Foot Locker Packs its Bags for St. Pete

f you’ve ever shopped at Foot Locker, the legendary mall retailer famous for selling Nike, Adidas, New Balance and other popular athletic shoes, you’ve likely been helped by a smiling employee sporting a black-and-white-striped referee jersey.

The folks who run Foot Locker hope to find many more happy workers when they move the company headquarters next year from New York City to St. Petersburg, Florida.

Call it the swoosh heard around the retail world.

Just after celebrating the company’s 50th anniversary, Foot Locker Inc. President and CEO Mary Dillon explained on an August 28 earnings call why the executive team made the decision to leave behind the world’s largest financial center for a beach community of 265,000 people on the Gulf Coast of West Central Florida.

Foot Locker recently celebrated its 50th anniversary by offering a special line of commemorative merchandise.

Photo courtesy of Foot Locker Inc.

While outlining her “Lace Up Plan” to turn around a company that showed declining retail sales in 2022 and announced the closure of 400 stores, Dillon said, “In addition, to better support our strategic progress, to increase team member collaboration, as well as ongoing expense discipline, we made the decision to relocate our headquarters to St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2025. I remain confident that we are taking the right actions to position the company for its next 50 years of profitable growth and create long-term shareholder value.”

“To better support our strategic progress, to increase team member collaboration, as well as ongoing expense discipline, we made the decision to relocate our headquarters to St. Petersburg, Florida.” — Mary Dillon, President & CEO, Foot Locker Inc.

She should know. Dillon came to Foot Locker in January 2023 after a successful stint running Ulta Beauty, where she increased sales from $7 billion in 2014 to $9 billion in 2021.

It may be a harder climb at Foot Locker. Total sales increased 1.9% year-over-year in the second quarter to $1.9 billion, but the firm showed a net income loss of $12 million. Foot Locker’s market cap of $2.26 billion is down 22.74% from last year and is roughly half of what it was three years ago.

A new store concept was unveiled by Foot Locker earlier this year.

Photo courtesy of Foot Locker Inc.

The iconic shoe seller finds itself losing market share to Dick’s Sporting Goods, JD Sports and a host of online, direct-to-consumer businesses. In addition, most of Foot Locker’s stores are still located in shopping malls, a waning real estate segment.

Still, Dillon is hopeful that her plan will work. During the earnings call, she said the move to St. Pete will play a key role in the turnaround. “What this really does is build on what already is a very meaningful commercial and executive team presence in the St. Pete market,” she said. “We have a large center of gravity there already, we have a large concentration of folks there already, and we think it’s a great place for us to continue to grow and do business and continue to attract top talent.”

Deal Sealed Before the Storm
While not leaving behind New York entirely, Dillon noted that “we will maintain only a limited presence in New York, but we will have a presence connecting us to sneaker culture, sports and fashion. We think this is going to give us better opportunities, both for further collaboration across the business and some financial benefit over time as well.”

Downtown St. Petersburg, Florida

Photo courtesy of the Greater St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corp.

The Fortune 500 company said in a release that it expects to complete the move by late 2025. The relocation will give St. Pete three Fortune 500 firms and Pinellas County a total of four: Foot Locker, Raymond James, Jabil Circuit and TD Synnex.

The St. Pete City Council finalized the municipal incentives package for Foot Locker during an Oct. 3 meeting in which council members voted 6-2 to award up to $475,000 in incentives to the company as long as the firm meets certain criteria. The package is contingent on Foot Locker creating at least 150 new jobs at an average annual wage of $120,000 or greater.

If the firm were to do that, it would generate an annual payroll of at least $18 million. Foot Locker reportedly is considering one of two potential office buildings in Gateway Area of north St. Pete. The city's economic development director, Brian Caper, told the council that he expects Foot Locker to invest around $20 million into capital improvements.

Mayor Ken Welch said in a statement in late August that Foot Locker will create at least 150 jobs in the region as part of the new deal.

Mike Swesey, president and CEO of the Greater St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corp., said patience paid off. “They were looking hard three or four years ago and put the search on hold,” he says. “They were working with JLL out of Dallas and New York. That is when we changed the name of the project from Project Athena to Project Worth. They eventually came back to us. They said the move would be part of company strategy. They were aligning the company with new brand identities and sports figures.”

Two of those new alignments are the NBA and the Chicago Bulls. Foot Locker last year announced long-term partnerships with both.

“Foot Locker was interested in quality of life and our outdoor lifestyle,” says Swesey. “Also, we had space available for them. They are considering two buildings. We put together a nice incentive package for them. Pinellas County extended the ad valorem tax incentives. Foot Locker was very happy with the collaboration between Pinellas County and St. Petersburg to get this deal done.”

Dollar Stretches Further in St. Pete
Swesey says St. Pete beat out competition from New York and a number of Southeast cities. St. Pete was helped by a number of economic factors, including costs. According to BestPlaces.net, it is 40.4% cheaper to live in St. Pete than in New York. Housing costs are 56.6% less in St. Pete, where the median home costs just $346,900. In New York, the median home costs $677,200.

This may be why so many New Yorkers sell their homes and move to St. Pete. According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, 1,600 New Yorkers have exchanged their driver’s license for a Central Florida driver’s license this year after 2,000 did it last year. That is by far the most of any state.

Also, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 71,000 New Yorkers relocated to Florida in 2023.

Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Area ranks fourth in the country in knowledge employment growth from 2020 to 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During that time, the Bay Area increased its knowledge talent pool by 3% annually. Only Austin, Raleigh and Dallas-Fort Worth showed bigger gains. No Northern or Midwest city placed in the top 15.

Swesey says there was “no doubt” that sealing the Tampa Bay Rays stadium deal this summer helped the city land Foot Locker. “I immediately started getting inquiries from other companies after the stadium deal got done in July,” he says. “This elevates our message. I have seen an uptick in prospect activity since the announcement.”

“After Foot Locker, I had three consultants reach out to me and say they’re working with major corporations. The momentum is here. With these big announcements, we are on a roll.” — Mike Swesey, President & CEO, Greater St. Petersburg Area EDC

The Rays’ current stadium in downtown St. Pete was badly damaged by Hurricane Milton. The Rays will have to find a temporary home until their new stadium opens in 2028.

When asked if St. Pete would recruit other New York-based firms, Swesey said: “New York City is definitely a target. After Foot Locker, I had three consultants reach out to me and say they’re working with major corporations. The momentum is here. With these big announcements, we are on a roll.”

Not even a flag-happy referee wearing a striped jersey would blow the whistle on that one.