Florida Mayor Francis Suarez said Miami is positioning itself as a business haven to compete with Switzerland, Monaco or Singapore. For him, the rise of Florida's cities has served as a springboard for broader political ambitions.
The city has seen an influx of wealth and business during the coronavirus pandemic, in part because it offers favorable conditions for companies and high earners. People who live in U.S. states for half a year or more do not have to pay personal income tax, while Miami's corporate income tax rate is only 5.5%.
“The world's financial and economic activity is expanding. The whole world is saying, 'OK, we need more than one Switzerland . . . we need one in the United States,'” Suarez told the Financial Times. “Miami is becoming the Singapore or Switzerland of this new era. I call it the capital of capitals.”
Suarez said he considers Miami's peers to be international business hubs such as Switzerland (“a place where the banking and financial industry feels safe to do business”), Singapore (“the Switzerland of Asia”), Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh and Doha.
By contrast, U.S. cities with higher taxes such as New York, Chicago or Los Angeles have been “sending signals” that they are no longer supportive of business, he said, citing New York's rejection of Amazon's second headquarters in 2019 and Tesla's decision to relocate in 2021 Examples of corporate headquarters stretch from California to Texas.
Suarez, who has been mayor since 2017, launched a presidential campaign last June on the premise that Miami would thrive under his leadership. He dropped out two months later after failing to gain enough support to qualify for the first Republican debate, later endorsing party front-runner Donald Trump.
He said he would be willing to serve as vice president if Trump called. Since the former president is only eligible for one more term, he noted: “In theory, whoever is vice president will have some kind of advantage in a possible future nomination. Anyone who doesn't tell you they would be interested is probably being dishonest.” of.”
Suarez is Cuban-American and his elected leadership remains predominantly white. Suarez has positioned himself to the left of another former presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on issues such as abortion and global warming.
He said he is interested in running for governor in 2026, when DeSantis' term expires. “You're talking about G20 countries, in terms of GDP, population and budget size. So it's going to be an interesting challenge,” he said.
The pandemic has sparked a migration trend to Florida, attracting residents fleeing stricter Covid-19 regulations as well as higher taxes and winter weather. More than 220,000 Americans moved to Florida in the year ending July 2021, more than any other state. Miami's population will grow by 12% in 2022 and 14% in 2023.
The city is packed with wealthy residents, including activist investor Carl Icahn, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Blackstone Group's Stephen Schwarzman and venture capitalists David Bloomberg and Big David Sacks. New entrants boosted state and local tax revenue by 38% from 2020 to 2023, and corporate tax revenue jumped 78% during that period.
Billionaire Ken Griffin is moving his hedge fund Citadel to Miami in 2022, calling the city “a growing metropolis that embodies the American dream.”
But immigration has also made Miami the ninth-worst city in the world for traffic, according to data firm Inrix, and a severe shortage of affordable housing for non-millionaires.
The median cost of a single-family home in Miami-Dade County jumped 48% from 2019 to 2023, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.
Suarez played a central role in Miami's repositioning as a glamorous global hub. His office has limited administrative powers — Miami mayor is a part-time position and he works at the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Sullivan — but friends and critics often describe him as the city’s “chief Marketing Officer”.
Suarez has also faced scrutiny for his work outside the mayor's office, such as accepting a $10,000 monthly consulting fee from a real estate developer with operations in Miami, which he has denied represents any conflict of interest. An investigation by the county Ethics Commission into his acceptance of expensive gifts was dismissed Wednesday.
His pursuit of growth has encountered some setbacks, such as his embrace of cryptocurrency. Suarez is committed to attracting cryptocurrency conferences to the city and sees the industry as an opportunity to push the city toward a more modern and digital economy. He placed a cryptocurrency “bull” in downtown Miami to correspond with the famous statue on Wall Street, and announced in November 2021 that he would pay his next salary in Bitcoin.
“You had a David and Goliath, and that was our slingshot,” he says now. “What have I learned? I think I'll do more due diligence on certain projects.”
He noted that his support for FTX's plan to move its U.S. operations to Miami is “not yet mature,” but added that some of the world's largest investors have already invested in Sam Bankman-Fried's cryptocurrency exchange, which launched Closure in November 2022.
He added that despite the turmoil, he has never sold his Bitcoin holdings, noting that the cryptocurrency recently topped its 2019 peak. “You know, am I a genius now because I’m paid in Bitcoin, and Bitcoin wages are at an all-time high?”
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