The next Austin? Cathie Wood explains her 'renegade' move to St. Pete
By Lauren Coffey & Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Feb 15, 2022

A physical space to house St. Petersburg’s fledgling innovation scene started construction Tuesday with the backing of high-profile investor Cathie Wood.

St. Petersburg and Pinellas officials joined Wood, the CEO of Ark Investment Management, to celebrate the groundbreaking of the 45,000-square-foot building at 1101 Fourth St. S. Wood, who moved Ark’s headquarters to St. Petersburg from Manhattan in 2021, bought the facility’s naming rights for $2 million. It will be known as the ARK Innovation Center.

Wood’s move from New York is the beginning of a paradigm shift for the tech and innovation scene in Tampa Bay, which has struggled for years to compete with the likes of Austin of Nashville — and it comes as Wood is omnipresent in the business and financial press. She has emerged as a hero among retail investors and makes regular appearances on CNBC and Bloomberg. In August, the New York Times profiled Wood’s “unusual approach to investing.”

Her move and subsequent investments are among the most significant deals in St. Pete’s history and solidify the region’s reputation as a place that boasts a thriving technology ecosystem. Startup of the Year, a national conference, hosted its 2022 events in the Tampa Bay region, and many have cited Wood’s presence as a critical factor in that decision.

The innovation center is merely the beginning in Wood’s view. She said she plans to serve as the metaphorical bridge across the bay to Tampa’s startup scene, namely with innovation hub Embarc Collective, backed by billionaire Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik. It was one of the stops she made when she first visited the region and a factor in her eventual move.

“What Jeff Vinik is doing is amazing; that’s private, so they’re coming at it from a somewhat different direction, but the goal is the same,” Wood said. “The first visit we had, we saw all the DNA there and said, ‘Wow, this region is a magnet for innovation.’”

Wood and Tonya Elmore, the center’s president and CEO, envision the ARK Innovation Center becoming the biggest ecosystem of the state and potentially the region.

“If we’re going to turn this region into the next Austin, I think we will unite with Tampa and St. Pete,” she said. “And if we were to let’s say, hypothetically, have a South by South East [a play on South by South West festival in Austin], we would do it better together than each of us alone. So I’m really looking forward to being part of the bridge.”

‘A bit of a renegade’

The building that broke ground Tuesday has been in the works for more than five years under the leadership of the Tampa Bay Innovation Center. Wood’s involvement put the project on a “fast track,” Elmore said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

“We always wanted to be a bigger, better community incubator,” Elmore said, “and I think ARK put that endorsement stamp on to make it bigger than we thought it would be.”

The center will sit on 2.5 acres donated by the city. The two-story building will host a business incubator for startups that focus on Wood’s five main priorities: genomic sequencing, adaptive robotics, energy storage, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. It is expected to open in July 2023.

Elmore has already received more than a half-dozen startups interested in moving to the area, with a handful of family investment offices looking to expand. That’s a shift in St. Pete, where real estate has long been the preferred investment vehicle.

“I’ve never seen that in our history,” Elmore said. “Some of that movement has been the pandemic, but having the center gives them somewhere they want to be.”

Wood moved into her home in downtown St. Pete on Aug. 30 and since then has spent the last six months fielding calls from fellow investment executives, entrepreneurs and coastal friends on the potential of St. Pete.

“They come here, they see how much we love it, and they’ll make their way slowly,” Wood said. “I think they’re going to at least establish outposts here, if not move here completely. If you really want to help shape a community, this community is at the right stage for that and is eager to accept new ideas.”

She said executives are seeking business-friendly locales like Florida in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. And while many in finance are flocking to Palm Beach, Wood considers Ark a “bit of a renegade” and felt that St. Pete was better aligned with their goals.

Ark has several upcoming projects in the works. Wood said right now they are focused on innovation in the public equity markets, but that may soon change.

“We think we are coming up with a creative way of bringing the private world into our world, which is all about transparency and democratization, which, if you go to private investing these days, it’s the opposite.”