Global MSC Group plants its US base in Miami’s Overtown

On Overtown land where the City of Miami once planned 1,050 units of affordable and mid-income housing, a global cargo firm and cruise line will invest $100 million to develop a new US headquarters, uniting its 250 South Florida employees under one roof.

Switzerland-based MSC Group announced the new headquarters last week after county commissioners earlier in the day had approved two job incentive payment programs to the company to help secure its expansion here without revealing the company’s name in the vote.

The creation of the headquarters offices of MSC Cargo, MSC Cruises and the new Explora Journeys will add to Miami-Dade’s collection of cruise company headquarters. Royal Caribbean is based on a to-be-expanded campus on PortMiami, Carnival Corp.’s world headquarters is at 3655 NW 87th Ave. in West Dade, and Norwegian Cruise Holdings Ltd. is at 7665 Corporate Center Drive in Northwest Miami-Dade.

At the same time that MSC is developing a new US headquarters, its Cruise Division is building what is set to be North America’s largest cruise terminal at PortMiami that is to open this year. The four-story terminal is to be able to handle 36,000 passenger movements daily with enough berthing space to serve three latest-generation cruise ships simultaneously.

The county’s economic development organization, the Beacon Council, worked with MSC to make the headquarters a reality.

“The Beacon Council was a significant driver in helping us make our decision,” said Fabio Santucci, president and CEO of MSC USA, in a statement.

“They played an instrumental part in making us feel welcome to make this commitment to expanding in South Florida.”

It was the Beacon Council that brought to county government requests for the incentives to MSC that county commissioners approved unanimously without discussion.

As Miami Today reported at the time of last week’s commission vote, the incentives could total more than $2 million. Commissioners were told in a Beacon Council presentation that the then-undisclosed company was also considering alternative headquarters locations in Arizona, South Carolina and elsewhere in South Florida.

The incentive funds are in two separate streams payable after MSC creates the jobs and invests in the headquarters. Each of the 250 jobs would get incentives of up to $1,250 under a relocation and expansive incentive program, and by adding money from the county’s targeted jobs incentives fund the total per MSC employee could reach $4,452.68.

The headquarters is to be within Block 55 in Sawyer’s Walk, an area where the City of Miami two decades ago obtained county land for affordable and workforce housing construction before that area of northern downtown Miami boomed. The program had been approved before a lawsuit by activists blocked it and it was eventually unable to make an extended deadline of Dec. 31, 2007, to begin construction. After that, the land reverted from the city to the county and years later ended up in private development.

“This is an exciting time of growth for the Cruise Division and we are happy to call Miami-Dade our new home as we continue to expand our reach throughout the Caribbean and North America,” Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of MSC Cruises, said in a statement. “We look forward to bringing more jobs to the local economy and will work with Miami-Dade County to ensure we are a leader in making an important impact in the community.”