Roger Barganier, president at Creative Arts Unlimited in Pinellas Park, takes a break from placing final touches on a Disney scene that will be part of the Christmas window displays at Macy's in New York City. Photo:Alex McKnight

Let's face it. Pinellas County, home to three of the top 20 beaches in the United States, is probably most widely known as a vacation wonderland. That's why 4.39-million tourists visited last year and why there are 66,000 jobs catering to those vacationers. The tourism industry generated $4.6 billion in 1999. That's a big number, and the figures underscore the importance of tourism on the local economy.

But there are other, equally important, pillars underpinning the Pinellas economy. The county has a strong manufacturing base, for instance, ranking third in the state for the number of manufacturing companies - 1,334 says the last official ranking in 1992; more current statistics by Pinellas County Economic Development put it at 1,648 - and second in number of manufacturing jobs, 44,894.

It is also a major player among the 13 counties that make up the Florida High Technology Corridor. Twenty-three percent of the corridor's technology firms and 54 percent of its biomedical firms are clustered in the county. "This is a high-tech hotbed," says Robert B. Stewart, chairman of the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners.

"Companies looking to expand or relocate here can find a high-tech workforce," says Ron Waselewski, business marketing manager at Pinellas County Economic Development. Pinellas County is the portal to Florida's High Tech Corridor." That's the upside.

The downside is that Pinellas is running out of raw land to accommodate further expansion of industry. "We have a very small land mass of 280 square miles," Stewart says. "Our population is 900,000 and will pass one million by 2001. We're the most densely populated county in Florida. Seven states have a smaller population. We live in the best place in the world, but we're not without our challenges to keep it that way.

"Just 6.3 percent of our land is undeveloped," he says. "That's 11,000 acres. We're in a built-out condition. We need to shift to infill development and redevelopment."

Economic development officials recognize this issue.

"We're a small county in terms of area, tight in space," Waselewski agrees. "We can't accept giant companies coming in to relocate. We don't have a whole lot of space to offer them. So we're more selective."

Waselewski points out that with such a strong cluster of biomedical firms, it makes sense to "bring in companies that supply products for biomedical manufacturers," he says.

HCA to Palm Harbor
Meanwhile county officials are working to assist the firms already operating in the area. "We have plenty of success stories," says Waselewski. "Ceridian has moved to St. Petersburg from Palm Harbor and we had a beautiful campus [empty and available] along U.S. Highway 19. It didn't take long at all to find a buyer. HCA will be in there."

The 123,000-square-foot building served as the previous headquarters of Ceridian until the firm moved its 900 workers to the former campus of Florida Power Corporation in southern St. Petersburg last summer. Ceridian renovated the Palm Harbor building with fiber optic cables, three backup power supplies and a 20,000-square-foot bunker designed to withstand hurricane-force winds. The facility was on the market just one month before it was purchased by Oristo of Florida. It will be leased by HCA, which until recently was better known as Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. The health care company plans to employ 450 workers in the facility, which will serve as administrative offices.

But the corporate scene in Pinellas is much more complex than the relocation of one firm and the repositioning of another. Local companies as a whole are thriving.

Tech Data Corp. has received recognition this year by climbing three places to number 61 in Business Week magazine's annual list of the world's top technology companies. Jabil Circuit Inc. has posted record revenues at $3.6 billion this year, a 59-percent increase over last year. The high-tech manufacturer is anticipating another 50-percent growth in revenues next year and has added 3,000 employees at its St. Petersburg campus in three months.

Raytheon Corp., with two manufacturing facilities in the county, continues to add staff, which currently stands at about 2,150 technology workers. BF Goodrich Aerospace Lighting Systems in Oldsmar has reversed a trend of cutting back operations as recently as four years ago. It now has a staff of 100 tech workers and is on track to exceed revenue goals of $19.3 million this year. Projected growth shows those revenue figures doubling by 2003.

BIC Graphic North America has grown from 25 employees and $2 million in annual sales in 1978 to 800-plus workers who manufacture more than two million customized pens a day, with annual sales at $125 million this year.

"The big guys are really doing well," Waselewski says. "The U.S. economy helps, but the vital business life in Pinellas is a also key factor in that growth."