Foot Locker Inc. announced Wednesday that the athletic shoe retailer will move its headquarters from New York City to Florida to escape the high costs of the Empire State.
“To better support our strategic progress, increase team collaboration, and maintain ongoing cost discipline, we have made the decision to move our headquarters to St. Louis, Florida,” CEO Mary Dillon said in a statement.
The company said it will maintain only a limited presence in the city going forward.
Its sister brand, Champs, was previously headquartered in St. Petersburg.
This step is expected to be completed by late 2025.
The city has been “a center of gravity for Foot Locker for a long time.” Dillon told Bloomberg,“There is cost efficiencies over time in doing this, but we will continue to be in New York to maintain our connections to basketball and sneaker culture.”
St. Petersburg, a city of 250,000 near Tampa, was not a magnet for big business.
Miami, for example, is home to billionaires like Ken Griffin and his hedge fund Citadel.
But in 2021, Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management moved from the Big Apple to St. Pete.
It also purchased the naming rights to the ARK Innovation Center — a 45,000-square-foot entrepreneurship facility — in a $2 million deal. According to St. Pete Risinga local urban development news site.
Foot Locker has a market cap of $2.8 billion. Its shares are down 4.3% so far this year.
