Carnival Corp. is dropping anchor in a big way at the Waterford Business District.
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The global cruise line purchased a site at the office park near Miami International Airport, where it plans to build a global headquarters campus that would house more than 2,000 employees and open by 2028, the Fortune 500 cruise company said in a release.
The company paid Waterford owners Nuveen Real Estate and Pacific Investment Management Co. $26.9M for roughly 15 acres at the northeast corner of Southwest 65th Avenue and NW Seventh Street, according to Blanca Commercial Real Estate, which is the leasing agent for Waterford.
Carnival plans to build between 600K and 700K SF of workspaces spanning a headquarters building and an “onboard entertainment training and rehearsal facility.”
The new headquarters will serve as Carnival’s main North America office, consolidating shoreside staff from across its cruise brands — including Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America, Seabourn, Cunard and Costa Cruises — for the first time in one location.
The company plans to relocate its employees to the new campus from its current headquarters in Doral and facilities in other regions, effectively adding hundreds of new jobs to the Miami-Dade workforce.
“Co-locating our North America shoreside team members on a shared campus — designed from the ground up to support how we work and what we do — will foster even greater knowledge sharing, innovation, efficiency and career growth,” Carnival CEO Josh Weinstein said in a statement.
The 203-acre Waterford Business District is home to tenants like Assurant, Subway and Verizon subsidiary Tracfone Wireless, which signed a 51K SF lease this year.
Nuveen Real Estate Senior Director and East Region Asset Management Lead Charles Russo called Carnival the campus’ “capstone employer.”
Carnival began marketing its 470K SF headquarters building at 3655 NW 87th Ave. last year, indicating plans to relocate, although at the time it was reportedly searching for a lease of roughly 300K SF.
Carnival didn't respond to Bisnow’s request for comment on the status of the sale or which other offices would be consolidated into the new HQ.
Its decision to expand its local footprint rather than reduce it further cements Miami's role as the cruise capital of the world. PortMiami welcomed a record 8.2 million passengers in 2024, and last month MSC Group opened what is now the largest cruise terminal at the site with nearly 500K SF, TravelAge West reported.
“As the world’s largest cruise company, there is no better place for us to be based than Miami — the cruise capital of the world,” Weinstein said. “Plus, with decades of history here, this move enables us to seamlessly build on our success here to continue growing our global operations and deepening our community ties.”
CORRECTION, MAY 6, 12:30 P.M. ET: Blanca CRE is the official leasing agent for the Waterford Business District, but didn't arrange the sale to Carnival, as a previous version of this story incorrectly stated. This article has been updated.
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