2 min read October 2022 — In an interview with Invest:, James Kohnstamm, executive vice president of the Beacon Council, discussed highlights and milestones over the last 12 months, key opportunities for economic development and the potential impact of the ‘Created in Miami’ campaign to attract more businesses in the creative industries.
What have been some of the key highlights for the Beacon Council over the past year?
We are proud of the impact we’ve had on quality job creation in our community. That comes from helping local companies expand and grow, including startups, small businesses and recruitment of new business to our county. Last fiscal year, the Beacon Council secured the highest total job creation in our history with 5,000 new high-paying jobs committed. We ran an analysis with Miami-Dade County that showed that the local economic impact of our work is around $1 billion annually.
I would also like to highlight the corporate migration we have seen, which is not a trend in most communities across the country. We are attracting corporate relocations to Miami-Dade County, specifically firms in technology and financial services. The biggest recent announcement was Citadel moving their corporate HQ from Chicago into Downtown Miami.
Another bright spot is the resurgence of foreign investment in Miami. During the height of COVID, foreign borders were closed and travel was very difficult. This became a significant constraint for a community like ours, which is very international and has a lot of foreign activity.
Our airport is on track to welcome 50 million passengers this year, which will be an all-time record. MIA is number one in foreign passengers, with more people passing through our airport than at JFK or LAX, and we’ve always been number one in international freight. Our seaport is growing cargo operations, and our cruise industry has come back very strong. In general, business development is experiencing a huge uptick and pent up demand is reasserting international investment to Miami.
Where do you see the greatest opportunities for economic development in Miami?
The greatest opportunity is the growth of our academic institutions and the talent we are producing. We’ve been exporting talent in the sense that we develop great talent, but in some cases, we might not retain them from other job opportunities across the country. However, thanks to the influx of new businesses, we are seeing more stickiness from a talent perspective.
Our colleges and universities are responding quickly by developing new engineering and AI programs. For example, Miami Dade College recently won a $10 million federal grant to grow local tech talent. If we continue to develop a future-ready workforce, more businesses will relocate to the region to access that talent. I believe we are well positioned to significantly expand our tech hub over the next three to five years.
What are the key economic drivers for Miami and what sectors are you looking to develop in the near future?
We have seven targeted industries that we focus on. Aviation, finance, creative industries including media, life sciences and healthcare, trade and logistics, tech and lastly, tourism, which is a pillar for our economy.
Each of those industries are very relevant as economic drivers and are growing in very interesting ways. On the aviation side, we have a very strong maintenance cluster and flight training, and more is coming. In the creative industries, we have Telemundo, HBO Latin America and Univision. At the Beacon Council, we also recently launched Created in Miami, a community branding initiative.
In life sciences and healthcare, we are seeing pharmaceutical manufacturing growth and exciting new innovations happening in our hospital systems. In tech, there has been a major expansion in blockchain and crypto firms and that continues to be an opportunity we will focus on. Climate tech, fintech and healthtech are areas we are leaning toward as well.
We understand that our airport and seaport are the physical economic drivers of our community. All industries I just mentioned rely on the ability to move goods and people in and out of our community efficiently, and the ability of our airport and seaport to function at their highest level allows for all those business opportunities to grow.
Beacon Council recently launched the Created in Miami campaign. What are you hoping to achieve with this initiative?
We launched in mid-September, and it is an initiative led by our Creative Industries Committee. They have been doing a lot of work in benchmarking community branding initiatives across the country over the last few months. There are great examples of this, such as Made in New York or Made in Seattle. While we recognize we have a dynamic manufacturing industry here, our real strength lies in our ability to highlight not just what is made in Miami, but what is created here.
It’s a change in wording, but it is meaningful because of its inclusivity. We have everything from Telenovelas, design firms and a thriving arts community, in addition to other manufacturing products, food and robotics. We intend to focus on impact and resiliency. For example, in the kick-off event, we had companies that were repurposing waste plastic into other household goods or sustainable furniture. Our goal is to create additional pathways for creators and makers to share their goods in a supportive community, while also allowing people from outside of the community to better understand what Miami represents.
What are some of the ways you hope to see South Florida improve its diversity and inclusion efforts going forward?
We are a very diverse community, which is our greatest strength. By many counts, more than 50% of our population is foreign-born. We are an entrepreneurial community with a large share of small businesses from people starting their own companies and creating opportunities for themselves.
On inclusion, we need to continue to elevate Black, Brown and women-owned companies by connecting them with various programs and services that exist and be intentional about sharing their success stories. We have a small business accelerator program focused on micro-businesses that are minority-owned. A challenge we saw during COVID was that many small businesses seeking federal relief funds couldn’t access those funds because they didn’t have a business account or weren’t up to date with their taxes. We helped them strategize and find a path so they could apply.
We also partner on workforce initiatives with CareerSource South Florida to maximize our impact.
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