December 3, 2025 • 7 mins
BOCA RATON WANTS YOUR BUSINESS And I've got Jessica Del Vecchio, Economic Development Manager for the City of Boca Raton on to talk about office vacancies here in Denver and how they are trying to woo our business away. If you're looking to be wooed you can check this out. She joins me at 1 to discuss it. Just how bad are our downtown occupancy rates? Really, really bad. Maybe everyone is moving to Boca already.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jessica, I sort of told my audience that you were
coming on today, and I said, look, I got this
pitch that I thought was just about downtown Denver vacancies.
And I was like, hey, yeah, let's do it. Like
I mean, because we talk about this all the time,
the commercial real estate situation is dire in downtown Denver.
But then I after I booked the interview, I kept
reading and I was like, oh my gosh, I just
(00:21):
invited the economic development manager for the city at Boca
Raton on so she could steal our businesses. But welcome
to the show, Jessica Delvecchio. I appreciate making time for
us today.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, absolutely, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
We're not here to steal any businesses for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
But I think it's an interesting thing that you guys
are doing this kind of outreach to come on radio
shows like mine in different cities around the country. Did
you target Denver specifically or was Denver a number of
cities that you said, hey, there might be opportunity here.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
There are a few key cities that were targeting. Obviously
you mentioned, you know, Denver. You're doing more research on
a downtown vacancy rates and you know that to us
is an opportunity, or for any place to be an opportunity.
If people are not you know, occupying the space, why
not And what can we offer to make them, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Come here to relocate their corporate headquarters here?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Well, in the initial email, you guys cited a number
for like Denver, the metro area commercial vacancy rates and
commercial vacancy rates for is a great measure of how
your economic environment is going, or it used to be
before the pandemic. One of the things we've seen here
(01:35):
in Denver is that we have so much tech heavy
industry that you don't have to go to the office anymore,
So we don't need an office anymore, right, I mean
that that was so disruptive here where in other communities
it wasn't necessarily as disruptive, But Jessica, I checked the
numbers for just downtown because I was in downtown Denver
(01:55):
this past weekend and was really shocked at how many
vac sees, like street level vacancies, right, so you have
to figure the rest of the building is really empty
as well. Right now, our office vacancy rate is just
under forty percent in downtown Denver, that's pretty devastating. I'm
guessing things are a little different in Boca.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, so definitely different in Boca.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
We are seeing, like you mentioned, the remote remote work, right,
So we all tested that through the pandemic and we
realize most companies have a tech heavy presence, or if
they didn't, they have to. Now that was the only
game in town when the pandemic came through, so everyone
had to go remote, and everyone has now they're doing
the hybrid workforce thing. But yeah, we're seeing a big
influx of companies coming down to Boca Ratone. You know,
(02:41):
we have twelve millions square feet office space and we're
at about nine percent vacancy rate on office space right now.
So we're seeing a lot of people coming out of
these types of areas where they're having a hard time.
People want amenities to come back to the office. You know,
the game, as you mentioned, has changed. The work no
longer just going to the office. People want to be
called to their office, and even if it's on twice,
two or three times a week, they want to purpose there,
(03:03):
not just for the workforce, you know, they want to
be able to do other things.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
So I want to ask you this question because I'm
a native Floridian and I told my audience this earlier
when I was and still there's a joke like like
with among my friends where we're like, oh, we're going
to retire and go to Boca and that is like
that and it's where your grandparents' grandparents live. But I'm
going to be I'm going to be honest. I haven't
been there in twenty five years, right, So how has
(03:28):
Boca changed?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh? My gosh. So you're absolutely right. You know, we
always blamed Seinfeld. He didn't exactly. I mean that guy.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Really he brands in our city, not you know, I mean,
he's right. So we do have a large demographic of
sixty five and over retirees, but they are a different
type of executive that are retiring here.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So they're actually.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Giving back to the community. They're mentoring companies, they're mentoring businesses.
We have research and development here that they're actually x
IBM rs, which we were the main hub for IBM
in the eighties, like you're talking about twenty five thirty
five years ago point Sevenly it's for a feet of
space they occupied. Now that's all corporate headquarters in there.
You know, Canons in there, modernized medicine, mobile help.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
All these companies have taken over that area.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
But we used to be because of Seinfeld, your grandparents' grandparents,
but that has shifted drastically, and not just through COVID.
We've seen a huge influx of younger families coming down
to the area or staying in the area even before COVID.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, have you been getting a lot of interest from
businesses in Colorado? Because I got to tell you, I
have a steady stream of emails from people who said,
I'll listen to you on the stream or on the podcast,
but I'm out. I'm leaving because of mostly because government
has made things so prohibitively expensive here.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yep, it's expensive. It's part to do business.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
You know, Florida, I forget Boca Raton, but Florida is
a very pro business state. You know, we were open
through COVID. That's why we saw a lot of influx,
not just Boca. We're South Florida, but Florida's a big
state and we had companies and people just you know.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Especially for Boc. We have a lot of executives, like.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
We mentioned, that have second homes here or third homes here.
So they're coming to the area anyway or have a
presence here, but they never thought to have their business here, right,
But through COVID, they're like, we'll open a small little shop.
How long could this possibly take? COVID could only last
a couple of weeks, a couple.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Of months, you know, and then here we are.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
They decided to put you know, a little toe in
the water in Boca ratone and then they've grown into
second HQ's, which is pretty pretty uncommon for us.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Like you said, pre COVID, it was an HQ or not.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
And now people are taking over more and more space
in their same buildings.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
How has your business community grown over the last few years?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
So right now we're working five projects, five incentive projects.
A lot of them are onder nondisclosure NDA, so I
can't really mention much about them. But five in the
last quarter where not too long ago, it was one
or two a year, right, so people were.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Actively but in and all honesty, like Boca is how
far are you from Palm Beach? And how far are
you from Fort Lauderdale? Like what's the spread there?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
It's crazy? We are thirty we're equidistance.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
So thirty minutes south is of US is Florida Dale,
which has the airport right and then thirty minutes north
of US is West Palm Beach, which also has an airport,
so kind of equidistance.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
We're, you know, we're right on the beach like they are.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, but Boca even, I mean, Boca's beautiful, it really
really is. I admire your hutzma, as they say, Jessica's
mcgfman selling your town in other cities. And you know
what I always tell people. People ask me all the
time because I'm a Nitia Floridian I'm from northern Florida,
though I'm from Lake City, Florida, right by the Georgia border,
so whole whole different world. But they always say, I'm
(06:40):
thinking about moving to Florida. And they say, okay, book
a v RBO for a month in August and then
decide whether you're going to move to Florida, because that's
like the make or break month. And it really is,
you know, right now, you guys, it's what is the
temperature right now? Because it's snowing outside here in Denver,
I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Tell you, come on, come on it seventy three and sunny.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Ah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Why don't we leave it on that, Jessina, August. Thanks,
you're right now, let's be honest, August isn't the best month.
It's hot. You know, we do have the storms, but
most of.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
The of the businesses here have Like the original IBM
campus I mentioned to you, you know, one point seven
million scare feet of office space has a thirteen day redundancy
program behind them, so you can run through your office
and you can still do your operations. Nowadays, again, it's
very tech savvy down here. Nowadays, you can really run
your business all year round, but it is pretty hot
in the summer.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
It is Jessica del Vecchio. She is the Economic Development
manager for the City of Boca Ratone. Thank you so
much for making time for me today.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Thank you so much, Mandy, appreciate you.
Jessica, I sort of told my audience that you were
coming on today, and I said, look, I got this
pitch that I thought was just about downtown Denver vacancies.
And I was like, hey, yeah, let's do it. Like
I mean, because we talk about this all the time,
the commercial real estate situation is dire in downtown Denver.
But then I after I booked the interview, I kept
reading and I was like, oh my gosh, I just
(00:21):
invited the economic development manager for the city at Boca
Raton on so she could steal our businesses. But welcome
to the show, Jessica Delvecchio. I appreciate making time for
us today.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, absolutely, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
We're not here to steal any businesses for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
But I think it's an interesting thing that you guys
are doing this kind of outreach to come on radio
shows like mine in different cities around the country. Did
you target Denver specifically or was Denver a number of
cities that you said, hey, there might be opportunity here.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
There are a few key cities that were targeting. Obviously
you mentioned, you know, Denver. You're doing more research on
a downtown vacancy rates and you know that to us
is an opportunity, or for any place to be an opportunity.
If people are not you know, occupying the space, why
not And what can we offer to make them, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Come here to relocate their corporate headquarters here?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Well, in the initial email, you guys cited a number
for like Denver, the metro area commercial vacancy rates and
commercial vacancy rates for is a great measure of how
your economic environment is going, or it used to be
before the pandemic. One of the things we've seen here
(01:35):
in Denver is that we have so much tech heavy
industry that you don't have to go to the office anymore,
So we don't need an office anymore, right, I mean
that that was so disruptive here where in other communities
it wasn't necessarily as disruptive, But Jessica, I checked the
numbers for just downtown because I was in downtown Denver
(01:55):
this past weekend and was really shocked at how many
vac sees, like street level vacancies, right, so you have
to figure the rest of the building is really empty
as well. Right now, our office vacancy rate is just
under forty percent in downtown Denver, that's pretty devastating. I'm
guessing things are a little different in Boca.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, so definitely different in Boca.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
We are seeing, like you mentioned, the remote remote work, right,
So we all tested that through the pandemic and we
realize most companies have a tech heavy presence, or if
they didn't, they have to. Now that was the only
game in town when the pandemic came through, so everyone
had to go remote, and everyone has now they're doing
the hybrid workforce thing. But yeah, we're seeing a big
influx of companies coming down to Boca Ratone. You know,
(02:41):
we have twelve millions square feet office space and we're
at about nine percent vacancy rate on office space right now.
So we're seeing a lot of people coming out of
these types of areas where they're having a hard time.
People want amenities to come back to the office. You know,
the game, as you mentioned, has changed. The work no
longer just going to the office. People want to be
called to their office, and even if it's on twice,
two or three times a week, they want to purpose there,
(03:03):
not just for the workforce, you know, they want to
be able to do other things.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
So I want to ask you this question because I'm
a native Floridian and I told my audience this earlier
when I was and still there's a joke like like
with among my friends where we're like, oh, we're going
to retire and go to Boca and that is like
that and it's where your grandparents' grandparents live. But I'm
going to be I'm going to be honest. I haven't
been there in twenty five years, right, So how has
(03:28):
Boca changed?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh? My gosh. So you're absolutely right. You know, we
always blamed Seinfeld. He didn't exactly. I mean that guy.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Really he brands in our city, not you know, I mean,
he's right. So we do have a large demographic of
sixty five and over retirees, but they are a different
type of executive that are retiring here.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So they're actually.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Giving back to the community. They're mentoring companies, they're mentoring businesses.
We have research and development here that they're actually x
IBM rs, which we were the main hub for IBM
in the eighties, like you're talking about twenty five thirty
five years ago point Sevenly it's for a feet of
space they occupied. Now that's all corporate headquarters in there.
You know, Canons in there, modernized medicine, mobile help.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
All these companies have taken over that area.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
But we used to be because of Seinfeld, your grandparents' grandparents,
but that has shifted drastically, and not just through COVID.
We've seen a huge influx of younger families coming down
to the area or staying in the area even before COVID.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, have you been getting a lot of interest from
businesses in Colorado? Because I got to tell you, I
have a steady stream of emails from people who said,
I'll listen to you on the stream or on the podcast,
but I'm out. I'm leaving because of mostly because government
has made things so prohibitively expensive here.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yep, it's expensive. It's part to do business.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
You know, Florida, I forget Boca Raton, but Florida is
a very pro business state. You know, we were open
through COVID. That's why we saw a lot of influx,
not just Boca. We're South Florida, but Florida's a big
state and we had companies and people just you know.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Especially for Boc. We have a lot of executives, like.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
We mentioned, that have second homes here or third homes here.
So they're coming to the area anyway or have a
presence here, but they never thought to have their business here, right,
But through COVID, they're like, we'll open a small little shop.
How long could this possibly take? COVID could only last
a couple of weeks, a couple.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Of months, you know, and then here we are.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
They decided to put you know, a little toe in
the water in Boca ratone and then they've grown into
second HQ's, which is pretty pretty uncommon for us.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Like you said, pre COVID, it was an HQ or not.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
And now people are taking over more and more space
in their same buildings.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
How has your business community grown over the last few years?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
So right now we're working five projects, five incentive projects.
A lot of them are onder nondisclosure NDA, so I
can't really mention much about them. But five in the
last quarter where not too long ago, it was one
or two a year, right, so people were.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Actively but in and all honesty, like Boca is how
far are you from Palm Beach? And how far are
you from Fort Lauderdale? Like what's the spread there?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
It's crazy? We are thirty we're equidistance.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
So thirty minutes south is of US is Florida Dale,
which has the airport right and then thirty minutes north
of US is West Palm Beach, which also has an airport,
so kind of equidistance.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
We're, you know, we're right on the beach like they are.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, but Boca even, I mean, Boca's beautiful, it really
really is. I admire your hutzma, as they say, Jessica's
mcgfman selling your town in other cities. And you know
what I always tell people. People ask me all the
time because I'm a Nitia Floridian I'm from northern Florida,
though I'm from Lake City, Florida, right by the Georgia border,
so whole whole different world. But they always say, I'm
(06:40):
thinking about moving to Florida. And they say, okay, book
a v RBO for a month in August and then
decide whether you're going to move to Florida, because that's
like the make or break month. And it really is,
you know, right now, you guys, it's what is the
temperature right now? Because it's snowing outside here in Denver,
I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Tell you, come on, come on it seventy three and sunny.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Ah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Why don't we leave it on that, Jessina, August. Thanks,
you're right now, let's be honest, August isn't the best month.
It's hot. You know, we do have the storms, but
most of.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
The of the businesses here have Like the original IBM
campus I mentioned to you, you know, one point seven
million scare feet of office space has a thirteen day redundancy
program behind them, so you can run through your office
and you can still do your operations. Nowadays, again, it's
very tech savvy down here. Nowadays, you can really run
your business all year round, but it is pretty hot
in the summer.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
It is Jessica del Vecchio. She is the Economic Development
manager for the City of Boca Ratone. Thank you so
much for making time for me today.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Thank you so much, Mandy, appreciate you.
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.