Tag Archive for: kelly smallridge

Mortgage Lender To Occupy 50,000 Square Feet For 2nd HQ

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NewDay USA, one of the nation’s leading veteran mortgage lenders, announced on Tuesday that it will create 600 new jobs at 360 Rosemary in West Palm Beach over the next two years.

This new location will serve as the second headquarters for NewDay USA, in addition to its headquarters in Fulton, Maryland.

NewDay USA will occupy more than 50,000 square feet on the top two floors of 360 Rosemary, the 300,000-square-foot, sustainable, Class-A office building at the heart of downtown West Palm Beach’s Rosemary Square neighborhood.

“NewDay USA’s commitment to growth and job creation will bolster our vision of creating a community of opportunity for all,” said West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James on Tuesday. “We are proud to be New Day’s newest home and a place where everyone—especially our cherished veterans—can realize their dreams. We look forward to NewDay USA’s valuable work and positive economic impact on our community.”

 

“NewDay USA proudly helps veterans and their families achieve greater financial security, and we are excited to establish a new home in West Palm Beach to carry out our mission,” said Rob Posner, the CEO of NewDay USA. “South Florida hosts a growing and educated workforce and the state represents the third-largest veteran population in the U.S., making West Palm Beach the ideal choice for our company’s second headquarters.”

 

“The Business Development Board believes that NewDay USA will be a transformational relocation for the City of West Palm Beach. This company takes great pride in creating high-quality jobs for our residents and being a big part of the community. We are proud to welcome them as our newest corporate citizen,” said Kelly Smallridge, the president and CEO of Business Development Board of Palm Beach County (BDB).

The Business Development Board assisted NewDay USA with access to the City of West Palm Beach’s financial resources, as well as expedited permitting and information on community engagement.

NewDay expects to be one of the largest employers in the area, housing 600 employees over the next two years at Rosemary Square. The West Palm Beach Community Redevelopment Agency has approved $1.8 million for the training of new hires at NewDay University. The average salary of a NewDay employee is more than $90,000 and the average age is between 25 and 30.

“The team at Related built a beautiful, state-of-the-art facility that will give our team members a phenomenal environment to work and live. Our team is extremely excited to join this community,” Posner said.

NewDay USA will take occupancy of the new office in the fall.

 

Source:  Florida Daily

$41 Billion Investment Firm Relocating To South Florida

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A prominent New York investment firm that manages approximately $41 billion in assets has plans to move its headquarters to South Florida.

Elliott Management is relocating from midtown Manhattan to West Palm Beach, according to the Palm Beach County Business Development Board — making it the latest in a growing line of financial firms to move their headquarters from the Northeast or add offices to the South Florida region.

The firm is overseen by billionaire Paul E. Singer, one of the wealthiest people in the United States. According to the New York Times, he recently disclosed the headquarters move to Florida — a decision apparently triggered by the coronavirus pandemic and the volatility of the commercial real estate market in Manhattan.

“They made a commitment to have a corporate headquarters in West Palm Beach,” Kelly Smallridge, the board’s president and CEO, said by telephone Friday. “They’ve been very tight-lipped on their selection of real estate.”

Smallridge said she has no information on how many jobs the firm might bring to the area.

The anticipated move was first reported by Bloomberg News.

Founded in 1977, Elliott Management Corp. manages billions in assets and employs a staff of 466 people, according to its website. The roster includes 161 investment professionals in its New York headquarters and elsewhere in the U.S., London, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

On behalf of clients, the firm invests in various companies, and buys and sells distressed and real estate-related securities, as well as commodities and debt.

Singer isn’t expected to move to Florida and will keep some employees and offices in New York, the New York Times reported.

The migration of some financial firms is largely the byproduct of higher taxes in Northeast states and the federal tax reform law that limited residents’ ability to deduct state and local taxes from their federal returns.

Smallridge said that within the last 18 months, between 15 and 18 financial firms sought information about locations in the county, and ended up leasing office space from Boca Raton to Jupiter.

She said the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced many upper-income executives to take up second homes in Florida and work remotely, as Griffin’s operation did.

“Many of the executives decided not to go back home to the Northeast or they left the Northeast to come to Palm Beach County because they believed it was a safe place for their families,” she said.

 

Source:  SunSentinel

West Palm Beach’s Financial District’s Biggest Need: Good Office Space

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West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio (pictured above) stepped from the podium last Tuesday morning at Palm Beach County Convention Center and dropped a drape to expose a fancy street sign bearing the proposed logo of the “Flagler Financial District.”

The city plans to mark off a piece of downtown already hosting brokerages, banks and investment houses, in hopes of luring more to set up satellites or even move their headquarters wholesale.

“We already have a portion of our city where banking and finance is heavily concentrated. Now we need to let the world know about it,” the mayor told about 900 attendees at her third annual “State of the City” breakfast gathering.

The district would run from Sixth Street in the north to Okeechobee Boulevard and from Rosemary Avenue east to Flagler Drive and the waterfront.

“We’re really trying to sell our city,” Muoio told reporters after her talk. “We really want to see new businesses in our downtown.”

But she said in her speech, “We all know putting up signage alone will not make it happen.”

That usually means tax breaks and other incentives.

Not necessarily, said Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, which has helped lead the “Flagler Financial District” initiative.

“The mayor’s move this morning really solidifies our effort to recruit (white collar) firms to this area,” Smallridge said Tuesday. “They’re already coming. Probably two dozen that came throughout the county in two years.”

But she said that while financial breaks often are the carrot needed to lure down the really large firms, for not-so-huge operations, “they’re not asking for it, and we’re not offering it.”

She said most of those coming down — and she sells all of Palm Beach County, not just West Palm Beach — are looking for good weather, of course. Cheaper commercial and residential real estate. A lower cost of living. And the big one: no state income tax.

“If you make a million dollars in Manhattan and a million dollars in West Palm Beach, there’s $127,000 you’re paying in a (New York) state income tax,” Smallridge said.

The biggest hurdle, she said, is that while residential real estate is exploding downtown, there’s a dearth of quality office space. And what’s there, she said, is running out.

“What they consider Class A is Phillips Point; Esperante,” Smallridge said. “They want ocean and Intracoastal (Waterway) views. They want buildings with amenities such as restaurants.”

Smallridge said she’s encouraging the city to expedite permitting.

Chris Roog, the city’s economic development director, said the city’s been pounding the drums for a while about the lack of good office space.

“That’s a great problem to have,” he said. “Now we need to fill the demand.”

He said the city already is speeding up permitting. He also said that, as in your freshman Economics class, supply usually reacts organically to demand. But he said the city’s also been reminding the real estate community of the need.

 

Source:  Palm Beach Post

Businesses Seek State Cuts In Commercial Lease Taxes

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Gov. Rick Scott met with business leaders in Broward and Palm Beach counties on Tuesday to get their input on what tax cuts he should propose to the legislature since the state will have a budget surplus in 2014.

Their biggest concerns included rising personal property taxes and insurance costs, and taxes that affect businesses moving to the state or startups trying to grow.

The stops were part of Scott’s tax-cut tour across the state. Scott has pledged to cut taxes and fees for the state by $500 million in the 2014-2015 budget, the same year he would run for re-election.

“How do we give the money back to you, the taxpayers? I’m putting it back in your hands,” Scott told the group at the Palm Beach County Convention Center Tuesday morning.

Kelly Smallridge, president of the Business Development Board, the economic development agency for Palm Beach County, said when recruiting businesses to the area, Florida’s tax on commercial leases is an issue in being competitive with other states.

“We’re one of the only states that has a tax on commercial leases,” she said.

Real estate broker Robert Goldstein suggested to the governor the commercial leasing tax be reduced by 1 percent each year until it is phased out. “We’re at a competitive disadvantage,” he said. The current tax is 6 percent.

He said the impact on economic and job growth from eliminating the tax would far outweigh the tax revenues.

Several small business owners, including one who provided a sample of his company’s popcorn to the governor, attended the meeting at Broward College in Fort Lauderdale.

Rosana Santos Calambichis, owner of Davie catering company Big Chef, said she would like to see a reduction in the tax on fuel — her business has seven trucks — as well as the state tax included in insurance coverage and the commercial lease tax. “It adds up quickly,” she said.

Broward College radiology student Shelda Simon, 19, got her 15 seconds of fame — and a photo with the governor — after asking him why so many young graduates are unemployed.

“There are plenty of jobs around the state. But you have to get the right degree,” Scott told her.

Life science business owner Ken Kirby said the governor should consider proposing a new life science fund for startup businesses in the sector now that it has invested millions of dollars in Scripps Florida, in Jupiter, and other institutes.

“It seems a shame to waste the momentum,” said Kirby, whose company TransDermal Delivery Solutions Corp., which has developed alternative systems to deliver drugs to patients, opened a new headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens last year.

Florida expects a budget surplus by the time lawmakers draft the 2014-15 budget. A new forecast released Sept. 4 shows a surplus of $845 million in fiscal 2014, even after meeting current enrollment needs for schools and health care programs such as Medicaid and setting aside $1 billion in reserves, according to a draft report released Sept. 4 by legislative appropriation committees and researchers.

The surplus is mostly due to a recovering economy, said Amy Baker, state chief economist. “People here have more money to spend and more tourists are spending money here,” she said.

While general revenues are increasing due to pulling in more sales tax, the budget constraints have shrunk as some state programs were eliminated or reduced during the recession.

But forecasters warn that more than half of the surplus — $449 million — is a one-time windfall.

In recent weeks, Scott has promised to spend an additional $70 million on environmental projects dealing with the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee in the coming year, which could come out of the surplus.

Another target could be auto tag fees that were raised in 2009 when Gov. Charlie Crist was in office. Crist, now a Democrat, is expected to challenge Scott in the governor’s race in 2014.

Gov. Scott made a pledge in 2010 to eliminate the corporate income tax, which generates about $2.1 billion a year. But Florida lawmakers have steered away from the massive tax break, which would benefit mostly larger companies.

The “It’s Your Money” tour continues over the next three days in Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando.

 

Source:  Sun-Sentinel