A foundation established by the late Jim Moran, a billionaire philanthropist who built the nation’s top Toyota distribution business, is getting ready to make Fort Lauderdale its new hometown. The new headquarters of the Jim Moran Foundation, now taking shape at a construction site near the intersection of Commercial Boulevard and Federal Highway, is scheduled to open in 2025, which will be the foundation’s 25th year in operation. A more spacious home office will further the foundation’s mission of supporting education, elder care and other worthy causes through hefty philanthropic donations – more than a quarter billion dollars and counting.
With lush landscaping and pedestrian walkways, the foundation’s new home promises to serve as a campus-like oasis amid the commercial sprawl along Federal Highway. Indeed, its five-story height and unusual angular design will make the building an immediate landmark in its neighborhood near the junction of Commercial and Federal, where Holy Cross Hospital is now the most prominent structure. The 63,151-square-foot headquarters will become the neighborhood’s second monument to the philanthropic legacy of Jim Moran, because it will rise next to the Jim Moran Heart and Vascular Center at Holy Cross, which he created with a $6 million gift to the hospital.
The Jim Moran Foundation now houses its 15-person staff at the Deerfield Beach corporate campus of JM Family Enterprises, the massive, multi-pronged private company that Jim Moran built. JM Family last year ranked 22nd on Forbes magazine’s list of the nation’s largest privately held companies, with $18.2 billion of annual revenue. The company’s flagship subsidiary is Southeast Toyota Distributors, the world’s largest distributor of Toyotas.
Located on the JM Family campus in Deerfield Beach since its inception in 2000, the Jim Moran Foundation outgrew its ground-floor office, storage and archival space in the 100 Building on Jim Moran Boulevard. Several years ago, the foundation’s leadership started pondering how to meet current and long-term space needs, Jan Moran, the wife of Jim Moran and the chairman and president of his namesake foundation, said. “We began considering options in 2021,” she said. The Jim Moran Foundation seized upon an opportunity to pay $9.8 million in October 2021 for the vacant site of its future home at 4545 N. Federal Hwy.
When that occasion arose to buy the 2.4-acre site next to Holy Cross, “it was evident to The Foundation that this was the best choice for our future,” Jan Moran said. The land “was already zoned for a 50,000-plus, square-foot office building,” she added. “Additional space will allow us flexibility for growth in the years to come.”
Among other advantages, the foundation’s new headquarters will provide more space for the South Florida operations of the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship, a professional development program for small business owners and leaders of nonprofit organizations. The institute’s South Florida operations are based at 1401 Broward Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale. The institute was established in 1995 as part of Florida State University’s College of Business. In 2015, Jan Moran and the Jim Moran Foundation committed $100 million – the largest gift in the university’s history – to expand the entrepreneurship institute’s operations statewide and to create the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship at FSU, the nation’s first standalone college of entrepreneurship at a public university.
Hastings, a Nashville-based architecture firm, designed the new headquarters of the Jim Moran Foundation with large, open floor plates to provide offices and program space for the foundation and the entrepreneurship institute as well as shared event space. The building will also provide more space for a gallery of archives detailing the entrepreneurial journey of Jim Moran, who died in 2007. The archives include photos of him as an auto dealer and charitable donor in Chicago. “Expanded archives exhibits … tell his inspiring life story of humble beginnings and successful entrepreneurism,” Jan Moran said.
Fort Lauderdale-based Stiles broke ground for construction of the foundation’s new home in June 2023 and expects to finish the five-story building in the summer of 2025. Jan Moran said the cost of construction is $1,000 per square foot, equating to about $63 million.
With philanthropic donations totaling more than $260 million over its 24-year history, the Jim Moran Foundation has enriched society in myriad ways. For example, last year the foundation teamed up with the National Endowment for the Arts to support The Arc of Palm Beach County and its distribution of free online videos on how to create and share art, with special attention to the learning needs of people with disabilities.
In 2022, the foundation granted $30,000 to the South Florida Wildlife Center to fund educational outreach in Broward and Palm Beach counties, and it awarded $76,200 to Junior Achievement of North America to encourage students in low-income middle schools to consider college and career options. In 2021, the foundation gave $200,000 to a nonprofit organization called House of Hope to support a program in Broward County that has helped people with an addiction prepare to enter the employment market after overcoming substance abuse problems.
Relocating to Fort Lauderdale will be a big move for the Jim Moran Foundation when it leaves the only home it’s ever known in Deerfield Beach. But Jan Moran said the foundation’s carefully planned future in Fort Lauderdale would have pleased her husband: “I know Jim would be so happy that we are reaffirming the Foundation’s home is in Broward County and ensuring that his heart of compassion and generosity will continue in perpetuity.”
