Fort Myers, also did well in the rankings, coming in at the lowest cost for the fictional company studied, at $33.5 million. Suburbs in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina and Nevada also had good showings.
Austin suburb Round Rock and Atlanta suburb Alpharetta were on the slightly more expensive side than Miramar.
But, even of that list, few have the great weather, airport access and foreign language speakers that South Florida does.
