Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise company, announced plans this week to construct a major new corporate campus in the Waterford Business District, just south of Miami International Airport. The future headquarters will span between 600,000 and 700,000 square feet and will serve as the central hub for the company’s North American operations.
The new campus will initially house over 2,000 shoreside employees from several Carnival-owned brands, including Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Cunard Line, and Carnival Cruise Line. This marks the first time Carnival is consolidating its various North American cruise brands under one roof. The move will bring together staff from Florida, California, and Seattle.
Founded in 1972 in Miami, Carnival has maintained its corporate headquarters at various locations throughout the Miami area for over 50 years.
“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,” said Josh Weinstein, CEO of Carnival Corporation, in a statement.
The headquarters will include an office complex as well as specialized rehearsal and training space for onboard entertainment productions. The project is expected to be completed by 2028.
Carnival has not yet disclosed its plans for its current 17-acre headquarters in Doral, which it has occupied since the 1980s. The property was listed for sale in 2023 and was appraised at $67.1 million by Miami-Dade County.
The move places Carnival alongside other major cruise operators reshaping their South Florida footprints. Royal Caribbean is developing a new headquarters at PortMiami, and MSC Group relocated its cruise operations to downtown Miami in 2024.
Carnival’s new home, the Waterford Business District–formerly known as Blue Lagoon–is a 250-acre mixed-use area rebranded in 2019. It is currently home to companies in financial services, healthcare, and hospitality, spread across at least seven office buildings.
While the new Miami hub will centralize operations, Carnival said it will retain some staff in the Pacific Northwest to support Alaskan cruise operations. Princess Cruises and Cunard Line have long-standing presences in California, while Holland America Line has operated out of Seattle.
The announcement comes on the heels of Carnival reporting record-breaking financial performance in the first quarter of 2025, driven by strong demand and increased onboard spending. Despite the positive earnings, the company’s stock has fallen roughly 20% this year amid concerns about rising tariffs and softening consumer confidence. Carnival continues to carry a substantial debt load accumulated during the pandemic, when global cruise operations were halted for over a year.
