Meet the investors bringing wealth, new plants and good jobs to the Sunshine State.
Fifty years ago, most people associated Florida with Disney World, mobile home parks, retirement communities, shuffleboard courts, shell shacks, T-shirt stands and beach motels welcoming vacationing families from the Midwest and Northeast.
Fast forward to 2026 and one thing is abundantly clear: This is not your grandfather’s Sunshine State anymore.
While most of the things listed above are still there, they no longer dominate the Florida economy to the degree they did in 1976. Taking their place at the top of the economic food chain are high-net-worth individuals, financial services companies, high-tech investors and the physical plants they are building across the sun-splashed peninsula.
In other words, the current iteration of Florida looks nothing like its past. Florida is getting wealthier, more diversified and more talent-rich each year. The numbers confirm this.
Renderings courtesy of Rosso Development
For starters, check out where the wealthiest individuals and their business empires are migrating. According to the latest data from the Florida Chamber Foundation and Florida TaxWatch, more wealth relocates each year to Florida than to any other place in the U.S.
Around $39.2 billion in net wealth transfers to Florida each year. To put that into perspective, that amounts to $4.48 million in individual net assets transferring to the Sunshine State every hour.
That amount of capital buys a lot more than suntan lotion and luxury beach condos. It invests into creating and expanding companies, constructing corporate facility expansion projects and hiring talented workers who then begin building their own fortunes.
From Stephen Ross and Carlos Rosso on the Atlantic Coast to Dynasty Financial, Webull and SmartChoice on the Gulf Coast, Florida is humming with capital investors eager to share their bounty with the state’s rapidly growing talent pool.
Labor intelligence firm Lightcast, which many site selectors and companies use to find the best locations for business expansion, recently ranked Florida the No. 1 state in the nation in the data firm’s Talent Attraction Scorecard for the second year in a row.
From Pensacola to Jacksonville, Gainesville to Orlando, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater to Lakeland-Winter Haven and all the way down to West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, GDP growth is on a tear, and that means rapidly growing companies are hiring.
According to the Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research, five counties now account for more than 50% of Florida’s GDP:
- Miami-Dade: 14.91%
- Broward: 10.24%
- Orange: 9.39%
- Hillsborough: 8.96%
- Palm Beach: 8.25%
It’s no wonder, then, that these five counties rank among the state’s leading winners of corporate facility deals. From January 1, 2025, to February 24, 2026, a total of 367 major corporate facility investment projects were announced in Florida, per the Conway Projects Database of Site Selection magazine. Miami-Dade County leads the state by landing 74 (20%) of these deals. Palm Beach County is second with 43 projects, followed by Duval (Jacksonville) with 38, Hillsborough (Tampa) with 34, Orange (Orlando) with 31, Broward (Fort Lauderdale) with 27 and Pinellas (Clearwater-St. Petersburg) with 20.
Renderings courtesy of Rosso Development
To find out why these locations attract so many corporate investors, we talked to the CEOs making expansion moves in these markets. What we learned is that the formula being used by Florida to attract both individual and corporate investors could be replicable if other states elected to give it a try. This formula follows three simple rules:
- Capital shifts to where it is treated well.
- Where wealth migrates, good jobs tend to follow.
- When newcomers succeed in a location, others want to join them.
“We’re seeing a lot of prime tenants moving to this area. It certainly makes a lot of sense to do this development in Miami right now.”
— Carlos Rosso, Founder of Rosso Development, on why he’s doing Midtown Park in Miami
How Florida is Changing
To understand how significantly this wealth migration is changing the economy of Florida, it pays to take inventory of the people making it happen. Some 115 billionaires now call Florida home; and their numbers are swelling each year. In the past three years alone, the following billionaires have established residence in the Sunshine State: Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and most recently, Howard Schultz.
They join previous transplants such as Related Group founder Stephen Ross, who decided to move from New York to Palm Beach during the pandemic six years ago and has not looked back since. His former Related colleague, Carlos Rosso, moved to Florida in 2001 after completing a master’s degree at MIT. After two decades at Related, Rosso launched his own South Florida development company, Rosso Development.
A new airside terminal will only enhance the attractiveness of Tampa International Airport, say the area’s corporate investors.
Rendering courtesy of TIA
Today, he’s developing the $2 billion mixed-use project known as Midtown Park in Miami. “I think it’s a unique opportunity to be able to control five acres in the middle of Miami in a market that is booming and attracting buyers from all over the place,” he says. “This was a dream come true for a developer like me.”
Rosso says the high-end project will combine public space with private space and include 120,000 sq. ft. of mixed-use space on the ground floor. “We’re seeing a lot of prime tenants moving to this area,” he says, adding that large office space users are eyeing the market. “Amazon just signed a 50,000-square-foot lease a block from us, so the timing is right for this project.”
Midtown Park will include 60,000 sq. ft. of office, 950 luxury residences including penthouses that will be priced from $3.1 million to $5.6 million, retail space, restaurants and a preschool center that can accommodate up to 150 children.
With all the people and wealth relocating to South Florida, says Rosso, the time is right to invest into luxury projects like this one in Miami. “It certainly makes a lot of sense to do this development in Miami right now,” he notes. “We went through and looked at the neighborhoods that we like in Miami. Not only are there things that we like in Miami, but there are also things that we like in New York, Atlanta and other metropolitan areas. We made a list of all the things that we wanted to incorporate. We talked a lot with the neighbors because they were adamant [about] how to design this project.”
With green space, an amenity-rich padel club, fitness center and other public spaces, Midtown Park will be a unique asset in Miami, says Rosso. This is the third project in Midtown for the Argentina native, and it likely won’t be his last.
400 Central will soon be the new home of Dynasty Financial Partners in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Photo courtesy of Dynasty Financial Partners
Around Florida, corporate investors are cashing in on what they see as an opportunity to lower their overall tax bill, live and work close to the water, and gain access to a rapidly growing talent pool. Florida’s lack of a personal income tax is a huge draw for high-net-worth individuals, but the state’s profoundly pro-business climate is the differentiator when it comes to attracting employers.
Bye-Bye, New York; Hello, St. Pete
Across the peninsula from Miami, on the Gulf Coast side of Tampa Bay, several financial services and IT companies have fled high-tax locations elsewhere to set up shop in St. Petersburg. Among them are Dynasty Financial, Webull and SmartChoice LLC.
Jarrett Wolfe, founder and partner at telecom and internet security firm SmartChoice, says he moved from New York to St. Petersburg to open a regional office in 2021 because it was “the optimal business location” for the firm. “St. Petersburg is one of the top cities in the country that has outpaced population growth over the past 10 years,” he says. He noted other attributes such as “the low tax environment locally and statewide, a strong business support system, and an administration and City Council that are strongly pro-business.”
Jarrett Wolfe, Founder and Principal, SmartChoice LLC
He adds that St. Pete has “a unique mix of visitation, hospitality and a strong business core — including finance, technology, real estate and other professional services — and that drives the area’s economic development.” The 28-year-old firm that was named to the INC. 5000 list in 2016 and 2017 now has 20 employees at 360 Central Avenue in St. Pete.
The movement of companies like SmartChoice and others to St. Pete is propelling a wave of real estate development in the downtown area. Over the next five years, St. Pete will add more Class A office space downtown than has been built there in the past 20 years.
One of Wolfe’s corporate neighbors is Dynasty Financial Partners, a support platform for registered investment advisors. Mason Salit, chief talent officer for Dynasty, says that the firm founded in New York City in 2010 decided to relocate to St. Pete in 2019 for two primary reasons: to save money on real estate costs and to access a qualified talent pool.
“We conducted a national site search. We looked at Charlotte; Nashville; Lexington, Kentucky; Albany, New York; and multiple cities in Florida including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, West Palm Beach and Jupiter,” Salit says. “When we had our initial meeting with then-Mayor Rick Kriseman of St. Pete and his economic development team, it was clear that St. Pete by far had it all: the airport, the talent, great universities and colleges, and real estate costs that were 20% less than what we were paying in New York.”
It didn’t take Dynasty long to get up to speed. After hiring 60 new employees last year, the firm is already up to 200 full-time workers in downtown St. Pete. Since making the move, the Dynasty network has grown to over 500 advisors across 55 partner firms and has upped its portfolio to more than $120 billion in platform assets.
“COVID was a tailwind for us, but the unmatched quality of life that we found in St. Pete, coupled with the fact that Florida is a much more business-friendly state than New York, reinforced that we had found our new home.”
— Mason Salit, Chief Talent Officer, Dynasty Financial Partners
“The added bonus is that this is a place where our clients want to come to,” Salit says.
Pretty soon, Dynasty will move into brand-new office space down the street at 400 Central, a 37-story tower that will become the company’s permanent home. “We’re taking 44,000 square feet there, including 15,000 square feet of rooftop space, in October,” says Salit. “We signed a long-term lease. We did this because the amount of support we have here is incredible. COVID was a tailwind for us, but the unmatched quality of life that we found in St. Pete, coupled with the fact that Florida is a much more business-friendly state than New York, reinforced that we had found our new home.”
$39.2 billion in net wealth transfers to Florida each year. That is equal to $4.48 million in net assets moving to Florida every hour.
Source: Florida Chamber Foundation/Florida TaxWatch
No Bull: Webull Trades Places
Another financial services company finding sure footing in St. Pete is trading firm Webull, which just completed its first year as a publicly traded entity and recorded $571 million in revenues in 2025, up 46% from 2024.
Carlos Questell, chief of staff and head of strategic partnerships at Webull, recently sat down with me at the company’s new headquarters in the Carillon business park in St. Pete.
“We’re now the second largest digital trader in the U.S.,” says Questell. “We’re second only to Robinhood. We moved here three and a half years ago from New York City, and we already have over 150 people working here. We were running out of room in New York. That is an expensive market, so we created a task force to look for a new headquarters home.”
The billion-dollar unicorn considered sites in Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Austin, Denver, Salt Lake City, Miami, Tampa and St. Pete. “Quality of life is very important to us,” says Questell. “About 80% of our people are in their 20s. St. Pete was highlighted very early on in our search. We believe that this area will become the next Austin.”
By moving to Carillon, Webull joins a business park that is home to financial services juggernauts Raymond James and Franklin Templeton. “Florida is extremely business-friendly,” Questell says. “The second biggest reason why we moved is talent. With the University of South Florida, University of Tampa and St. Petersburg College, this community is a hub for talent. The beach is 15 minutes away. Tampa International Airport is 20 minutes. This is the best decision we’ve ever made, and we’ve stopped hiring in New York.”
Carlos Questell, Chief of Staff and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Webull
Questell says Webull is so committed to St. Pete that it is not leasing its space. “We own this 150,000-square-foot building. We occupy two of the three floors. I want to build a place where people want to be,” he says. “The St. Pete EDC was incredibly helpful. They genuinely want companies to be successful and grow. When we conducted our search, Denver was declining and Atlanta was stuck in traffic. Tampa-St. Pete was very holistic. It turned out to be a plus for recruiting top talent.”
Dynasty’s Salit says he frequently tells counterparts up north to test the Gulf waters for themselves. “Come and talk to me. I have no agenda,” he counsels. “I just want people to be happy. If you want to achieve work-life balance, come to St. Pete and you will be happy.”
