Billionaires Ken Griffin and Stephen Ross Launch $10 Million Push To Lure CEOs to South Florida

Billionaires Ken Griffin and Stephen Ross are putting $10 million into a new initiative to attract CEOs to South Florida, as part of their push to make the region a new economic powerhouse.

Real estate mogul Ross and hedge funder Griffin each contributed $5 million to the new national campaign dubbed “Ambition Accelerated,” which was unveiled Monday at the Wall Street Journal’s Invest Live conference in West Palm Beach, FL.

The campaign plans to tout Florida's Gold Coast, spanning West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami, as boasting the nation’s most pro-business regulatory environment and one of its most robust talent pipelines.

"This region offers a clear competitive advantage—a strong operating environment, a flourishing innovation ecosystem, and public leadership that works constructively with the private sector," Ross says.

Ross, the chairman of Related Companies, built his career in New York City, where he spearheaded the massive Hudson Yards development.

In 2020, he moved to West Palm Beach, where his new company Related Ross is investing some $10 billion in developing downtown real estate, with the aim to turn the area into a financial services hub.

“In previous generations, there were a limited number of American cities where companies could access opportunity and build at scale,” says Ross. “That’s why I began my career building my businesses in those cities. But to me, it’s clear that the next generation of companies belongs along Florida’s Gold Coast from West Palm Beach to Miami."

Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel, relocated his hedge fund to South Florida from Chicago in 2022, citing the Windy City's rising crime rates, high taxes, and generally deteriorating business environment.

“Where you choose to build a business determines how much time is spent driving growth versus navigating bureaucracy,” says Griffin. “Miami and the broader South Florida Gold Coast offer deep talent, regulatory clarity, and an extraordinary quality of life."

The new marketing campaign is being executed by the Florida Council of 100, a private consortium of business leaders in the Sunshine State.

The campaign will target CEOs, founders, and investors through advertising that poses direct questions about building in South Florida versus other regions, such as: “What if you could scale in the top major metro region for GDP growth and in a state that's among the lowest in business regulation in the nation?”

“Every CEO is making the same set of decisions right now—where can we hire, where can we operate efficiently, and where can we scale with confidence,” says Mike Simas, president and CEO of the Florida Council of 100. “Florida’s Gold Coast is answering those questions better than anywhere in the country, and this campaign is about putting that advantage directly in front of the leaders deciding where to build next.”

Florida benefited from a major surge in relocations during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Ross and Griffin among the most prominent business leaders to move to the state.

In total, some 30,000 New Yorkers with combined annual incomes of $9.2 billion moved to Florida's Miami-Dade County and Palm Beach County in the five years through 2022, according the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog.

The migration wave fueled an explosion in home prices in South Florida, but in recent years the influx has slowed, allowing the housing market there to cool down.

Recently released U.S. Census data shows that Florida gained a paltry 22,517 new residents from net domestic migration last year, down 93% from its peak in 2022, and the lowest annual gain since 2010, in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

It's likely that the pandemic pulled forward many moves, compressing multiple years of expected migration into a shorter window.

As well, soaring home insurance costs and condo maintenance fees in Florida may be discouraging some prospective residents from moving to the state.