Ken Griffin has Miami. Stephen Ross has West Palm Beach. Fort Lauderdale had Wayne Huizenga — and it’s been winning ever since

In the conversation about where American business is heading next, Fort Lauderdale offers a quieter but equally compelling answer. The city isn’t chasing the spotlight. It has become a destination for long-term investment on its own terms. While the headline-making cities at either end of the Gold Coast have been vocal about what they are building, Fort Lauderdale has been doing the same work with far less fanfare. After 26 years working on this city’s growth, I am often asked whether Fort Lauderdale needs its own Ken Griffin or Stephen Ross. The answer is no — and the reason starts with a man who built three Fortune 500 companies here before most people knew where to find us on a map. While big names are certainly welcome, Fort Lauderdale’s strength lies in its collective momentum, and that trajectory has been rising for years. South Florida’s first homegrown billionaire, H. Wayne Huizenga, built Waste Management, Blockbuster, and AutoNation from scratch, all headquartered in Fort Lauderdale. He also owned the Miami Dolphins and founded the Marlins and Panthers franchises. When he passed away in 2018, he left an unmistakable mark on the city and never made a campaign out of it. That remains part of the culture today. Rajiv Jain, chairman of Fort Lauderdale-based GQG Partners and one of the city’s Forbes-listed billionaires, described Fort Lauderdale as a place where executives can stay connected to Miami without living in its intensity. The wealth has always been here; it simply doesn’t perform for attention. These are people raising families, meeting on Las Olas Boulevard for lunch, closing international deals, and docking superyachts the same afternoon. They aren’t hiding. They value discretion. Fort Lauderdale is also a city fueled by water in ways the broader Gold Coast narrative hasn’t yet told. We have 165 miles of navigable waterways and more than $12 billion in waterfront investment. The Fort Lauderdale Intern