Carnival Corp. on Monday announced plans to build a new global headquarters on land it purchased south of Miami International Airport.
The new multi-building campus will replace the company’s existing headquarters in Doral. Carnival’s headquarters has been located in Miami-Dade County for more than 50 years.
“As the world’s largest cruise company, there is no better place for us to be based than Miami — the cruise capital of the world,” Carnival Corp. CEO Josh Weinstein was quoted as saying in a news release announcing the land purchase. “Plus, with decades of history here, this move enables us to seamlessly build on our success here to continue growing our global operations and deepening our community ties,” Weinstein said.
More than 2,000 employees will work at the new site in Miami’s 250-acre Waterford Business District, a hub for multinational and Fortune 500 businesses, the company said.
“When complete in 2028, the new global headquarters will become the company’s main North America office and will for the first time unite in a single location most of its North America shoreside team members from across the corporation and its cruise line operating units including Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, Cunard and Costa Cruises,” Carnival announced in a news release.
Employees currently working in Miami-Dade County will be joined by others previously dispersed throughout other regions, “adding hundreds of additional high-paying jobs” to South Florida, the company said.
The site will initially include between 600,000 and 700,000 square feet of workspace, including a headquarters building and entertainment training and rehearsal facility, according to the release.
Buildings will be designed to feature a variety of work areas, including what the company calls “open collaboration zones, individual workplaces, and ample meeting rooms.” The site will also feature “a flexible technological infrastructure designed to keep up with new and emerging technologies and evolving ways of thinking.”
The release quoted Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava saying that the purchase decision was made after collaboration with the county’s Office of Innovation and Economic Development, the Beacon Council (a regional economic development agency), and the Florida Department of Commerce.
It will provide “increased opportunities for local vendors and small businesses, and even more economic momentum for our region,” she said. “This announcement also reaffirms the strength and global standing of PortMiami — the Cruise Capital of the World.”
A January report by AAA showed that PortMiami handled the largest percentage of domestic cruise dockings — 10.3%, followed by Port Canaveral in Brevard County with 8.3%, and Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades in third place with 5.2%.
Acquired in 1983, Carnival Corp.’s current headquarters is a 10-floor, 468,218-square-foot office building on a 743,207-square-foot lot in Doral, the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser’s website shows. The property is valued at $70.3 million, according to the site.
In April 2024, the company disclosed plans to sell the site and keep its headquarters in the Miami area.
No transaction details were provided about the purchase announced on Monday. The Miami-Dade County public records and property appraiser websites did not have information about it, at least not naming Carnival Corp. as buyer or owner.
Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071 or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.