IT Company Moves Headquarters to South Florida from New Jersey
An information technology management company will move to West Palm Beach from New Jersey, thanks in part to South Florida’s business-friendly reputation, a top executive told the Business Journal.
KruseCom is currently in the process of moving its headquarters and 30 jobs to a 30,000-square-foot space in the Airport Logistics Park at 374 North Haverhill Road, said Parker Goodyear, a VP at the company. The move is expected to be completed by January, when KruseCom will shut down its operations in Eatontown, New Jersey.
“We always felt that Florida is more business friendly … and our goal is to bring everything down to Florida,” Goodyear said.
The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County (BDB) assisted with KruseCom’s permitting, while CareerSource Palm Beach will refer candidates for open positions, which include a facility manager, facility technician, and manager, according to statement from the BDB. The average wage for the 30 jobs moving to West Palm Beach is $80,000 a year.
Part of KruseCom’s executive sales staff has been working from temporary offices at the Landmark Commerce Centre at 1300 N. Florida Mango Road in West Palm Beach while the office at Airport Logistics Park is built out, Goodyear said.
West Palm Beach was selected because many of KruseCom’s employees already live in South Florida, Goodyear said, including CEO Marc Sherman, who has resided in Palm Beach County for the past 25 years. Goodyear, who was raised in Florida, said he’s been living in the county for the past eight years.
The rest of KruseCom’s staff are being encouraged to move to South Florida.
“We have offered all our people … the same positions down here in Florida,” Goodyear said.
Some are reluctant to move, which means the company will have to hire some local talent. That need will likely increase as the company expands, including positions in marketing, he added.
Since the pandemic, remote professionals have migrated from other parts of the U.S. to South Florida, brokers and developers have told the Business Journal.Businesses and companies have been leasing space in South Florida as well. The trend resulted in rising rents at apartments, offices, retail, and industrial spaces.
The asking rents of Palm Beach County office landlords in the second quarter of 2022 increased 22% from three years ago to $39.24 a square foot, according to a recent report from Colliers. Vacancies dropped from 9.6% in the pre-pandemic second quarter of 2019 to 9.1% in this year’s second quarter.
West Palm Beach’s downtown office market has also heated up as financial services companies such as Goldman Sacks open offices in the central business district. In the West Palm Beach CDC, asking rents were $71.13 a square foot in the second quarter, according to Colliers.
Outside of the downtown area in West Palm Beach, where the Airport Logistics Park is located, asking rents are more affordable, at $31.07 a square foot.
Goodyear said that moving out of New Jersey and into South Florida was the company’s goal long before Covid-19. However, he added, many of KruseCom’s clients who work remotely from home have moved to South Florida since the pandemic.
Founded in 2009, KruseCom provides information technology solutions to better manage hardware assets, reduce maintenance expenses, and enhance data security. This includes recycling, or disposing of, computer hardware that has reached the end of its usefulness and performing a U.S. Department of Defense-level sweep of any data left on those devices, according to the company’s website. KruseCom’s clients include Fortune 1000 companies and government agencies.
Airport Logistics Park’s Building 300 was finished this year, according to CommercialCafe.com. McCraney Property Co. broke ground on the 566,000-square-foot complex in December 2019, and was funded by a $31.91 million construction loan from PNC Bank. It was built on land leased from Palm Beach County.