Corporate Office Relocations Make Nashville and Orlando Innovation Centers
Nashville and Orlando have become what JLL calls “welcomer cities” — midsize markets offering corporate job opportunities at lower costs than anchor cities like San Francisco and New York. Over the past three years, welcomer cities posted a net migration rate of 5.2%, while anchor cities grew just 0.6% from migration, according to JLL’s analysis of 135 global markets. Gen Z workers drove much of the shift, initially leaving San Francisco during the pandemic and later settling in Texas, Florida, and the Southeast. Cost-of-living data from Apartments.com shows San Francisco housing prices are 226% higher than Orlando and 150% higher than Nashville.
Corporate headquarters moves reinforced the trend. Oracle committed $1.2 billion to establish what it called its world headquarters in Nashville, pledging 8,500 jobs with support from a $65 million Tennessee state grant. Starbucks announced a 250,000-square-foot corporate hub in Nashville designed for up to 2,000 employees. In Orlando, Travel + Leisure relocated its global headquarters downtown, while Boston-based cybersecurity firm SimSpace and banking software company Temenos also moved or expanded operations there. AMD and Charles Schwab announced Orlando expansions in recent years.
Office fundamentals in welcomer cities now compete with major markets. Nashville ranked among the top five U.S. markets for absorption-to-delivery ratios in 2025, absorbing 35% of new supply alongside New York, Charlotte, Seattle, and Phoenix. Class A rents in Nashville sit at $43.52 per square foot, roughly half the rate in anchor cities. Orlando’s vacancy rate of 15.3% runs well below the national average of 22.4%. JLL’s Travis McCready noted that only 9% of Bay Area office inventory was built after 2020, leaving companies competing for limited modern space against well-capitalized incumbents.
San Francisco and New York continue to recover, but demand concentrates in properties with strong accessibility and amenities — categories where supply remains constrained. Class A+ rents in welcomer cities average $627 per square meter, compared to $1,296 in the Bay Area, according to JLL data. McCready said emerging hubs offer what anchor cities increasingly cannot: optionality in the form of modern inventory, competitive rents, and growing talent pools. ConsumerAffairs analysis of Census Bureau data found seven of the 10 most accessible metros for young homeowners are in the Midwest, where homes run about 30% cheaper than coastal markets.
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