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Ep 53: The One About Boca Raton Economic Development | Jessica Del Vecchio

Jessica Del Vecchio Season 3 Episode 53

Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Del Vecchio the Economic Development Manager for the City of Boca Raton on #SoooBoca Stories. She shares the allure of our beautiful community to companies and corporations from all over the globe that are moving their headquarters and themselves, their employees and their families to Boca Raton.

In April 2015, Jessica Del Vecchio joined the City of Boca Raton as its first economic development manager and was tasked with leading the newly established Economic Development Division. Since its inception, the Office of Economic Development has successfully facilitated over a dozen corporate relocation and expansion projects; including one of the largest corporate deals in Palm Beach County, which committed to creating 838 new jobs in Boca Raton.

Prior to accepting the role, Jess spent 15 years in the finance industry. Attaining FINRA Series 3, 7, 63, 65 and Florida’s Life, Health and Variable Annuity licenses, she spent 8 years at Smith Barney and 7 years at Haar Capital, both based in Boca Raton.

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Speaker 1:

Hey everyone. It's Michelle Baldessari. Your host is so bogus stories in conjunction with so boca.com and at so Boca on Instagram. So glad you're here today. This podcast is all about Boca Raton and being local. I love interviewing local business owners, folks that are involved with the nonprofits, things that are happening around town, places to go and things to see. So I'm so happy you're here today. I hope you enjoy this week's episode and if you're so inclined, please make sure to subscribe to the podcast. I so appreciate it. And if you would like to be interviewed for the show, just reach out to me. Everything is in the show notes. Have a great day.

Speaker 2:

This episode of soba stories podcast is brought to you by Michelle, sorry with Belser group powered by real broker, LLC. If you have a referral, please think of me, Michelle B. I'd love to help you with your real estate transaction. I love listing and working with hires and I know all the best realtors all over the world. So if you need a referral, no matter where you live, please feel free to reach out to me. Michelle,

Speaker 3:

I'm so happy that you can join us today and, um, on the sobaka stories podcast, which we stream live. And, um, if you guys don't know, Jessica is fantastic. It's just going to evacuate. She is the economic development manager for the city of Boca Raton and has been doing some amazing things, uh, the last few years, uh, for our city and is a wealth of knowledge. So I thought this would be really great if we could have Jessica on and, um, talk a little bit about what's going on around book Raton. So welcome, Jessica. Thank you. Yeah. So I've been the, uh, economic development manager for the city of Boca Raton for six years now. Uh, just this month with my six year anniversary. So it's kind of exciting. We've worked on a lot of projects, um, Kelly Kennedy, and I run the office ourselves, you know, through city hall, obviously. Um, and through COVID, we've been busier than ever. So this is good timing to be sitting here with you. And isn't that the biggest surprise? I think that we've all had because as a realtor, I thought, you know, the real estate market was going to be kind of a problematic, right? And then to know that that, that became huge during this time. And then the other piece of the pie is that, you know, so many companies and corporations want to come here. And so, um, you know, one of the things I had done is I reached out to Jessica a couple of weeks ago because I had someone reach out to me about moving their tech company, uh, to south Florida. And so Jessica being the wealth of knowledge that she is about, what's going on finger on the pulse and Boca Palm beach county, and south Florida. We were talking a little bit about that. And I said, come on the show and let's talk about businesses and why they are really, really enthralled with our beautiful city. Yeah. So, like you said, through COVID, it's been a year now, we've all been working from home or for sub capacity. Some people are working hybrid mode, you know, um, and from what we've tracked, 11 companies have come to Boca Raton we've assisted on those, those transfers and those relocations, uh, technology is something that we're seeing a lot of. In fact, the city hired an office of innovation just to cover the technology sector that we're seeing an influx of people coming in to Boca. Uh, we talked about the real estate market. You reached out to me a few weeks ago to talk about a tech company. I get that all the time from residential realtors used to be out here, mostly from a commercial realtors, but lately I'm hearing more from the residential side of things because people are moving their families here first and then looking for corporate space, which is for us, it's a little bit backwards. So we're, we're kind of seeing a, a shift like everyone else has had to pivot our team has had to pivot. And like when I say we're busy, I mean, productive, not just, you know, not just busy as someone coming in this week out of New York, uh, we're showing some, some, uh, parcels, we're showing those some, some parcels of what we have to offer your own book. And we're told you're flying in you're vaccinated the whole nine yards to executives coming in. Um, and we'll be driving around in separate cars, used to be, we used sometimes to take the same car. So this protocols we're following now, but everything that, um, that we're telling you that we're seeing is that you're reading in the wall street journal and the New York times and your posts, we're actually staying in here on the ground. So your call to me was, was great, but we're getting a lot of calls like that. So we're happy to, to kind of partner with you guys, uh, being the guys from the real real estate here. Right? Right. Exactly. And so vocal loves to have a finger on the pulse, um, just in general, to be able to share information as to what is going on here and why people are coming here. And, and it's so interesting because, you know, when I moved here, back in the late seventies, it was a much smaller community, much smaller town, however, a very thriving community and fast forward now, you know, we are super global and, you know, a world renowned city that is knowing wherever you go in the world, you know, when you say Raton, you just say, Boca people know, uh, our community, what do you, what are you finding? The people that are interested in coming here, the corporations and the CEOs and whatnot, what are their like top two or three things that is driving them to coming to our area? Sure. So one of the main things for executives is the techs is there's tax benefits of being based in Boca Raton, but these tax benefits have been in the state forever. Um, so it's not that I don't think that personally, I don't think that was the catalyst. I think the catalyst has been COVID people that have been cooped up in, even if you have a beautiful place in Manhattan, you're still in lockdown. And, you know, they went a terrible time with the weather and, and locked down and no restaurants. And then they come, some, most of them have some sort of access to south Florida. They come down for the weekend or they come down for the second home. Um, so they were realizing, wow, why, why are we going back again? So we're seeing that the people that either have always thought about coming down when they retired. So another thing we probably want to touch upon is how we're aging younger. Like you moved here in the seventies, I moved here in 91. Sure. I've seen a thousand things that have changed. You probably have obviously seen more because you came here sooner. Um, but, um, we're still seeing that trajectory that change, no, you see our downtown getting all those luxury rentals and luxury condos that are for sale, that condo that went for sale. Um, the penthouse for$10 million. I mean, that's something, if you tell me a nation 91, that it was going to be a$10 million fund. So across from the Boca resort, I'm not so sure I would believe you, but now, as you see how we have, we have a huge assets here with the airport and obviously the university's work talent from a work perspective. When the executives come here, they want to know where to get their workforce. Uh, so that's important for them. And I think too, we're seeing some very interesting, uh, things happening in our downtown. Obviously we have Mandarin Oriental, uh, which we are all watching very closely and with excitement. Um, my daughter, Allie, and I were just talking about the fact that it's going to be a very cool addition, not just to the downtown, but to the city and to our complete area. Um, from a couple of standpoints, one, they're going to have some amenities that are going to be open to the public, which is going to be great. Um, the location is fantastic. And so couple that with our beautiful book Raton airport and the customs facility, there, it's a real win-win for us. And I think, um, the other thing is we're starting to see some changes at Meisner park happening, which I I think is going to be great. Yes, it'd be great. Um, so from that perspective, we have a couple of things. So the Mandarin Oriental that'll be downtown from a local perspective for us, that that brand is a game changer. There's only the one in Miami and all of that. But as you come up from Broward county where we're the first city outside of Broward, you're gonna hit that street, um, community out, excuse me. And you're going to see the Mandarin Oriental, which is obviously a brand in and of itself. There's other residential online, um, Alina residency's tower, a 1 55. And those types of projects that are attracting, not just Northeastern, but that$10 million condo. I mentioned as a local that brought that book or Tony, if you could even say that. Um, so what we're seeing also from you mentioned the airport, so the airport is a huge asset to ours and we've been doing through COVID, we've been, we've been able to market our city, uh, in inserts, in the wall street journal. We had an insert in the sub, uh, San Francisco Chronicle. We had an insert in Chicago Tribune, just hitting markets that were going through winter storms that were going through. COVID just like we were, but ours was a little bit better. Uh, and now with the airport we've partnered with, uh, we didn't unveil it yet. So we'll be in Valliant next, probably in about three or four weeks. But we partnered with signature, a signature Atlantic and pride era. They're the two FPOS and then private area has been a partner there. They just, they just know how to work the community. Um, they are very welcoming to everyone. We'll be putting up big posters, advertising our city, make it a one-way trip, beautiful jet photo, make it a one way trip for people that are coming off these jets. And they say to themselves, what are we doing? Leaving, you know, coming here on a Friday and getting leaving on Sunday night. So we're just trying to tap into that market. That's here, that's coming here every weekend. You know, I live in the flight tat and I see those jets. I mean, they're beautiful. Jack's come through our city. We want to tap great. Cause occasionally I'm in the jet path too, which by the way is no big deal. Um, and I see these beautiful planes. I'm fascinated by it. I literally be in my pool and be like, whoa. When the football, when the football conference is here, they have like on their, on their, I don't fly private. So I don't know what that thing is called on their tail. It'll have the name of the team. And I'm like, Ooh, no, that's a lot of fun. It's amazing what comes up, Constable. I agree with you. And that's so funny because when I'm out in my yard and I see when, or I'm over off of Highland beach, because my girlfriend's got a place there and I I'll see on a Sunday when they're come, they're leaving. And I'm like, oh wait. And you know, these new iPhones now are fantastic because you can really zoom in. And I'm like, that's a great shot. You know, they're there, I'm fascinated too. And as a kid, uh, my dad used to take me to the airport and we watched planes take off the land. So I'm like you so fascinated. And we were very fortunate to have this airport here, that convenience factor and the customs facility, uh, is just such a win-win and, and everything that, uh, the city is providing and doing is fantastic. Um, are you finding that there's any specific industry that you're seeing more of coming here or is it just right across the board? Well, so pre COVID, we primarily focused on corporate relocation. Corporations are theories based here. I have a slide I can show you, maybe send you if anyone who's watching wants to see just of all the logos. It's two slides of logos, of big names that are here, uh, that a lot of people know, office Depot and ADT, because they're kind of on the outskirts of the pocket broken sound, they're within the park, but they're on your mind. You know, you see those, those HQ's, um, but that's a 700 April car. So there's a lot of HQs in there. Um, big name, HQ, small names privately held publicly traded. So it was up to us to identify that, uh, through COVID what we have seen the influx of the attraction is financial firms. So you're making a great point. So we're seeing a shift from the corporate we're still, we still had colony capital as a corporate HQ that we load from LA. Um, but they're in the estate investment, their rate. So they're also in the investment side of things. And we've seen a number of financial firms moving here because of the wealth and the luxury here. I mean, I don't, that's not me. I worked for the city, but there's definitely a market for those types of firms that are flying private. You know, people talk about flying private into city of Boca Raton and what an asset. It is, the economic impact of that airport is incredible. People get here. They sh they go for dinner, they hit them all, you know, that money to spending in our city could go anywhere. So having it here, you know, it helps all of them. It absolutely does. And I think, um, touching on the shopping aspect here, the, um, parks and rec here, the infrastructure that we have, some of the things that are starting to happen. I know in my neighborhood, I'm getting underground F P and L lines. I am so happy. I'm like one day Michelle B went, oh my God, it's like a hive of worker bees right now. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. These guys were just unbelievable. Incredible. I mean, they just were very, very focused on how they were doing this from, I mean, my whole street, I must've had 50 trucks literally on my street, but that's the sort of stuff that we love to see because it's so proactive and it shares. And you know, of course we always get questions about, well, what about hurricane season? You know, my stock answer is, well, the good news is we can prepare for it and you don't have to stay. You can always leave, you know, it's, to me, it's, it's, um, it's always something we think about, but it's something that is, um, you know, there's workarounds with it, regardless, prepping your home and, and the contractors show that you can talk to, to help you go through that or ease you through any concerns that you have, you know, like this city is so well-prepared, it's unbelievable, but we're very fortunate. And we also have, you know, corporations, that's a concern coming out of a state that doesn't have that. Um, but like you said, there's a preparation period. It's not like a tornado hit, wow. Came out of nowhere or you have a few minutes, the alarm, my husband grew up in Indiana. So the alarm goes off, you run it down, down underground, basically I'm oversimplifying that. But one thing to consider when you're a corporate HQ is the Boca Raton innovation campus. So the innovation campus has the power literally to run for 13 days after if they were to lose power or they could still run for 13 days. So if you have, um, you know, some sort of technology that has to be up and running or you're, you know, because you're servicing people in other parts of the states, we do have those redundancy plans and private ownership like profit partners has that too, which settles people's nerves. It does. It absolutely does. And again, um, with all of the activity that's happening, I don't know about you, but I am feeling that we're not really slowing down and it's probably not going to slow down for quite some time, because although Florida's always been amazing south Florida, fantastic. Now people have really narrowed into where they want to be in Palm beach county in particular. And they can, um, you know, Homebase here, they can have their companies here and then they have access to Palm beach, Miami Fort Lauderdale, your short John, over to Naples, you can fly to The Bahamas for the weekend. It is just so well located for companies, corporations, CEOs, families, everyone. We're very lucky. And we're very lucky that you're here. Totally. I get to sell the best thing in the world. Surely like you just mentioned a million things and there's a million more behind it. The school system we have here, uh, the fact that we are, I keep driving this home aging younger it's because it's a message I want to put out there because people don't realize that our median age now is 47. Uh, maybe it's 47.5 based on census, you know, census numbers. But I think in a few months or years, when those new numbers come out, it'll be even younger. You know, we're seeing people, all my calls lately are based around relocation. They've already purchased their, for their residential property, which I told you before. It was something we had never really dealt with before, but now they want to know about the schools. So we have a great reputation for our school system. You mentioned all the travel and you know, not everyone flies private, we're equal distance between Fort Lauderdale and west Palm international airport. So we have that going for us. And we're an hour from Miami soon. That'll be even quicker when we have bright lines. So we truly are a great city. Like I know I have compounds for Boca, but it's real. I love it. Love it here. And just going, I've collaborated on things before, because we have golf. We have so much going on here and speaking of bright line, do you want to touch on that a little bit? Because obviously everything got a little delayed with, um, COVID and, um, we are getting a station here by the way, guys, uh, over by the library. So if you want to touch on that a little bit, that'd be great. Well, other than the delay there hasn't been, as far as I know any changes, they're still moving forward with their project. Um, we do get inquiries on that enough. I won't say a lot, but nothing as far as I know has changed in the game plans, they are moving forward. I think they also are looking further up north to extend the track even further, which would only benefit us who want to go to Orlando and go further up the state and in a nice confined wifi savvy, um, train. I don't know if you've been on the train before pre COVID. I was able to get on and in west Palm and the station, is it resembles a smaller, cleaner, um, I would compare it more to an airport. I come from New York, so I know Penn station. That's like to me, you know, that's how I grew up. You would Penn station as fast as you could. This is a totally different, you're going to stop. You're going to get a snack. You're gonna grab a water or a coffee. Then you're going to go onto your traits. It's really the way we should be traveling, you know, for safety and convenience. I think as far as what I think is, and any, and I did not get a chance to get on there. I was planning on it in 2020, but that didn't happen. Um, right. Look what happened. But, um, one of the cool things, yeah. As, as a Lilly Pulitzer lover, they had a whole thing that they were doing with Lilly Pulitzer, which listen, that just was like, that was it for me. Um, so I'm excited, you know, what's funny talking about trending younger because my kids are 25 and 31. And so, um, for many years I was on the downtown advisory committee for the city. And one of my, um, goals was always to put out there that I wanted my kids to want to come back to Boca when they graduated. Uh, they went to Florida, Gulf coast, university over in Fort Myers Estero area, but we have FAU here. We have Lynn university here. We have, uh, Palm beach, state college here. We've got so much here. It's crazy. Um, but my big thing was always like, listen, you know, I want the younger people to want to come back here. And if they're graduating from any of these schools, I want them to stay here. What can we do for them? And we're starting to see more and more things starting to happen. And so having bright line, I think is going to be huge one because I love going to Miami. I don't always want to Uber down there and I don't always want to drive, but I'll take bright line because I love win-win. I love south beach. I love, um, art, Basel. I love going to heat games. So this is the sort of thing then on top of everything else, Justin has Sharon with us today. And what is happening here is going to just be like the cherry on top of this great Boca overtone cupcake, right? Yeah. Like the bright line will open us up to, from my perspective, when people come in, it's the workforce. So now we can pull workforce from Miami and they can pull workforce from us. And it just makes it a little bit more competitive. And there's nothing better than a little healthy competition for people that raises wages. You know what I mean? Like you're going up for a job and you have this and someone else, it just the healthy way to increase the, uh, the wages of everyone in our, our neighborhoods being Florida, Fort Lauderdale, obviously. But you mentioned aging young I've mentioned aging, young drivers because of Seinfeld. I want to tell them with the Dell Boca Vista, I can't, I can't get past that. Like when I cold call New York, they were like, oh, it's about community. And it is, we're also a tourism community. We're also a corporate community. Like we do have it all. So it's a barrier that I like to drive this point home. But you know, I talk about anecdotal evidence. Like you like my friends who have children that are going to went to college and now they're coming back. And I applaud that because we don't want, it's called brain drinks. We don't want these smart brains to go elsewhere when they could be so utilized here. Um, but something that's all anecdotal what we're seeing, you know? Uh, but we actually have some hard data this year, which we've never had before that. I forget the analytical firm. We work with Kelly and I work with a lot of analytical firms that gave us these data. We provide our census data and they kind of analyze it. So all those cool places that are going in, there's the strikes, which is, um, the, the bowling and entertainment. Now, clearly we're not there yet with COVID, but we're, we all see kinda like, you know, it's changing, we're getting better at the vaccinations and people are getting more inclined slowly, but surely to safely soon start heading out again. But I hope that some really hope, I think knowing that they can go to the beach on a Saturday all day, you know, these gen Z's and then come home, take a quick shower, go to Maya, the car. That's how you keep them because they want things to do. We were all that age and things to do, and it would be, it would, you know, when no, and when city council and, uh, whatnot get together, they got to really, really look at who the demographics are. And, and even like, I know we're getting, uh, working on getting this beautiful cultural center at my smart park. And one of the conversations I had with them was that's great. Get some young people on your board because it cannot continue to be the same people all the time. I hear you. I think the younger brains, the vision is with, with that age group, for sure. Um, I'm, I'm talking to Allie a little bit more about it. Kylie's not here as much because she's a flight attendant she's out of the state right now, but yeah, definitely. So I know your time is valuable. I have, um, two quick fun questions to ask you one best business advice, worst business advice you ever had. Okay. So I've been lucky, very lucky to work for some great people. So I worked at Smith Barney for eight years when I first started as a part-time deal. Clerk worked my way up to broker great advice there. And then I worked for Stanley Carr at Hart capital, uh, who was a local hedge fund, uh, portfolio manager here in Boca Raton. I worked there eight years before coming to the city, and I think I've learned a lot over the years, but I think my biggest thing is, uh, two things. One is fail fast, fail forward. Like just move on, get it over with, and then always take a little time to take a victory lap. You know, I love that. Hold on, let me, there you go. You got to do that. Exactly, exactly. That's that's awesome. Um, the other question I had and I asked all my guests just cause I have in the high with Michelle B, which is my real estate podcast. And, um, I asked anyone who comes on that show the same thing. So I've started to do it here. Um, if you could break bread with famous, dead or alive, what would it be? And, um, would you do it at home or would you do it at a restaurant? And the restaurant can be anywhere you want. Okay. If I could break bread with anybody famous, who would it be dead or not the biggest, huh? It could be dead or alive, dead or alive. Um, I'm not sure who I would have dinner with. If I said Warren Buffett, I know he drinks, diet Coke and eats like Fritos. So I can't say him, although he's in so intelligent, I love him. You could say him and just say, you'd bring your own little box lunch, which he would probably highly appreciate. Okay. Maybe I'll stick with him. And I think I would, um, that's a tough question because there's so many people I would like to sit down with, but I think I'd have dinner at home. My husband's a great cook and he can have his Fritos and dietary Cola and I can have my big bowl of something Italian. There you go. See that's, you know, I always say, and I've said this forever, but now I'm really saying it. If I could do that, I would sit down with the queen just because you know, can only, why not? Um, Jessica, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on today. I'm so glad your dogs are burning don't mind cause they normally lose their minds. Um, where can everyone find you? And if anyone is interested in one, moving a company here, how can they find you? Uh, best is to reach out through our economic development@myboca.us, it's our email address, but certainly go to my open at U S economic development for, um, for the resources that we can provide. We can provide a lot of things, not just financial incentives. We do expedite permitting and things of that nature. Uh, and we also just to put it out there, we still have our small business recovery relief grant program open up to$5,000 for small businesses that qualify obviously have to be in the city of upward town, uh, open for a couple, you'll see the criteria on our website, but that's something I should've mentioned earlier, especially to your audience. So thanks for giving me that chance, the description and the caption on the post. So no worries there, if you want to, um, send that to me in an email, that would be great. And then I can just put it in there. Um, so make sure you're following them here on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, uh, Jessica's team has some really good articles that they post, especially I see on LinkedIn and, uh, that's a good place to be by the way, people don't discount LinkedIn. It's a great place to be. They have triple video now and things like that. Yeah. You know, I'm just going to just my first Instagram story. So thanks for putting up with my shenanigans. I'm learning as I go old new tricks, but LinkedIn, I post to LinkedIn and people out of New York and Chicago, like really, you know, we were saying best place to raise a family in Palm beach county, all those accolades. They don't realize it. So it's been very valuable to us. Yeah. LinkedIn is actually like kind of a secret weapon and I'm not for nothing. I'm on clubhouse and I've been on that app since December and, um, I've already gotten real estate referrals from it, uh, anyway, but I'm on there and it's a great way for me to talk about the city and like lifestyle here and things like that, but the networking that's happening between clubhouse and we're learning more about really how to leverage LinkedIn guys. Uh, so just a little social media tip there for any business owners that are watching, get yourself on LinkedIn and start understanding how to leverage that and connect with people because it really is fantastic along with here with the gram. So Jessica, thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And I hope to see you soon. Absolutely. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye Michelle. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Thanks again for joining me today with this week's episode of soul bogus stories, if you would like to be considered for an interview or would like to sponsor the show and blog, please feel free to reach out to me. The link is in the show notes. I hope you have an amazing week.