Marketing across Broward County

Fort Lauderdale is the Broward County seat, and its economy runs on salt water: the city bills itself as the “Yachting Capital of the World,” counts more than 300 miles of navigable waterways and is home to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. But the marina is only part of the story. AutoNation is headquartered here; Citrix, Microsoft Latin America, Broward Health Medical Center and Holy Cross Hospital are among the major employers; and the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance adds finance, insurance, real estate, aviation, tech and film and TV production to the mix. Deals get made along Las Olas Boulevard, on the Riverwalk and in the Cypress Creek office corridor next to Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, a submarket that pulls talent from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade.

The city runs at three speeds. Downtown is growing up, not out, around the Brightline station that opened in 2018 and links it to Miami, West Palm Beach and Orlando. Flagler Village already tops 6,000 homes with roughly 8,000 more in the pipeline, and the T3 campus in FAT Village is built for people who live, work and eat within a few blocks. Out on the beach and A1A, the customer is often a visitor: about 10 million a year, plus nearly four million cruise passengers moving through Port Everglades. And in the residential neighborhoods, the buyer is a local who wants services minutes from home. Three audiences that search, compare and decide differently, sometimes on the same block.

Founded in 1925, Hollywood has an economy with two shorelines. On the ocean side, the 2.2-mile Broadwalk, resorts like The Diplomat and Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort, and the Hollywood Beach Theatre keep tourism and hospitality humming. Inland, the city is home to HEICO's headquarters, the aerospace and electronics manufacturer, along with Sintavia, Lufthansa Technik and Quantum Marine, plus Memorial Healthcare System, whose flagship Memorial Regional Hospital runs 797 beds and a Level I trauma center across from Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. About 80 percent of Port Everglades sits inside city limits, and FLL is minutes away. More than 10,000 companies operate here, where manufacturing, healthcare and tourism share the same map.

Daily life pulls in three directions. Downtown, around Hollywood Boulevard and ArtsPark at Young Circle, runs on murals, the third-Saturday ArtWalk, Friday movies on the lawn and Block 40 Food Hall; the city counted more than 674,700 downtown visits in a single quarter. The beach draws families and visitors who stroll the Broadwalk and decide where to eat on the fly. And to the west, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and its guitar-shaped tower pull in a regional crowd that comes for entertainment. For a local business, that means reading the hour, the neighborhood and whether the customer lives here or is just passing through.

Pembroke Pines is one of Florida's largest cities, with about 171,000 residents across 35 square miles, and its economy is built on consumer spending and services. It has more than 10 million square feet of commercial development, most of it along the Pines Boulevard corridor, and over 8 million square feet of retail anchored by Pembroke Lakes Mall and The Shops at Pembroke Gardens. Memorial Healthcare System runs two hospitals here, and AutoNation, Ryder, Publix and Broward College are among the major employers. West of I-75, the West Pines subdivisions built after Hurricane Andrew finished shaping a city of families, schools and weekend shopping.

Almost everything here happens by car. People come and go via I-75, Florida's Turnpike and US-27, and move along Pines Boulevard, Flamingo Road and University Drive, juggling school runs, work and errands. The city runs its own charter school system, with more than 5,000 students on eight campuses — a clear sign of a family-first audience. Industrial space is growing too: Bergeron Park of Commerce and Industry, Chapel Trail, Sheridan Palms and the South Florida Distribution Center, plus offices like Pembroke Pointe along I-75. To win customers in Pembroke Pines, you have to show up along the route: on Google Maps, on the phone and close to where people park.

Founded in 1955 and home to about 135,000 people, Miramar calls itself the city “at the center of everything,” and the map backs it up: it sits between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, less than 30 minutes from the region's airports and seaports. Its economic engine is the Miramar Park of Commerce — more than 5.5 million square feet, 180-plus companies, more than 10,000 employees and 16 Fortune 500 tenants, including Caterpillar, Nissan, Siemens, Quest Diagnostics, Otis and Stanley Black & Decker. The FBI also has a regional field office here, and NBC 6 and Telemundo, Comcast, Ecolab and Memorial Hospital Miramar rank among the major employers. The city's economic development office targets aviation, software and IT, logistics and financial services.

Day-to-day life revolves around Miramar Parkway, I-75 and Florida's Turnpike, and around a planned downtown: Miramar Town Center brings together City Hall, police headquarters, education centers, housing and the Miramar Cultural Center with its 800-seat theater. The 173-acre Miramar Regional Park has a 5,000-seat amphitheater that fills up for concerts and festivals. Caribbean communities are front and center here, with one of the highest shares of Jamaican-born or Jamaican-heritage residents in the country plus families with roots in Haiti and Cuba; at home, people speak English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. If you want to sell in Miramar, you have to sound local, respect that mix and show up where the community gathers.

Pompano Beach runs two economies side by side. One is industrial: with direct access to I-95, Florida's Turnpike, Atlantic Boulevard and Copans Road, it's the largest industrial submarket in Broward, with about 25.3 million square feet of warehouse space, home to Associated Grocers of Florida, FedEx and FedEx Ground and dozens of regional distributors. The city-owned Pompano Beach Airpark is the base for the Goodyear Blimp, with a 45,000-square-foot hangar big enough to hold two fully inflated airships. John Knox Village, Publix, Walmart and Harrah's Pompano Beach also rank among the major employers. With more than 112,000 residents, the city won the All-America City Award in 2005.

The other economy faces the ocean, and it has been reinvented. Three miles of beach now center on the Fisher Family Pier, rebuilt with restaurants, shops and a covered playground, and on the Pompano Beach Fishing Village; Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse, completed in 1906, is still the city's postcard. Culture spreads across the Pompano Beach Cultural Center, Bailey Contemporary Arts and the Ali Cultural Arts Center, plus concerts at The Amp. Haitian and Brazilian communities are a visible part of the city, and its tagline is “Florida's Warmest Welcome.” Winning customers here means reaching the warehouse owner, the beachgoer and the longtime local, each on their own channel.

Davie is the most populous municipality in Florida still incorporated as a “town,” with about 106,000 residents, and it has a horse-country soul: more than 1,800 acres of parks and over 187 miles of trails where you still see people on horseback. Its economy, though, runs on knowledge. The South Florida Education Center brings together Nova Southeastern University, Florida Atlantic University, the University of Florida, Broward College and McFatter Technical College, and the town offers more than 900 acres of industrially zoned land. Its economic development office lists aerospace, biopharma, distribution, education, healthcare, manufacturing, maritime and technology, and Teva, Stryker, Nova Southeastern, Manheim and Rick Case Automotive Group are among the major employers.

Davie lives somewhere between the rodeo and the campus. Bergeron Rodeo Grounds, now 40 years in, hosts the Southeastern Circuit Pro Rodeo Finals, and the western theme district keeps the cowboy look alive; a few minutes away, thousands of students fill Nova Southeastern, which is also where the Miami Dolphins practice. Flamingo Gardens and Tree Tops Park draw families on weekends, and an HCA hospital with more than 200 beds opened in 2021. The town sits where I-595 meets I-75, with Florida's Turnpike next door and FLL close by, so a lot of people come and go every day for school or work. To sell in Davie, you have to speak to the student, the family with acreage and the healthcare or science professional at the same time.

Plantation grew out of Frederick C. Peters' master plan. The shoe-business heir bought roughly 10,000 acres in the 1930s and '40s and laid out the city with architect Russell Pancoast. Today it's home to about 94,000 people and 5,400 businesses, and it bills itself as the geographic center of South Florida. DHL Express keeps its U.S. head office here, and Aetna, TradeStation, Magic Leap, Motorola Solutions, Team Health, Virgin Voyages and both Plantation General and Westside Regional hospitals are among the major employers. The Greater Plantation Chamber of Commerce points to business districts like Gateway 7, Midtown Plantation and Plantation Technology Park.

The commercial core is Plantation Midtown, an 850-acre district framed by Cleary Boulevard, I-595, Pine Island Road and University Drive. It holds Westfield Broward and Plantation Walk, the old Fashion Mall reborn as a mixed-use complex with offices, shops, hundreds of apartments and a Sheraton. Sawgrass Mills, just over the line in Sunrise, pulls shoppers from across the region. The city guards its green space — Plantation Heritage Park, Plantation Preserve, Central Park — and established neighborhoods like Jacaranda. With a median age of 41 and a highly educated population, people here take their time comparing options: you sell with reputation, information and consistent presence.

Sunrise started out in 1961 as Sunrise Golf Village on Broward's western edge, and today it is the county's office and entertainment hub. The engine is the Sunrise Business & Entertainment District. Sawgrass International Corporate Park, opened in 1987 on 612 acres, houses regional operations for American Express, Pediatrix Medical Group, Centene, UnitedHealthcare and Broadspire. Right next door, Sawgrass Mills and Amerant Bank Arena, home of the Florida Panthers, pull in several million visitors a year. On weekdays the city runs on commuters coming off the Sawgrass Expressway, I-75 and I-595. On weekends and game nights, it runs on visitors.

The other side of Sunrise is residential and sits to the east, in neighborhoods like Sunset Strip and Springtree, where daily life revolves around parks, the Civic Center and the Oakland Park Boulevard and Sunrise Boulevard corridors. The city has more than 98,000 residents and a genuinely international mix: the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance reports that over 40% were born outside the U.S., and households speak English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Portuguese and Hebrew, among others. That gives you two markets in one city: the professional making buying decisions from a desk in the corporate park, and the family looking for services close to home. A smart plan speaks to each one separately.

Coral Springs was founded in 1963 as a planned community by Coral Ridge Properties, and it still shows: strict building codes to protect the look of the place, orderly boulevards and a city that is now essentially built out. Home to about 134,000 people across 25 square miles, its economy leans on a 442-acre Commerce Park off the Sawgrass Expressway, where ABB Optical, Decimal Engineering, KB Electronics, PepsiCo and Flora Fine Foods have headquarters and Fiserv runs one of its largest offices. Broward Health Coral Springs, the Coral Springs Auto Mall, BFS Capital and United Medco round out the major employers, with real depth in life sciences, logistics and professional services.

The civic and commercial heart sits at Sample Road and University Drive, where Downtown Coral Springs includes the City Hall that opened in 2018 and projects like Cornerstone, with restaurants, a Hyatt Place hotel and more than 700 homes. Coral Square, open since 1984, is still the area's main mall, while the 1,471-seat Coral Springs Center for the Arts and the Florida Panthers IceDen set the leisure calendar. This is a city of families, schools and youth sports, with free in-city buses and the Sawgrass Expressway as its only freeway. People shop close to home and expect every business to look as well kept as the city itself.

Weston began as a master-planned community: Arvida developed most of it on land Arthur Vining Davis bought in the 1950s, and the city incorporated in 1996. Today about 68,000 people live in its 26 square miles on the edge of the Everglades, with one of the highest median household incomes in the region — roughly $140,500, according to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance. Its economic anchor is Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital, an around-the-clock academic medical center, and companies like UKG, DHL, Marriott International and Abbott have operations here. The city is still managed district by district, through Bonaventure and Indian Trace, and keeps the order its master plan built in.

Life in Weston centers on family, sports and convenience. Weston Town Center, with its clock tower on Main Street, brings restaurants, shops and offices together; the 102-acre Weston Regional Park fills up on weekends with baseball, soccer, volleyball and skateboarding; and Bonaventure Golf Club and Bonaventure Resort & Spa draw people looking to unwind. I-75, I-595 and US-27 tie the city to the rest of South Florida, so it's easy to work in Fort Lauderdale or Miami and come home at night. More than half of residents were born outside the U.S., and the city's own website offers its guided tour in English, Spanish and Portuguese: an international, discerning audience.

Deerfield Beach began in 1890 as Hillsborough, a farming settlement along the Hillsboro River where early residents grew pineapples and tomatoes. Today it runs two economies side by side. West of I-95 is the city of headquarters and warehouses: JM Family Enterprises, Southeast Toyota Distributors and MAPEI are based here, and Publix, Rooms To Go and UPS run distribution centers. The city's economic development office counts nearly 6,000 active businesses and more than 42,000 people commuting in every day. With I-95, the Turnpike, the Sawgrass Expressway, Tri-Rail and two freight rail lines, this is a city built to move goods and people.

East of the highway, life revolves around the beach, the Ocean Way boardwalk and the International Fishing Pier, on a beach that has won the National Blue Wave Award four times. Hillsboro Boulevard ties both worlds together, running from the west side all the way to the sand. The historic core around Pioneer Park and the 1926 station that now serves Tri-Rail and Amtrak give it a coastal-town rhythm. The city is remarkably diverse. For years it had the highest share of Brazilian residents in the country, along with a large Haitian community, and many households speak Portuguese, Spanish or Haitian Creole. Selling here means paying attention to language and neighborhood.

Lauderhill sits at the geographic center of Broward in just 8.5 square miles, and the city sums up its pitch well: more than 5,000 registered businesses and roughly 364,000 people within a 15-minute drive. Its commercial spine is State Road 7 (US 441), where the city's redevelopment agency has been reworking the stretch between Sunrise Boulevard and NW 26th Street since 2004. That's where you'll find Lauderhill Mall, opened in 1966, with its county bus transfer hub and plans for apartments and street-front retail. The big employers are everyday businesses: Publix, Winn-Dixie, Fresco y Más, Swap Shop, UPS and senior-living communities like Life Care Center at Inverrary.

The city skews young, with a median age of 36, and deeply Caribbean. A large share of residents have roots in Jamaica and other islands, and you can feel it in local shops, food and sports. Lauderhill is home to North America's only ICC-certified cricket stadium, inside Central Broward Regional Park, which draws more than half a million visitors a year. The Lauderhill Performing Arts Center stages more than 250 events annually, and NW 38th Avenue is being reworked into an arts and entertainment district. Up north, Inverrary keeps its country club and an older, established residential feel. People here shop close to home and buy on word of mouth.

Tamarac incorporated in 1963 as an active-adult community of low-maintenance two-bedroom homes, and that heritage still shows: the median age is around 47 and one in four residents is 65 or older. But the city has diversified. Its corridors carry heavy traffic. Commercial Boulevard west of State Road 7 sees about 68,500 vehicles a day, and the University Drive and McNab Road crossing handles around 50,000. Tamarac Commerce Park sits along Commercial Boulevard between Nob Hill Road and Hiatus Road, and the city promotes fast approvals through its Platinum City permitting status and a business concierge program.

Its employers tell the story. City Furniture is headquartered here, alongside manufacturers like KSM Electronics and Interplex Sunbelt, labs like Unipharma and IQ Formulations, Arrigo's dealership and University Hospital and Medical Center on University Drive. The city is planning a University Medical Mile around the hospital, a restaurant district called the Nouveau Quarter and a refresh of the Four Corners shopping area. Day to day, people drive between shopping plazas, the community center and parks along the canals. It's a market that rewards a personal touch, trust and clear information.

Margate grew up in the 1950s on land that was still Everglades or farmland, and its name blends the first letters of founder Jack Marqusee's last name with the word gateway: it was meant to be the entrance to western Broward. That town of 5,700 people is now a city of more than 58,000 residents and about 4,000 businesses in roughly 9 square miles. Its economy runs along State Road 7, home to HCA Florida Northwest Hospital and a notable cluster of dealerships including JM Lexus, AutoNation and Arrigo, plus Walmart and Publix. Margate Boulevard, Atlantic Boulevard, Copans Road and Coconut Creek Parkway round out the commercial grid.

Since 1996 the city's redevelopment agency has been assembling land at State Road 7 and Margate Boulevard, including the former Swap Shop site, to build a mixed-use City Center. The clock tower beside City Hall and the roundabout on 58th Avenue already mark that civic core. Margate is a city of families and long-time neighbors, with about 105 acres of parks, the Calypso Cove water park and the Oriole Golf and Tennis Club. The median age is around 46. People shop the main corridors, see doctors close to home and pick businesses they already know or that a neighbor recommends.

Coconut Creek bills itself as the Butterfly Capital of the World thanks to Butterfly World, the butterfly aviary inside Tradewinds Park, and that green identity runs deep: it was Florida's first city designated a Community Wildlife Habitat and it is a Tree City USA. Its economic engine, though, is something else entirely. The largest employer is Seminole Casino Coconut Creek, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which added table games and sports betting in 2023. Broward College's North Campus and the public school system follow. With about 57,000 residents and roughly 1,400 businesses, the city is calm on weekdays and busy around the casino on nights and weekends.

Retail clusters in the triangle formed by Sample Road, Lyons Road and State Road 7. At 4443 Lyons Road sits The Promenade at Coconut Creek, a 23-acre open-air center with an office building where Allstate operates. Just north, the MainStreet area, bounded by Wiles Road, Lyons Road, Sample Road and State Road 7, is planned as the city's new walkable, mixed-use downtown with green-certified buildings. It is a well-educated community, according to Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance data, with employers like MotionPoint, Food for the Poor, Cusano's Bakery and El Dorado Furniture. Customers here research, compare and care about quality.

Hallandale Beach is small, just 4.55 square miles between Hollywood and Aventura, but it packs in a lot of activity. It was the eighth municipality incorporated in Broward, and its economy has a signature: gaming and racing. Gulfstream Park, open since 1939, hosts the Pegasus World Cup and the Florida Derby, and in 2010 the Village at Gulfstream Park, a roughly 500,000-square-foot mixed-use district, rose in front of the casino. On Federal Highway at Pembroke Road sits The Big Easy Casino, the former Hollywood Kennel Club from 1934. The city also has a financial district with banks, brokerages and restaurants, and more than $1 billion in projects approved or under construction.

It is one of the most international cities in the county. Half of its residents were born outside the U.S., with a notable Russian community and a long-standing French Canadian presence. One in four residents is 65 or older, and daily life splits between oceanfront condo towers, the Diplomat Golf & Country Club and the Hallandale Beach Boulevard and Federal Highway corridors. Along NE 1st Avenue, the old Fashion Row is being reinvented as District 8, with studios, galleries and restaurants. Hallandale Eats brought together 26 restaurants serving flavors from 15 countries. Here, language, season and trust drive the sale.

Dania Beach is Broward's first city: it incorporated as the Town of Dania in 1904 and became the City of Dania Beach in 1998. With about 31,700 residents, its biggest advantage is location. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport sits inside city limits, Port Everglades is right next door and the airport's Tri-Rail station serves the city. That's why the maritime sector carries so much weight: American Maritime Officers keeps its national headquarters and training center here, Derecktor runs a yard that services and refits megayachts, and FAU SeaTech is based in town. Chewy, Chiquita, Cruise.com, The Casino @ Dania Beach and Marriott and Holiday Inn hotels are also among the top employers.

The city blends old and new. Along Federal Highway, Antique Row earned Dania Beach the nickname “Antique Capital of the South,” and the Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA) brings together 55 showrooms for home, yacht and office projects. Dania Pointe, downtown, is a 102-acre mixed-use district with nearly a million square feet of shops, restaurants, offices, hotels and apartments, while Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World pulls in anglers from across the region. Toward the ocean, the fishing pier and Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park draw anglers and families. It's a small market by population, with an outsized flow of travelers, shoppers and design professionals.

Oakland Park was founded in 1925 as Floranada and four years later took its name from the big oaks lining the Middle River. Today it is a city of about 44,000 people, split by the Florida East Coast Railway and crossed by Dixie Highway, Federal Highway, US 441, Oakland Park Boulevard and Commercial Boulevard, which runs past Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. Its economic bet has a name: the Culinary Arts District, launched in 2013 when Funky Buddha Brewery opened. It is an L-shaped district running north on Dixie Highway from the Middle River and along the south side of Oakland Park Boulevard, where breweries, a distillery, restaurants, barbershops, gyms and medical offices now share the block.

The city calls itself the Brooklyn of Broward: walkable streets, independent businesses and mixed-use projects like the Sky Building and Horizon of Oakland Park that are bringing more residents downtown. It is also an everyday-services city, with employers like Home Depot, Lowe's, LA Fitness, Lipton Toyota and Broward Paper & Packaging. On Federal Highway, the Mai-Kai, a Polynesian restaurant from 1956, is still open and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a diverse community, with households that speak English, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Portuguese. People eat out close to home, back neighborhood businesses and find new spots through social media and reviews.