Florida Trying To Lure NYC Business Leaders After Mamdani's Victory
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Florida has emerged as an unlikely winner from New York City's mayoral primary race, which marked the triumph of Zohran Mamdani, as wealthy investors scared off by the young left-wing candidate's ideas seem set to look for better opportunities in the South.
Real estate professionals are the first to believe that the Sunshine State will reap huge benefits from Mamdani's victory. Mere hours after the primary election's results, some were already reporting a surge in interest for Florida properties among New York City-based investors.
"We saw an immediate spike in interest," Isaac Toledano, CEO & Co-founder of BH Group, one of South Florida's most active luxury developers, told Newsweek. "Within a day of the primary results, we had serious inquiries from buyers in Manhattan and Connecticut. One asked about the Ritz-Carlton Residences in West Palm Beach, the other about the West Pompano Beach Hotel & Residences."
Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty/AP/Canva
"We've seen more interest, especially from clients who were already keeping an eye on Florida. Mamdani's victory seems to have accelerated those conversations," Peggy Olin, CEO of OneWorld Properties, an expert leading sales and marketing for some of South Florida's top luxury towers, told Newsweek.
"People are asking more questions about timing, taxes, and long-term lifestyle changes. It's less about panic and more about planning. They're being proactive."
Wealthy Homebuyers And Business Leaders Welcome
There is a certain buzz all across the Sunshine State for the riches that Mamdani's victory could bring to the local markets—especially in Florida's most luxurious cities.
"Time to move to Miami," Miami-based real estate developer Alex Witkoff wrote on X after former Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded to the relatively unknown 33-year-old state politician. "Just when you thought Palm Beach real estate couldn't go any higher...," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wrote on the social media platform.
Miami Mayor Philip Levine said on social media, "Florida should pay for Mamdani's campaign" because of how much the candidate's victory is benefiting the state.
Florida Council of 100, a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization of Florida business leaders who advise the state's governor, wrote a letter addressed to New York CEOs calling for them to relocate their operations in the Sunshine State.
"Today, New York's future feels increasingly uncertain—an unacceptable risk for business leaders responsible for their businesses and the families that rely upon them," they wrote. "Florida offers a better path."
In the Sunshine State, they argued, "government is a partner in growth, not a barrier." A clear reference to Mamdani's plans to reform the city's tax system to force "richer and whiter" neighborhoods to pay more and freeze the rent for over 2 million residents—a move that has upset wealthy landlords.
"Our clients who own buildings across NYC are deeply concerned about the rent freeze tied to Mayor Mamdani's agenda," Jay Batra, a real estate entrepreneur and the principal of Batra Real Estate, a full-service real estate brokerage in New York City and Miami, told Newsweek.
"Landlords are facing mounting pressure—with high taxes and operating costs, it's becoming unsustainable to hold properties without the ability to adjust rents. Many are now evaluating out-of-state investments as a safer, more profitable alternative.
New York City's 'Sixth Borough'
Mamdani's victory is just "the latest shoe to drop in New York," John Boyd, principal at the location advisory firm The Boyd Co, told Newsweek, after the city has faced what he calls a migrant "crisis, [rising] street and subway crime, antisemitism unrest on City campuses, congestion pricing and soaring taxes."
The city has experienced several spurts of activity from wealthy investors looking to relocate out of the state in recent years, Boyd said, and this latest one is focusing on South Florida. This part of the Sunshine State "has become known as 'New York City's sixth borough' due to the longstanding synergies and migration there from high-tax New York to low-tax Florida," he said.
"Florida's more relaxed approach to COVID-19—which contrasted starkly to New York closed policies—really opened the floodgate during the pandemic and it has never stopped and is now spiking again with the prospect of a socialist mayor running the financial capital of the world," Boyd said.
The movement of New York City high-net-worth individuals to Florida is so established, Boyd said, that Boca Raton in Palm Beach County is becoming known as "Wall Street South" given its popularity as "a landing spot for major banking and financial services firms like Colony Capital and Wealthspire Advisors and billionaire hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman, founder of New York City-based Omega Advisors."
Florida, as a state with no income tax and a ban on rent regulation, offers a kind of reassurance to wealthy investors that they started to doubt they would find in New York City—especially if Mamdani is elected mayor in November.
Olin said that she expects most New York City-based investors who are considering relocating to Florida not to wait until then. "I think we'll continue to see movement, especially among buyers who've already been considering a change," she said.
"If Mamdani wins and those policy concerns materialize, it could push more people to act. But again, this isn't just about leaving, it's about choosing a place that feels like the right fit for the next chapter. And for many, Florida checks a lot of those boxes."
Boyd, for one, is ready for the big shift. "Our corporate site selection firm has never experienced the level of 'leaving New York' interest that we are seeing today, largely due to the prospects of New York City's top elected official being a socialist—an unthinkable event just a few years ago," he said.
"Our phones have been ringing off the hook from companies wishing to find the best relocation option should they decide to leave New York.
While Boyd expects "a major shift of corporate investment and job creation out of New York City should Mamdani prevail in the fall," he thinks that there will still be "a contingent of Wall Streeters and major elements of the City's corporate community" who would choose to remain in the Big Apple. "For some companies, their ties to New York City are just too deep to relocate elsewhere."
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