Tech savvy rewarded

Lauderdale startup wins competition.

An undisclosed tech company is seeking incentives to relocate its headquarters to Plantation, in a move that would put it near companies like Magic Leap.

The company would create 100 new jobs over five years at an average annual salary of $97,374, according to Plantation documents. It currently has 11 workers in Plantation as well as operations in New York, which is courting the company to locate there, according to a city memo.

The city on Wednesday is expected to consider an incentive of $140,000 in tax refunds, based on jobs created.

A memo by Plantation’s chief administrative officer, Horace McHugh, recommends that the City Council approve the incentives, noting that Plantation provided a similar incentive in the attraction and expansion of Magic Leap.

Magic Leap, a technology company that has raised $2 billion from investors including Google, Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba and Saudi Arabia, renovated the former Motorola campus in Plantation to be its headquarters.

David Coddington, vice president of business development for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, said Magic Leap has “helped renew Plantation and South Florida’s status on the world tech stage,” noting that software companies eBuilder and Cetu also call Plantation home.

Relocation of the latest tech company would add to the “already established technology hub in greater Fort Lauderdale,” he said.

At Tuesday’s eMerge Americas conference in Miami Beach, Magic Leap’s senior vice president of people, Carlos Penzini, discussed the continued growth he expects of the tech industry in South Florida.

Penzini said he keeps a map in his office showing all of South Florida’s technology companies. “I know that in five years, that [number] is going to be four or five times that,” he said.