North Palm Beach Today

City of West Palm Beach recently issued the following announcement.

Mayor James’ "West Palm 1,000" Initiative Encouraged Quality Job Opportunities in City

West Palm Beach added 1,354 jobs or commitments of jobs following a surge of corporate relocations in 2021. Through his ‘West Palm 1000’ initiative, Mayor Keith A. James issued a challenge to create more than 1,000 new, quality job opportunities in the city this year. A staggering 135% of the goal was met before the year’s end. The jobs data underscores the desirability of West Palm Beach as a business-friendly destination for relocating companies, especially in the financial services industry. The promising jobs data is the result of the joint efforts of the city and its partner, the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, to attract new companies to our city and region.

In 2021, 12 companies either relocated or committed to relocate to West Palm Beach. Representing the finance, tech/biotech, real estate, marketing/multimedia industries, the companies are:

• FINANCE: New Day USA (600 jobs), Millennium Management (150), AltaRock (20), Project Rocket (20), Benefit Street (17),
• COMMITMENTS IN FINANCE: Project Silver (300), Project Lake (20), Project Safari (5),
• MANUFACTURING: Project Leaf (40)
• MARKETING/MULTIMEDIA: Moving Minds (70),
• TECH/BIOTECH and TECH/REAL ESTATE: Exuma Biotech (100), Global Listings (12),

“COVID-19 has accelerated the trend of corporations relocating to our city in search of a business-friendly environment, a great quality of life, and Florida’s no-income tax status,” said Mayor James. “I set the ‘West Palm 1000’ jobs goal to encourage the team to continue their great work capitalizing upon that momentum. 1,354 newly created jobs will lead to an even stronger economy and even more economic opportunity for residents in all neighborhoods.”

The city’s Office of Economic Development and the Office of Small and Minority-Woman Business Programs offer several programs, preferences and incentives to attract, support or enhance businesses in West Palm Beach. These initiatives include:

• Grants and incentives for small businesses and corporate relocations, facilitated by the city’s Economic Development Director.
• Building Improvement and Grant Program, designed for property owners, landlords and new, relocating businesses or existing businesses expanding space to make significant, permanent modifications to existing buildings.
• City of West Palm Beach Office of Equal Opportunity, which oversees programs designed to ensure fair business practices throughout the city.
• City of West Palm Beach Small Business Program, which was created to allow local businesses to participate in the city's procurement system, and to prohibit discrimination by the city or its providers of goods, services and construction.
• City of West Palm Beach Minority/Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) Program, which was designed to expand opportunities for minority-owned or women-owned businesses.
• Veteran preference – Organizations that are certified as a service-disabled veteran business will outweigh competitors for contractual bids, with identical qualifications, within the City of West Palm Beach: www.wpb.org/oeo

To learn more about the city’s Office of Small and Minority-Woman Business Programs, please call (561) 822-2104 (TTY: 800-955-8771) or visit www.wpb.org/oeo. To speak with Rebecca DeLaRosa, economic development director for the City of West Palm Beach, please call (561) 822-1400 (TTY: 800-955-8771)  or email rjdelarosa@wpb.org. 

Original source can be found here.