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The street in the south of Manhattan looks inconspicuous.
It is one lane and only eight blocks long.
At the western end the cars jerk over cobblestones, at the eastern end gaping potholes in the tar.
Nevertheless, the alley is known around the world: as a synonym for the American banking industry and a symbol of wealth and excess.
It's Wall Street.
The street and its surroundings once made New York the center of the financial world.
But now, in the Corona crisis, the metropolis threatens to lose this status.
It was announced earlier this week that the investment bank Goldman Sachs may be relocating parts of an important division to Florida.
Other financial firms have already left - and many more should follow.
Goldman Sachs is considered an icon of Wall Street, even if its headquarters are actually on nearby West Street.
The history of the bank is closely linked to New York.
The institute was founded in 1869 by a German immigrant, in a basement next to a coal slide.
Today Goldman Sachs is one of the oldest and most powerful financial groups in town.
Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York
Source: Bloomberg
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But now, it is said, the managers are scouting office space in the Miami area.
Specifically, it is about the relocation of part of the asset management, which generates around eight billion dollars in sales per year.
It wouldn't be the first time Goldman Sachs has opened offices outside of New York.
Financial communications employees are already in Texas and private banking employees in Utah.
"Goldman Sachs," says Eden Perry, analyst with the rating agency Standard & Poor's, "is adapting to the new reality".
In the pandemic, says Perry, many New York companies are rethinking.
"Why should they still maintain the expensive offices when almost all of the employees work from home?"
It makes sense to rent fewer rooms or relocate departments to cities where the costs are lower.
"That could be a problem for New York," warns Perry.
"If companies like Goldman Sachs migrate, an important part of tax revenue threatens to disappear."
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Every fourth financial company, shows a study by the lobby group “Partnership for New York City”, wants to reduce its presence in the metropolis by at least 25 percent.
According to the experts, companies from other sectors, especially the tech industry, are also flirting with a move.
The city of New York and the state of the same name, according to the study, could therefore lose $ 37 billion in tax revenue in the next two years.
Something similar is happening in the - also very expensive - state of California.
More and more tech companies are leaving Silicon Valley there.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, the prototype of the garage start-up, is relocating its headquarters to Houston, Texas.
And the data company Palantir, which was co-founded by the Frankfurt-born investor Peter Thiel, moved to Denver, Colorado in the summer.
Most New York financial jugglers are drawn to Florida.
Elliott Management, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, is likely to soon move to West Palm Beach - a sunny coastal town that has so far been best known for the Mar-a-Lago luxury estate of the elected US President Donald Trump.
Local media report that the first offices have already been rented.
Blackstone also plans to open offices in Miami
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Private equity giant Blackstone, based near Central Park, is planning to open new offices in Miami.
His "Project Sunshine" - in German "Project Sunshine" - provides for investments of 25 million dollars.
And the legendary New York investor Carl Icahn moved his company away in August.
Icahn Enterprises now resides in a glass office tower with a penthouse in the small town of Sunny Isles Beach.
What is the New York company selling?
Goldman Sachs only emailed: "We are pursuing a strategy of creating more jobs in high-quality locations across the United States." But when you talk to other managers, you hear the same complaints over and over again.
The city is overregulated, it is said, the office rent is too expensive.
In addition, due to the high income taxes, they have problems attracting young talent.
In fact, New Yorkers have to share their salary with three digits: the US Treasury Department, the state, and the city.
For high earners, the burden can be as high as 50 percent - an extreme figure in America.
Of all the American states, a study by the Canadian think tank Fraser Institute shows that New York is the most anti-business.
And in the years to come, the pressure on companies to move to another region will likely increase.
Because the elected US President Joe Biden plans to increase corporate taxes at the federal level from 21 to 28 percent.
Managers should look for ways to save - and enjoy tax incentives and cheap real estate in states like Florida.
Goldman Sachs, Elliott Management and Icahn Enterprises are giving new life to a decades-old dream: to transform the 100-kilometer corridor between Miami and West Palm Beach into a southern financial center - "Wall Street South", as they call it in Florida.
Many US billionaires already reside in the area and their businesses could follow suit.
Ten New York finance firms are considering moving to Palm Beach
"For all the companies that have been thinking about leaving Manhattan for a long time," says Kelly Smallridge, head of a business development organization in the Palm Beach district, "now is the perfect time."
The pandemic is causing a trek south.
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“Quite a few managers have been flirting with Florida for some time because of the low taxes,” says Smallridge.
"Now, in the Corona crisis, there is also the desire to leave densely populated areas."
Ten finance firms are seriously considering moving to West Palm Beach in the coming months, Smallridge said.
And not just with a satellite office for the boss, as was often the case in the past, but completely.
The industry is also growing in Miami - at the other end of Wall Street South.
Between 2014 and 2019, the number of banks, hedge funds and financial advisors there almost doubled, according to information from the city.
Assets under management grew to more than $ 75 billion during this period, an increase of 61 percent.
Florida is a good deal for employees.
The weather is warm, the beaches are close by, and the houses are affordable.
In addition, the companies can work in the New York time zone, which makes customer support easier.
And the income tax that you have to pay on "Wall Street South" is zero percent.