Despite soaring house prices, S. Florida remains attractive to biotech firms: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Despite recent sharp increases in housing prices, South Florida remains an attractive location for biotechnology companies seeking to cut costs and lure employees, the project director for a national relocation consulting firm said Monday.

"We're very positive about South Florida, and so are many companies considering a move to South Florida," said John Boyd of The Boyd Co. Inc. of Princeton, N.J.

Boyd will share some of his firm's findings with decision makers at the BioFlorida trade association annual conference that begins today in West Palm Beach. He did not disclose the names of clients considering a move.

Thanks largely to The Scripps Research Institute's decision to create an East Coast branch in Palm Beach County, Boyd said, several biotech firms in this country and aboard are looking toward South Florida's tri-county area as an affordable alternative to such places as San Francisco and La Jolla, Calif., and Boston and the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

"Biotech companies will have an easy time convincing key employees they'll keep more of what they earn in Florida because there is no personal income tax," Boyd said. "Even though housing has gotten more expensive, it's still a bargain compared to several other areas where biotech has grown rapidly."

Companies also will be lured by a favorable climate Gov. Jeb Bush created in luring Scripps to Florida through financial incentives and constant support for the project, Boyd said. Bush is scheduled to speak at a luncheon today at the BioFlorida conference.

Boyd also said Florida has an "inherently international flavor" that Europeans and South Americans find attractive.

"There has been an unprecedented brain drain in South America -- in places like Venezuela -- and that can only benefit companies in Florida," he said.

But, he cautioned, politicians and those who want to do business with biotech firms need to be patient. So-called clusters -- a group of businesses focused on the same industry -- "don't grow overnight," he said.

A few shortcomings could keep some firms away for a while, notably a "lack of critical mass" of colleges and universities and the frequent fiscal crunch the state experiences, Boyd said. Revenue shortfalls cause problems maintaining the infrastructure and first-rate public schools, he said.

But the bottom line, he said, is the cost of doing business. In a report he intends to share with participants of the BioFlorida conference, Boyd noted that a hypothetical biotech facility with 200 employees that builds its own plant would cost $22.4 million a year to operate in San Francisco, $20.5 million in Boston, $18 million in Montgomery County, Md., and $17.7 million in Palm Beach County.

But of 60 geographical areas studied, 35 were less expensive for companies than Palm Beach County -- including Tampa at $16.2 million and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., at $16.3 million. Oklahoma City, Okla., was the cheapest at $15.3 million.

Glenn Singer can be reached at gsinger@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6612.