Apollo selects Austin as site of second headquarters

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US private capital giant Apollo Global Management has selected Austin as the site of its second headquarters, picking the Texas city over two locations in Florida, according to two sources briefed on the matter.

The $1tn in assets investment group has been planning a second headquarters from its longtime base in New York City, the FT reported in March, and said its new offices will house the bulk of its new hires.

Apollo conducted an internal survey among its top dealmakers to decide between Palm Beach, Miami, Nashville and Austin as a preferred location for the second headquarters. Apollo never shared the results of its survey with employees, and chief executive Marc Rowan decided to anoint Austin its second home, one of the people said.

Apollo has alerted its top partners of the decision, though some of the people warned nothing had been finalised and was still subject to change.

The city, which is home to a top public university, is known better as an emerging tech hub than a financial centre, and is popular for its downtown, which has renowned music halls and barbecue restaurants.

Canyon Partners, a well-known credit manager whose founders worked with the Apollo founders at Drexel Burnham Lambert in the 1980s, moved its headquarters from California to Texas after the pandemic. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have also recently built Texas offices with thousands of employees, respectively.

Apollo declined to comment.

Apollo’s main office is currently in Midtown Manhattan at 9 West 57th Street, one of the city’s most desirable skyscrapers, overlooking Central Park. Since its founding in 1990, Apollo has called New York City its home, but the firm has increasingly opened bases around the US as it diversifies away from the city.

Earlier this year, Apollo told the FT: “New York does not have a monopoly on talent, and we expect most of our future growth will take place in our second HQ.”

Rowan has been a vocal critic of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, and many top financiers have criticised his now-abandoned plans to raise personal and corporate taxes to close the city’s looming budget deficit and fund an expansion in social services.

Even as Apollo, Citadel and other prominent financial services firms have looked to relocate outside of New York, Manhattan office vacancy rates are shrinking while rents are soaring, in part as AI firms are expanding in the Big Apple.

Texas has appealed to financial services firms for its low tax rates as well as its conservative, pro-business politicians. Companies such as SpaceX and ExxonMobil have recently redomiciled to Texas, a jurisdiction that has been viewed as more friendly towards corporate interests. Apollo, however, remains incorporated in Delaware, where the asset manager has faced various shareholder lawsuits over the years.

Other firms, such as Citadel and Elliott Management, have located offices or headquarters in South Florida, but Apollo ultimately chose Austin in part because of a scarcity of private schools in Miami, which was a preferred destination of many younger Apollo employees.

Since the pandemic, Apollo has opened significant offices in Greenwich, Connecticut, as well as in Miami and Palm Beach, Florida. The number of employees at the private capital titan has swelled to over 4,000, according to its most recent annual report, more than doubling from 2020.