Billionaires Steve Ross and Ken Griffin moved their businesses to South Florida in recent years, and now they are spreading the gospel of its economic advantages.
The powerhouses put $10 million behind “Ambition Accelerated,” an effort to attract out-of-state executives, investors and founders to South Florida, Bloomberg reported.
They are bankrolling the campaign, via the Florida Council of 100, with advertising and marketing to beckon business leaders to Florida’s Gold Coast.
The initiative kicked off this week at the Wall Street Journal Invest Live conference in West Palm Beach, which Ross funded.
The campaign will tout South Florida’s advantages over major northeastern and western U.S. cities, including the state’s lack of income tax and light business regulation.
“Miami and the broader South Florida Gold Coast offer deep talent, regulatory clarity and an extraordinary quality of life,” Griffin said in a statement. “These are not secondary considerations; they are foundations for long-term success, and their impact compounds over time.”
Citadel founder Griffin took losses on multimillion-dollar condo unit holdings in Chicago after his exit to warmer shores in 2022.
Citadel is building a $1 billion-plus bayfront headquarters, which Related Companies is developing in Miami’s Brickell district. Griffin also invested in a private megayacht marina on Miami Beach’s Terminal Island, and he’s put hundreds of millions of dollars in residential properties in Palm Beach, Miami’s Star Island and Miami’s Coconut Grove.
Ross, founder of the Related Companies and owner of the Miami Dolphins, made his name and fortune in New York City real estate before relocating to the region during the pandemic.
His vision of West Palm Beach as a tech and financial hub has resulted in a multibillion-dollar investment strategy involving office purchases and development, a proposed $290 million convention center hotel and condo buyouts. He’s also committed $50 million to a planned Vanderbilt University campus in West Palm Beach. — Rachel Stone