Playboy to leave L.A. for Florida, blaming costs

Playboy Enterprises announced on Wednesday that it will relocate its headquarters from Los Angeles to Miami Beach, becoming the latest high-profile company to abandon California in favor of what some call more business-friendly environments.

- BY PIPER HEATH

THE DEPARTURE OF Playboy adds to a growing list of major firms that have left California in recent years.

Ben Kohn, chief executive of Playboy, described California as being “anti-business,” saying the state is an “extremely expensive place” to operate.

“We are excited to move the company to the city of Miami Beach, which has been phenomenal to deal with, very pro-business,” Kohn said. “When you look at the cost of doing business in California against the cost of doing business in Florida, and you combine that with the energy of Miami Beach, it made all the sense in the world for Playboy to move there.”

The once-influential media and lifestyle brand, founded in 1953 by the late Hugh Hefner, will establish its new corporate base in a luxury office building called Rivani in Miami Beach. The company, which operates out of an office on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood, said it plans to be fully moved into the new Miami office by next year.