The Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance helped Broward County secure more than $272 million in company capital investments and attract hundreds of new job commitments since October, the group announced at its midyear meeting on Friday, May 22.

Held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, more than 600 business and civic leaders attended the event.

Alliance President and CEO Bob Swindell said everything from life sciences to aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul businesses to professional services and manufacturing firms have grown in the county so far this year.

“These business expansions — including some that are quadrupling their footprint — are a testament to Broward’s pro-business environment and strong talent pipeline that fuel companies’ growth, create jobs, and drive our economy," he said.

One of those companies is window and door maker MITER brands, which will open a 250,000-square-foot glass processing facility in Pembroke Pines this fall after shuttering its plants in Hialeah and Medley. It plans to invest almost $50 million in the project. The location will create 175 manufacturing jobs.

Swindell described Broward as “an economic growth powerhouse” and “the future for business” as the Alliance highlighted several recent company wins, including:

• Princess Cruises will launch a new concierge customer service and sales office in Miramar. The 22,000-square-foot office facility will add 225 new jobs by the end of 2027.
• Lupin Pharmaceuticals, is building a new manufacturing facility for respiratory medicines in Coral Gables that will generate 200 new long-term jobs by 2030. The company expects to make a $250 million investment in research and development, infrastructure, and capital expenditures over a five-year period.
• MediPath Pathology Services, an accredited pathology laboratory, is more than quadrupling its space with a new 26,000 square-foot, $10 million facility in Miramar. The location will be a base for a genetics testing department and will add 150 jobs.
• NDT-Solutions, Inc., a provider of advanced nondestructive testing services for the aerospace, industrial and marine sectors, is expanding to a 33,000-square foot MRO facility in Sunrise – nearly four times larger than its current location. It will also create 20 new jobs.
• Primepulse Capital, LLC, a German tech-focused family equity investment firm, launched its first U.S. location in Fort Lauderdale with a $50,000 capital investment.
• Posh Tech, an accessories brand known for transforming items like smart watches into pieces of jewelry, expanded into a 7,000-square-foot warehouse space in Davie.

JetBlue President Marty St. George sat down with Alliance President and CEO Bob Swindell for a keynote chat to discuss the airline's continued investment in Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. JetBlue is the airport's largest carrier after the collapse of Spirit Airlines, which ceased operations May 2.

The low-cost carrier (Nasdaq: JBLU) has hosted a job fair and offered preferential interviews for former Spirit employees as the airline expands in Fort Lauderdale.

“It’s never good to see anybody lose a job,” St. George said. “Spirit has some very talented people, so I would hope that we can be part of making things better for them as well.”

At the same time, St. George said JetBlue aims to strengthen FLL as a key gateway to the Caribbean and Latin America.

“Fort Lauderdale has been an important part of JetBlue’s success since our very first revenue flight more than 26 years ago, and we’re excited to keep growing here,” he added.

The Alliance also presented its annual World Class Faculty Award to Florida International University Professor Dr. Arif Sarwat for his excellence in teaching and preparing his students for careers that strengthen the region’s talent pipeline. His research focuses on subjects such as artificial intelligence, data center design and reliability and quantum computing in energy systems.

Sarwat is FIU's chair of the department of electrical and computer engineering, director of engineering for industry and research Collaborations, and director of the FPL-FIU Solar Research Facility and the Energy, Power, Sustainability and Intelligence group.

“I have a very good team of students, and they are the ones who are making these things happen,” Sarwat said. “They are sitting in their laboratories, working on different products and bringing it out to the community.”

 

 

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