Is Goldman Headed To Florida?

Goldman Sachs is looking around New York City and finding its surrounding digs aren’t quite as familiar— or alluring— as they used to be. All the best restaurants seem to be closing, the winters feel like they’re getting worse, and the sting of taxes lingers longer than it should.

In America, this phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “getting old.”

The solution? Why, a timely move to the great Sunshine State.

Goldman’s Golden Years

After 151 years headquartered in Manhattan, the famous financial services company is considering relocating its asset management arm to South Florida, according to Bloomberg.

The Background: Goldman Sachs has already slowly but surely shipped certain workers from the traditional finance hub of NYC to cities such as Salt Lake City in an effort to shed tax burdens and lower expenses. Earlier this year, the bank unveiled an aggressive plan to trim another $1.3 billion of expenses:

• The asset management arm emigrating from New York to a lower-tax location like Miami or Dallas, which the bank is reportedly also considering, is part of the process.
• And we are not talking about a minor move – the division generated roughly $8 billion in annual revenue last year, or one-fourth of Goldman’s business.

The Takeaway: The onset of pandemic-induced remote working and its negligible effect on productivity has only strengthened bank leadership’s resolve to relocate from New York to further cut costs.

And Goldman Sachs is clearly not alone in its thinking. In fact, available office space in Manhattan is at an all-time high since 9/11.