Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is among the top seven metro areas in the nation with the largest increase in entrepreneurial growth in 2016. (Kauffman Foundation)
Tampa Bay’s University of South Florida ranked ninth worldwide among public universities for U.S. patents granted in 2015 — 90 in all. (National Academy of Inventors, Intellectual Property Owners Association)
St. Petersburg’s city-owned waterfront has proved a catalyst for downtown growth. Since 2013, 1,228 housing units have been built; an additional 1,109 are under construction and 983 more are permitted, but not yet underway.
INDUSTRY SECTORS
Life Sciences / Health Care
TAMPA Johnson & Johnson’s newly opened North American shared services headquarters is on track to create 500 jobs over the next three years.
ST. PETERSBURG All Children’s Hospital celebrated 90 years of pediatric health care in 2016 with a new name — Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital —and new construction: a 250,000-sq.-ft. research and education facility housing laboratory and simulation space. Estimated completion: 2018.
WESLEY CHAPEL After raising $18 million in venture funding, medical technology firm CareSync plans to add 500 jobs, of which up to 400 will be nursing positions.
TAMPA The discovery of a method for preserving and reviving human retinas recently made at the Lions Eye Institute in Ybor City may pave the way for retina transplants, a procedure previously considered impossible.
TAMPA Tampa General Hospital earned top 50 rankings in six medical specialties on U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals 2016” list. TGH was among the top 20 hospitals nationwide in nephrology and urology.
Key Players
BayCare Health System | Clearwater
Johnson & Johnson | Tampa
Moffitt Cancer Center | Tampa
Wellcare Health Plans | Tampa
At 5,000 acres, Port Tampa Bay has the largest footprint of Florida’s 14 deep water ports. In 2015, it handled 37 million tons of cargo, including half of the state’s petroleum imports, and close to 870,000 cruise ship passengers. Coming soon: a 130,000-sq.-ft. refrigerated warehouse for perishable goods.
Tampa Bay
INDUSTRY SECTORS (continued)
Technology / Finance
TAMPA IT consulting firm Cohesion has relocated its national headquarters from Cincinnati, creating 100 new jobs and $350,000 in capital investment.
BRADENTON Switzerland-based tech firm SpecPage has moved its North American branch office from Warwick, R.I. The company develops and markets software for the food manufacturing industry; its clients include Kellogg’s, Nestlé Wagner and Campbell Soup Company.
TAMPA Citigroup will relocate 150 human resources jobs from Connecticut to its HR center in Tampa Bay that already employs 5,500.
ST. PETERSBURG Inside Sales Solutions will relocate its headquarters from New York and create 50 new jobs. The company provides targeted marketing strategies for more than 300 high-tech companies throughout the U.S.
TAMPA St. Paul, Minn.-based Sagatech Solutions, a provider of tailor-made pension and unemployment insurance software for clients of all sizes, is expanding to Tampa Bay and creating 60 new jobs.
Key Players
Citigroup | Tampa
Raymond James Financial | St. Petersburg
Sunview Software | Tampa
Tribridge | Tampa
A Place to Live, Work, Play Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik envisions a $2-billion, 40-acre mixed-use development in downtown Tampa’s Channel District. Phase one is expected to include a 500-room hotel, up to 1.2 million square feet of office space, 150,000 square feet of shops and restaurants and 1,000 multi-family housing units. Over the next decade, the University of South Florida will build a medical school and heart institute here, and Vinik hopes to also lure corporate tenants to the area. Also under consideration: a second billion-dollar mixed-use development within sight of Vinik’s project on land owned by Port Tampa Bay.
Tourism / Hospitality
HILLSBOROUGH AND PINELLAS COUNTIES Tourism is big business in Tampa Bay. In FY 2015, Hillsborough County generated more than $26.8 million in tourist development (bed) taxes, a 13% increase over the previous year. Likewise, revenue from bed taxes in Pinellas County during the same period totaled $39.3 million, a 12% increase over FY 2014.
TAMPA Billed as the world’s first “spin coaster,” the new Cobra’s Curse at Busch Gardens travels at 40 mph along 2,100 feet of track; individual cars spin freely for the final third of the ride and, depending on the weight of the people on board, no two rides are said to be exactly alike.
WINTER HAVEN Legoland Florida is expanding to include a beach retreat offering 166 rooms on Lake Dexter and a new “world” based on Ninjago, a martial arts-themed Lego set; both are expected to open in 2017.
Key Players
Bloomin’ Brands | Tampa
Busch Gardens | Tampa
Legoland | Winter Haven
TradeWinds Island Resorts | St. Pete Beach
With one project complete and four in progress, Clearwater Beach will have 1,000+ new hotel rooms by the end of 2017. The 230-room beachfront Opal Sands Resort opened in February 2016, and the 450-room Wyndham Grand Resort is set to open in 2017. Also in the works: a Hampton Inn, a Holiday Inn, a Fairfield Inn and a 702-space parking garage to accommodate beach goers.
Tampa Bay
INDUSTRY SECTORS (continued)
Logistics / Transportation
TAMPA Wisconsin-based Ashley Furniture Industries has opened a 70,000-sq.-ft. e-commerce headquarters in Ybor City with 40 new jobs.
TAMPA With a $953-million makeover already underway, Tampa International Airport is studying another $1.3-billion expansion: a new terminal for international airlines and a new air-traffic control tower. In 2016, passengers ranked TIA best large airport in the U.S. in a survey by AirportXP.
SARASOTA Freight brokerage firm Total Quality Logistics (TQL) plans to expand in Sarasota, its seventh Florida location, adding 100 new jobs. TQL opened a carrier services division at its Tampa site in 2015.
TAMPA Integrity Express Logistics, an asset-based, third-party freight brokerage company, will expand its Tampa operations with the creation of 50 new jobs.
PLANT CITY Michigan-based Gordon Food Service is adding 100 jobs in a 160,000-sq.-ft. expansion of its local food distribution center.
POLK COUNTY A new $207-million Walmart distribution center opening in eastern Polk County in late 2016 is expected to create 625 jobs.
Key Players
Amazon | Ruskin and Lakeland
Publix Super Markets | Lakeland
Tech Data Corporation | Clearwater
Total Quality Logistics | Tampa and Sarasota
Easy In, Easy Out The 318-acre Central Florida Intermodal Logistics Center in Winter Haven can process up to 300,000 containers annually and features three wide-span cranes to lift containers off trains and onto trucks for delivery throughout Florida. Also on-site: a 407,400-sq.-ft. warehouse for industrial users needing 100,000 or more square feet of storage space.
LIFESTYLE
Retail Serious shoppers enjoy a variety of options regardless of their pocketbook size, from specialty shops with luxury goods at St. Armands Circle in Sarasota to 441,000 square feet of bargains at the newly opened Tampa Premium Outlets off I-75 in Wesley Chapel to the combination retail-dining-entertainment Sundial complex in downtown St. Petersburg.
St. Armands Circle
Natural resources Lazy afternoons await sun-worshippers at beaches up and down this region’s Gulf Coast. The most notable: Clearwater Beach, which tops TripAdvisor’s “2016 Travelers’ Choice” list of best 25 U.S. beaches and is the only U.S. beach to make TripAdvisor’s 2016 top 25 best world beaches list.
Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island in Manatee County ranked No. 5 on Conde Nast’s “2015 Top 10 Island Beaches for Perfect Sand.”
Military Tampa’s MacDill Air Force Base generated $4.74 billion in regional economic impact in 2014 and created nearly 25,000 jobs, up from $3.4 billion and 18,000 jobs in 2012, according to base officials. Opened at MacDill in summer 2016: the 90,000-sq.-ft. Joint Special Operations University to provide continuing education for our nation’s elite fighting forces.
Educational excellence Tampa Bay has close to 20 colleges and universities, the largest of which is the University of South Florida, serving more than 48,000 students across campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee. Here, too, is Florida’s newest university — Florida Polytechnic — and perhaps its prettiest — Florida Southern College with the world’s largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture; both are in Lakeland.
Florida Polytechnic