NYC-Based Blackstone Selects Miami for Advanced Financial Technology Hub

World’s largest alternative asset manager will create more than
200 new high-earning technology jobs and invest $25 Million in Miami-Dade County

Miami, FL – October 12, 2020 —The Miami-Dade Beacon Council announced that Blackstone, the largest alternative investment firm in the world, will open an advanced regional financial services technology headquarters in Downtown Miami. The most recent among dozens of financial services, private equity, hedge fund, and venture capital firms to migrate to South Florida, Blackstone will create 215 new jobs by 2024 and invest $25 Million locally in new capital investments.

“Miami is a vibrant market with a pipeline of top talent from best-in-class technology programs and a large technology footprint,” said Jennifer Friedman, Managing Director, Global Public Affairs at The Blackstone Group. “[The office] will enable us to diversify our talent pool and grow our technology team.”

“We want, from a tech perspective, a peer to New York [in] terms of talent, and the population and universities, and the tech pipeline, all that mirrored what we [have] here,” Blackstone Chief Technology Officer John Stecher told the Miami Herald, noting that Miami’s world class amenities also make it easy to attract and retain qualified individuals. “All those factors, when you combine them together, and contrast that with other cities, Miami ranked consistently higher,” Stecher noted.

As the County’s official economic development partnership, The Beacon Council is working closely with Blackstone and their site selection team to successfully navigate everything Miami-Dade’s world-class business community has to offer; access to highly qualified technology professionals proved to be a strong competitive advantage for Miami.

“Blackstone’s decision to open this office in Miami is a testament to our ability to develop, retain, and recruit high-level tech talent, as talent was the driving force in the firm’s site selection process,” said Michael A. Finney, President and CEO of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council. “We are proud of our work to attract Blackstone to Miami-Dade, as they are creating the high-value, knowledge-based jobs we know our community needs, and further accelerating the growth of our innovation ecosystem.”

Identified as a target growth industry under the One Community One Goal strategic plan, the job growth for the Technology Target Industry in Miami-Dade between 2012 and 2019 was 77%. During the same period, the local talent of computer and related professionals increased by 34%, with more than 15 coding schools complementing the robust pipeline of local college and university graduates in technology-related fields (with Florida International University ranking 6^th in the U.S. for Computer Science graduates).“I’m excited that Blackstone will be opening a regional financial technology headquarters in our County,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. “With its commitment to add 215 FinTech jobs and $25 million in capital investments in our County, Blackstone has chosen the best place to do business. This is another example of our great partnership with The Beacon Council as we continue to grow good-paying jobs and expand our County’s efforts to diversify our economy.”

Home to one of the largest concentration of international banks in the United States, and the second-largest financial hub outside of New York City, Miami’s strength in FinTech is a natural outgrowth of the intersection between its burgeoning tech innovation community and its established financial services sector. Strategic investments like Blackstone’s further cement the community’s position as a destination for financial services and technology firms from across the country and around the world.

“The arrival of these companies is stimulating our local economy – bringing jobs, private investment and new residents to Miami’s urban core and putting our district on the track to sustained growth,” Miami DDA Chairman and Miami City Commissioner Manolo Reyes shared in a statement. “As long as businesses and individuals across America are weighed down by state and local taxes, Downtown Miami will continue to thrive as 24-7 district – without the tax burdens evident in so many other places.”

“I am so pleased that Blackstone has chosen downtown Miami for its new regional headquarters,” said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who represents District 5. “Blackstone brings the type of high skill, high paying jobs we continue to attract to Miami-Dade County as we strive to diversify our economy and build greater economic resilience for our residents and our tax base.”

No state or local personal income tax, low corporate income tax, and a supportive regulatory environment creates a pro-business climate that presents significant advantages for high-income earners and business owners. Recent tax increases in New York, Illinois, California, and other states are expected to spur more relocations; coupled with more affordable office rents, lower housing prices, and access to high caliber diverse talent in a culturally-rich, active, world-class community like Miami, and the appeal for global companies like Blackstone is clear.

**For media inquiries please reach out to the Beacon Council media contact**

tgarcia@beaconcouncil.com / 305-335-8894

About the Miami‐Dade Beacon Council

Miami‐Dade Beacon Council is the official economic development organization for Miami‐Dade County. Its mission is to increase jobs and investment through marketing Miami as a world-class business destination; helping grow local companies; and shaping Miami-Dade’s economic future. Since 1985, the organization has assisted more than 1,200 businesses to expand in or relocate to Miami-Dade creating over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs combined and driving more than $6.6 billion in new capital investments. A professional staff and volunteer community leaders work together to promote Miami-Dade as a world‐class 21^st century community at the forefront of a changing global economy. For more information: www.beaconcouncil.com.

About Blackstone

Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our asset management businesses, with $564 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2020, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com.