(Bloomberg) — Cathie Wood means a lot to many people in St. Petersburg, Florida.
she Ark Investment Management is a state-of-the-art anchor tenant Entrepreneurship Incubator. She works with local school districts to create science and technology classes.And she also became a Recognizable faces In a small town without much Wall Street existsincluding some fans who seemed unperturbed by her flagship fund’s erratic performance and perhaps didn’t realize it.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Wood had just finished delivering a keynote speech at the Artificial Intelligence Summit at the newly opened Ark Innovation Center when a woman walked up to apply for a job for her son.
“I just love you, you’re the whole reason I’m here,” the woman said.
Wood hugged her and told her to relay her son’s message to an Ark employee. In St. Petersburg, far away from Wall Street’s critics, this kind of thing happens all the time.
The exterior of the Ark Innovation Center in St. Petersburg, Florida.Photographer: Octavio Jones/Bloomberg
It’s been more than two years since Wood joined the bandwagon, with a net worth estimated at about $220 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. New York Money Manager Financial firms headed south in search of lower taxes and better weather. But unlike Ken Griffin, Jeff Bezos, Stephen Ross and other billionaires, Reimagining Miami and palm beach Charity Donationreal estate purchases and development projects later, she set up shop in a decidedly less glamorous city on the state’s west coast.
In St. Petersburg, a city of about 250,000 people with a sleepy downtown often overshadowed by neighboring Tampa, Wood found a place to make a quick mark. As part of a $2 million investment in the program, she secured naming rights to a startup incubator called the Ark Innovation Center. The curriculum she and her team developed is being taught to sixth-grade students in Pinellas County, with plans to roll it out to seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms within two years. Courses include designing glow-in-the-dark food and using drones to understand storms.
“We feel like we can make a difference here,” Wood said. “The community welcomed us with open arms.”
Cathie Wood is interviewed at the Ark Innovation Center.Photographer: Octavio Jos/Bloomberg
Bringing in Wood’s Ark is a big deal for St. Petersburg, which is best known in financial circles as the longtime home of Raymond James Financial Corp. (its name adorns the stadium across the water where the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers play) and Some other corporate back office jobs.
The city is known for its beaches and sunshine, something Wood admits she needs during the 2022 stock market crash. When her flagship fund plummeted, she said she found comfort walking down the Quay Block from her downtown office. ARKK, filled with the tech bets that made her an investing star, closed the year at $31.24, down 75% since the end of 2020.
Wood founded her company in 2014 critical capital injection From Bill Hwang, founder of Archegos Capital Management. She became the focus of criticism after her foundation soared amid the pandemic with bold bets on Bitcoin and Tesla, prompting a flurry of media coverage touting her stock-picking prowess.But when the law of gravity steps in, Wall Street investors and executives tasted retributionDan Loeb, Cliff Asness and Rich Handler blasted her tactics.
ARKK rallied with the broader market last year, but it also had its share of missteps.wood cut out Shares of Nvidia Corp. rose nearly 500% in January 2023 when the chipmaker began its sharp rally.February, morning star Name her fund It is the most serious “wealth destroyer” in the past decade. Investors have taken notice, with about $1 billion withdrawn so far this year from ARKK, which counts Tesla, whose shares have plummeted, as one of its largest holdings.
But scoring in this manner was not a priority in St. Petersburg. When Wood decided to move to Florida, she considered Miami but grew bored of the “Southern New York” atmosphere and said it was too crowded. She also looked at Tampa, Florida’s third-largest city. Eventually, she ended up across the bay, purchasing an oceanfront condo not far from downtown for $2.15 million in 2021. (For comparison, Griffin spent $107 million on a mansion in Miami’s Coconut Grove, while Bezos bought two properties in a “billionaire bunker.”) Indian Creek’s total value is $1.47 One hundred million U.S. dollars. )
The next project for the Wood Innovation Foundation, which helped develop an expanded science curriculum across Pinellas County, is working with the school board to create another Ark Center to provide education.it is imitated Enterprise Villageis a learning center in the area where middle school students pretend to be business owners at the mall as a way to learn economics.
Pinellas County School Board President Laura Hine said she appreciates Wood’s willingness to work with local public schools.
“She can build her own school, which will help hundreds of kids,” Hein said. “By choosing to work with our public school system, she is impacting 95,000 students.”
Of Ark’s approximately 50 employees, 33 currently work in St. Petersburg, while others work in remote locations. Wood is a supporter of office working, especially among young people “who otherwise would never have been indoctrinated into our culture and their DNA would not evolve”, and said all new employees would need to work in an office. She said the company wanted to recruit from the local community, but the main focus was on attracting the best talent “as long as they are willing to move”.
In recent years, the Tampa area has increased employment opportunities in banking and financial services. While St. Petersburg lacks many of the amenities and nightlife of larger cities, it seems to be on the rise. For one, Mayor Ken Welch said this is one of the rare places in America that really needs more office space. A flurry of construction is underway downtown, with plans for new skyscrapers and $6.5 billion in development projects, including a new baseball stadium for the low-spending but high-performing Tampa Bay Rays.
“In a community like this that is hungry and has food, we thought it was possible to put our stamp on this place and attract attention and capital,” said Ark Chief Operating Officer Tom Staudt. “New York is a great place, but there are a lot of people and a lot of money here, so it’s harder to have a meaningful impact on the community.”
To contact the author of this story:
Claire Ballentine in New York (email protected)
