Cathie Wood
Reed Young/ARK Invest
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is moving its headquarters from New York City to St. Petersburg, Florida, the company announced on Wednesday.
The money manager, which focuses on making investments in disruptive innovations and manages the $19.5 billion ARK Innovation ETF (ticker: ARKK), is the latest to join Wall Street peers in the Sunshine State. The relocation will be effective on Nov. 1.
ARK also announced plans to build an incubator in collaboration with the local government, which will aim to “retain and attract top talent by supporting entrepreneurs and tech startups in St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay region.” The incubator will be named the ARK Innovation Center and is expected to break ground early next year and open in July 2023.
ARK said the relocation and the ARK Innovation Center would help advance its business and facilitate collaboration with the innovation communities.
“ARK is not a traditional Wall Street asset management firm, and we are looking forward to breaking the mold further by relocating to St. Petersburg, a city investing in technology, science, and innovation,” said ARK founder and CEO Cathie Wood in the statement.
ARK said its new office––located in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg––will enable the firm to expand and its employees to enjoy a better work-life balance. A “substantial” number of employees have already chosen to relocate and work in the office, according to the firm, while the rest will work remotely from around the world.
A slew of Wall Street firms have opened offices in Florida since the start of the pandemic last year, including Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors and Stephen Schwarzman’s Blackstone (BX). Hedge fund manager Paul Singer even moved the headquarters of his Elliott Investment Management from Midtown Manhattan to West Palm Beach.
As more employees are working from home, companies are reconsidering their options given the pricey real estate and high taxes in some of the traditional financial hubs like New York City and San Francisco.
The low taxes and warm weather in Florida have been appealing to financial executives for years. Many have homes in the state, and some have established satellite offices there. Still, most companies have been hesitant to move their head offices south, worrying that they’d lose the connection and talents in bigger cities like New York.
As of September, investment firms headquartered in the Sunshine State accounted for just 1.4% of the industry’s total assets under management, according to data from the Securities and Exchange Commission, while firms in New York made up 22%, followed by California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Raymond James is the largest investment firm headquartered in Florida, with $434 billion in managed assets under two registered entities.
Local leaders in Florida have been trying to attract the financial industry for years. “We are incredibly proud that ARK has chosen not only to join us but to invest in the St. Pete community.” stated J.P. DuBuque, president and CEO of the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation.
Wood became one of the hottest stock pickers during the pandemic, as her actively managed ETFs were some of the best performing funds in 2020. Her outlook for the growth of companies like Tesla
(TSLA), Wood has attracted a large following of retail investors.
The ARK funds have taken in billions of new cash since last year, though they’ve been struggling amid 2021’s market volatility. The company currently manages $55 billion in total assets, according to SEC data.
“We are thrilled ARK has decided to call Florida home,” stated Florida Secretary of Commerce Jamal Sowell, President and CEO of Enterprise Florida. “Their investment in the St. Petersburg area will have profound economic impacts in the years to come and will continue to set Florida apart as one of the top innovation destinations in the country.”
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