Digital media firm seeks incentives to create 60 jobs in Miami-Dade

A digital media company could receive public incentives for relocating to Miami-Dade County and creating 60 jobs. The identity of the applicant for “Project Rhino” was kept confidential by the Beacon Council, which has asked the Miami-Dade County Commission to approve the item at its Oct. 20 meeting. The company would relocate the national headquarters of its digital media operation to an unspecified location in the county for a lease. It doesn’t say the entire corporate headquarters would relocate, so it appears to refer to a division that specializes in digital media. The move would expand the company’s production and design operations to increase its production of national and local broadcasting, the application states. This expansion could happen in the fall of 2015, so it appears imminent. However, the company also considered New York, Los Angeles and Mexico for the expansion. Taking an educated guess, Project Rhino has some similarities to Spanish media and broadcast giant Univision. On Oct. 2, Taylor & Mathis brokers announced that Univision signed a 40,000-square-foot lease to expand into the 9250 Doral building. Univision, which has filed an IPO in preparation to go public, is based in New York, where its digital media operation is also headquartered. However, Univision has major back office and broadcast operations in the Doral area. According to Variety.com, Univision named Mark Lopez as executive VP and general manager of Univision Digital in May and announced he would work in Miami. Lopez was previously the head of U.S. Hispanic audience sales for Google. Officials with Univision didn’t return a call seeking comment. The Project Rhino item was sponsored by Commission Jose “Pepe” Diaz, who represents the Doral area. According to the application, Project Rhino promises to create 60 jobs with average salaries of $78,000 over three years and make a $2 million capital investment. If it creates and maintains those jobs over six years, the company would receive $360,000 through the Qualified Target Industries (QTI) program, with $72,000 from the county and the rest from the state.

Source: South Florida Business Journal