In the Know: SWFL tops in U.S. for corporate relocations, rising home prices; and Old Navy's future
Top place for corporate headquarters
Phil Fernandez
Charlotte County rarely beats Collier and Lee in many categories.
But not only did it top Southwest Florida on a couple of fronts this past week, it went well beyond the region.
More:Affordable housing shortage has long been a problem in SWFL. Can we fix it?
And:In the Know: Via CIA and hotels, Phil McCabe's 'fast, furious' SWFL ride to $156M
Plus:In the Know: Record low inventory not slowing buyers; Top Golf, Hoffmann deals
Rising:In the Know: 'Muscling through challenges.' Margaritaville debut nears in SWFL
Investing:In the Know: Hoffmann expands in Lee; new Sprouts, rising costs of homes
How about nationwide?
First, a leading international site selection company named Punta Gorda the premier venue for having the characteristics a corporation wants these days in setting up headquarters in the eastern United States.
The Boyd Company Inc. report focuses on the new wave of headquarter locations that it expects coming out of the pandemic, influenced by remote working and the migration from large urban centers to smaller markets like Southwest Florida.
The firm's John Boyd Jr. has been telling me for a couple of years that Naples and Cape Coral-Fort Myers have been on the radar, and we've tracked some moves. But Charlotte County is emerging.
And emerged, it has.
"We like its access to I-75, its more favorable cost structures compared with South Florida markets like Palm Beach, Miami and Broward and less congestion and more affordable housing in the region," Boyd said. "We also view the upcoming Sunseeker Resort being developed by Allegiant Airlines as a catalyst for a new wave of in-migration, coming first as tourists and liking the region and subsequently buying homes."
The economics are a biggie in the new study by the corporate relocation specialists that determined Mt. Juliet, Tennessee as No. 1 in the center part of the nation, and Minden, Nevada as best in the west.
Boyd examined tax structures and the cost of operating a typical corporate head office, constructing a new stellar 75,000-square-foot building and employing 200 administrative workers. The analysis covered major geographically-variable cost factors critical to the corporate site selection process, including labor, real estate, construction, utilities, taxes and travel, he said.
"Punta Gorda recorded the lowest annual operating cost in the entire report," said Boyd, whose Princeton, New Jersey-founded company tracks global development trends in working with dozens of Sunshine State and worldwide clients such as Boeing, Dell, The World Bank, Samsung and UPS for almost a half-century.
CEO mansions:In the Know: Corporate giant set up offices in Naples
Privacy:In the Know: how your personal data is shared '1,000 times a second'
Working:In the Know: SWFL and state now among spots with top paying jobs in US
How it started:Roots of supply line challenges in Trump trade wars and tariffs
Move over, Texas. Come on in, Twitter
One tough competitor for the region may not be in the picture as much.
"Costs in the red-hot Austin market have risen dramatically with all the success that central Texas market has enjoyed in recent years, especially attracting companies like Tesla, Oracle, Amazon, Google and others from California," Boyd said. "The upshot of this is that Southwest Florida cities will find themselves competing less with Texas and more with Nevada, which has no corporate or personal income tax."
One of those possibilities is Twitter, he said.
"The big gorilla in the corporate relocation room right now is where will the corporate headquarters of Twitter end up after Elon Musk completes his purchase later this year. No way it will stay in San Francisco," said Boyd, with Florida already making overtures. "I have no doubt Southwest Florida developers representing places like Punta Gorda, Naples, Fort Myers and Sarasota will be making similar pitches."
The question is whether the Tesla leader and entrepreneur would want to motor this far.
"Florida’s chief competition will be coming from Texas and northern Nevada cities like Minden, which is not far from Tesla’s Reno Gigafactory," Boyd said. "Given the proximity and familiarity between the Bay Area of California and the Reno-Tahoe area, it is likely that Twitter would be able to retain more of its key head office staff in a close-in move to Nevada versus a long distance move to Florida or Texas."
Along with the top 3, a dozen others made the Boyd 2022 list of corporate destinations:
♦ Tampa Bay's St. Petersburg
♦ Central Florida's Lake Nona
♦ Palm Beach County's Westlake
♦ Cary, North Carolina
♦ Kannapolis, North Carolina
♦ Blue Ash, Ohio
♦ Dublin, Ohio
♦ Leander, Texas
♦ Plano, Texas
♦ Round Rock, Texas
♦ Woodlands, Texas
♦ Bellevue, Washington
Remember when:In the Know: 7 store closings including 1965 original that provides a mini-history lesson. One place poised for comeback
End of the road:In the Know: 112-year-old Stein Mart closings included 4 SWFL spots
U.S. biggest house price jump: SWFL
Charlotte's other claim to fame this past week?
The Punta Gorda-Charlotte metro area had the highest year-over-year housing price gains in America at 34.4%, based on the National Association of Realtor's newly released first quarter statistics. The Super 8 featured several midsize and small markets, and most of them are in Florida:
2. Ocala (33.8%);
3. Ogden-Clearfield, Utah (30.8%);
4. Lakeland-Winter Haven (30.1%);
5. Decatur, Ala. (28.9%);
6. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (28.8%);
7. Fort Collins, Colo. (28.4%);
8. North Point-Bradenton-Sarasota (28.0%).
"Traditionally, homes in these markets were viewed as relatively inexpensive, but with recent migration trends, prices have increased significantly," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. "Price gains in many smaller, tertiary cities are now outpacing those in the more expensive primary and secondary markets. This is due to buyers looking for less expensive housing and also a result of more opportunities to work from home, making relocation to smaller markets possible."
Where ya been, Old Navy?
And until this weekend, on a much different scale, the Charlotte/North Port area had the most Old Navy operations, separated by a 10-minute drive between Port Charlotte and the Cocoplum Village Shops, about a mile north of the Charlotte-Sarasota county line.
On Saturday, Estero officially got its franchise back, giving Lee its second spot at Miromar Outlets at Corkscrew Road and I-75 to go with its locale adjacent to Page Field in Fort Myers.
In 2013, the village lost the retailer at Coconut Point near Corkscrew and Tamiami Trail when its Gap Inc. owners shifted strategies and decided to close some 200 of its U.S. stores while putting greater focus on Latin America, Europe and China. Amid declining sales, the chain had hit a bit of a rough patch, and it's again going through some rough waters, cutting its sales forecast last month.
Also, back in the day, the combined population of Estero and Bonita Springs was around 65,000, which is in range of what the latter has now by itself. Together, the pair are crossing into 100,000 territory, according to estimates by the Census and others, and Estero getting mentioned on national TV by folks like Blake Shelton doesn't hurt either.
Clearly, the corporate bosses expect more customers this go-around, with 14,000 square feet of polos, khakis and high-waisted twill shorts for one of the center's five or so largest berths.
Consider that over time, several smaller entities had bunched in that slot including U.S. Polo Assn., New York & Company, Lancome, Tresor Rare, Luxury Beauty Store and Skechers, which moved to another building. The new arrival parked adjacent to Banana Republic.
The Naples Old Navy can be found at the Coastland Center at U.S. 41 and Golden Gate Parkway. Among the state's 62, Miami and Orlando both have seven, and no other community has more than two.
Based at the Naples Daily News, Columnist Phil Fernandez (pfernandez@gannett.com) writes In the Know as part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. Support Democracy and subscribe to a newspaper.