A Corporate Secret
by
Melissa wells
Low impact fees, plenty of land, and I-4 access
give Plant City corporate appeal.
Plant City in eastern Hillsborough County has made a name for
itself with the Strawberry Festival, which dates back to 1930.
With the recent relocation of the International Softball Federation
to Plant City, the community now has another drawing card. But
sports enthusiasts and festivalgoers are not alone in seeing
the appeal of Plant City.
A company from Canada has this year relocated its North American
headquarters from Rhode Island to Plant City. And an Australian-based
construction supply manufacturer has increased its capital investment
and number of jobs in its Plant City facility.
Along the way the city’s population continues to grow.
"Last year our population increased from 29,000 to 31,282,"
says Phil Waldron, Plant City’s city manager. "That’s
a growth factor of 4.6 percent. This is significant in that
it’s all due to internal growth. We’ve had no major
annexations. People are recognizing what’s here and are
moving to Plant City. Our quality of life keeps people coming."
That
increase in population creates a need for a continuous housing
supply. With the completion of the Walden Lake residential development
nearing, city officials are pondering the next step for providing
new homes in the area. "We have a big need for residential,"
Waldron says. "Several home developers are making inquiries
about the development process and there are parcels of land
available. That’s the next big initiative for us."
In response to the growing population, the city has added other
services. "Our fire service has been converted to fire
rescue," says Mike Sparkman, Plant City’s mayor. "We’re
adding two basic life support ambulances. That’s a must
for this area."
Another
boost to the city has been the expansion of Interstate 4 to
six lanes. "The finishing of I-4 has been very good for
us," Sparkman says.
"We’re one of the best-kept secrets in Hillsborough
County," adds Waldron. "We have water and sewer available.
Our impact fees are low and we have available land."
South Florida Baptist Hospital in the past year has tested Plant
City’s development process with the construction of its
$7-million, 31,000-square-foot surgery center. The 147-bed,
acute-care hospital is 172,000 square feet at its main campus
located in Plant City between State Road 60 and Interstate 4.
The not-for-profit community hospital also has five smaller
medical facilities scattered throughout the area.
The new surgery center is equipped with state-of-the art microscopes
and fiber-optic imaging tools. With the availability of this
technology, utilization has increased at the surgery center
since its opening. "We’re having an excellent year,"
says Bill Ulbricht, the hospital’s chief operating officer.
"Overall our volumes are up 4 percent and in surgery alone
they’re up 14 percent. This is due to a combination of
Plant City’s expanding population and more physicians joining
our staff."
New to the staff are an orthopedic surgeon, general surgeon,
plastic surgeon and obstetrician/gynecologist. "The new
surgery center is quite an attraction for new physicians coming
into the community," Ulbricht says. "It’s a great
drawing tool with regard to technological advances we’ve
employed."
|
|
| Bill
Ulbright, chief operating officer at South Florida Baptist
Hospital in Plant City, is pleased with increased volume
at the hospital’s new surgery center. Photo: Tom Berndt |
Additionally,
the hospital’s emergency room has more than 30,000 visits
annually and is the third busiest ER in Hillsborough County.
South Florida Baptist Hospital also participates in the Baycare
Health System, an alliance of eight hospitals formed to help
provide more cost-effective care. "Baycare is our parent
organization," says Ulbricht. "We have access to those
resources and that has helped us expand and improve our services."
Membership in Baycare brings to the hospital, for instance,
group contracts to reduce the cost of supplies. "We don’t
have to duplicate departments, like back office operations,
information technology and accounting systems, and can use those
resources for new programs," Ulbricht says.
Next on the hospital’s wish list is the acquisition of
property for a medical office building. "We need to recruit
physicians and we need a place to put them," says Ulbricht.
Another corporation making additional capital investments in
Plant City is James Hardie Building Products Inc. The Sydney,
Australia-based fiber cement board manufacturer opened its first
facility in Plant City in 1994 and recently completed building
a $40-million, 70,000-square-foot facility to produce cement
pipes used in road construction. With the opening of the new
facility, the firm operates in a total of 390,000 square feet
of manufacturing space and employs 315 workers.
Taking advantage of Plant City’s access to Central Florida’s
interstate network, Star Distribution is expanding its distribution
center by 54,800 square feet. It currently operates in 250,000
square feet. "It is a distribution warehouse for companies
like Publix and Winn-Dixie grocery stores," says Danny
Wilcox, chairman of the Plant City economic development council.
Another grocer, Albertsons Inc., is expanding its 781,542-square-foot
distribution center in Plant City. "They’re adding
22,000 square feet for a meat and delicatessen section,"
says Julie Hamm in Plant City’s planning department.
While the additional square footage may be small, the significance
of the expansion is large. "This means Albertsons is pleased
with this area and it’s still viable for growing here,"
says City Manager Phil Waldron.
Sav-A-Lot Inc., based in St. Louis, has selected the Plant City
Commerce Center at County Line Road for its new 335,000-square-foot
distribution center. "This is three times as much space
as they had in Lakeland," says Bill Loftin at Loftin Real
Estate, developer at the commerce center. "They came here
because of our access to the interstate and easy proximity to
the markets they want to serve. And they didn’t want to
move too far away from where they already have employees. This
works just fine for them."
This company joins Square D, which last year occupied 26,000
square feet at Plant City Commerce Center to market its safety
switch products, and USCO Logistics. That firm provides third-party
logistics for customers at its 74,000-square-foot distribution
center. Northern Telecom is its largest customer. After a year
of operating in this facility, USCO recently purchased its building
at the industrial park.
|
|
| ATCO
Rubber Products recently occupied its new 110,000-square-foot
Plant City facility built by R.C. Stevens Construction
Co. |
Another manufacturer
has recently built a distribution center in Plant City. Dallas-based
ATCO Rubber Products earlier in the year occupied its new $3-million,
110,000-square-foot facility. "This is an expansion for
ATCO," Waldron says.
Joining the scene in Plant City is Creative Games International,
a Canadian manufacturer of high-security products. The firm
has relocated its North American headquarters from Providence,
R.I. to a 49,000-square-foot facility in Walden Woods. Creative
Games International is a subsidiary of Netean, Ontario-based
Canadian Bank Note Co. Ltd. (TO:CBK). The firm currently employs
70 people in the production of scratch-off lottery tickets at
its new facility in Walden Woods.
"This relocation in a business sense has been very good
for them," says Nancy Phaneuf at EastGroup Properties,
the firm that developed the Creative Games facility. "Their
manufacturing here is very profitable. They’re already
looking at space for a small expansion."
"Our plans are to grow to about 150 people over the next
couple of years," says Jim Trask, president at Creative
Games and senior vice president at Canadian Bank Note.
Concerning the company’s choice of Plant City for its relocation,
"it met most of the criteria we had set to find a new location,"
Trask says. "We did a thorough search. The major benefit
of this area is the fact that there is a well-educated and well-trained
labor market."
The kicker for the decision to relocate to Plant City can be
credited to the community itself. "We received tremendous
support from everybody in the Tampa Bay area," Trask says.
"When you take into consideration the friendliness of the
people and how far they are willing to go to make us happy and
feel welcome, that put our decision right over the top."
Of the firm’s 70 employees, about half relocated from the
Northeast. "Our employees were all keen to move to Plant
City," says Trask. "And access is great for our customers
who come to visit the printing facility to approve their products.
Plant City also met all our economic and fiscal criteria."
The company prints lottery tickets for customers throughout
the world. "We deal with people in every country just about,"
Trask says. "Our base, though, is the domestic United States."
Since the product is akin to printing money, technology and
security play a significant role at this facility. "We’re
high tech compared to the average print shop," says Trask.
"We have many levels of control through the printing process
such as checking the odds and producing the correct number of
winners and losers. The other part of our security is to make
sure nobody knows where the winners or losers are. That’s
controlled by our software."
Danny Wilkes, Plant City’s economic development director,
recently visited the Creative Games facility. "The security
there is as intense as at Fort Knox," he says. "It
floored me."
The company’s parent, Canadian Bank Note, manufactures
currency, stamps, bonds, stocks and passports and identification
cards. "The security side of our business has picked up
dramatically since Sept. 11," says Trask. "We’ve
been receiving calls to upgrade passport and ID systems."
|
International
Softball Has Been Very Good for Plant City
The International Softball Federation relocated
from a suburb of Oklahoma City to Plant City
two years ago in what was a coup for the city,
which competed against three other locations
throughout the nation. Of special appeal to
the federation was Plant City’s stadium,
which had been originally developed as a spring
training camp for the Cincinnati Reds.
"That’s a great facility," says
Don Porter, the federations’ president.
"It was a shame that it was unused when
the Cincinnati Reds left. We’re getting
it back on track."
Following extensive renovations of the stadium
and its ball fields, the federation is now bringing
softball tournaments to the area. The most recent
event is the Junior World Cup for girls age
16 and under, the first international event
to take place at the federation’s new headquarters.
"We had entries from 20 countries in addition
to teams from the United States and Canada,"
Porter says.
With many teams having a roster of as many as
50 people, that has meant increased business
for the area’s hospitality and restaurant
industries.
"We have three or four international events
scheduled next year and some major domestic
events including national championships,"
says Porter.
Now that events are flowing, the next project
is to set up the federation’s hall of fame.
Approximately one third of the 16,000-square-foot
office space is earmarked for that use. "The
hall of fame doesn’t have a physical location
right now," Porter says.
As to satisfaction with the new headquarters,
"Plant City is a great place," says
Porter. "The city has been very good about
supporting the things we’re doing here
and will be doing. Our commitment has been to
come here and have as many events and activities
as we could, which in turn helps the community."
"This is our first taste of global affairs,"
says Phil Waldron, Plant City’s mayor.
– M. Wells
|
|
While Creative
Games prints its lottery tickets, a different sort of business
is preparing to move its administrative headquarters to a new
15,000-square-foot building in Walden Woods. "The most
recent company to welcome is Spring of Tampa Bay," says
Ed Miller at Colliers Arnold Commercial Real Estate Services.
The Spring is a social services agency that helps women seeking
refuge from domestic violence. The agency is relocating from
a Tampa facility.
Although Plant City has been eager to welcome these expanding
and relocating firms, development of speculative space has slowed,
due largely to the downturn in the nation’s economy. Demand
for space has likewise slowed.
"Are there any companies attracted anywhere right now?"
quips Phaneuf at EastGroup Properties, a developer at Walden
Woods industrial park. "The market has slowed down on all
our properties. But the people that are out (looking for space)
are very serious."
Business people making deals at this time have an advantage.
"We see an overall trend toward increasing vacancy but
it’s not dramatically increasing," says Miller at
Colliers Arnold. "We expect moderation in the growth of
rents. It’s an advantageous market for tenants to negotiate
for space needs."
"The business climate for the past six months has not been
as active," adds Bill Dean, president at D&F Construction
Inc. "There’s a wait-and-see attitude."
Dean has developed six spec industrial buildings in Plant City
in as many years. "We’re developing 20,000 square
feet of warehouse and distribution space in the airport industrial
park area," Dean says. "That building is 50-percent
preleased by two companies."
Dean recently completed a 42,000-square-foot building for the
Astin family. Betty and Sam Astin Jr. own a 300-acre farm in
the area. "That family has been farming here since 1927,"
says Dean. "We built a 15,000-square-foot cooler for their
strawberries and other veggies. Historically they’ve been
marketing produce through local brokers. After 70-plus years
of doing it that way, they’ve decided to market on their
own."
While the Astins are setting up shop in their new building,
the city has been extending its downtown renovation. "We’re
continuing with linear park beautification of the downtown and
constructing a parking lot for the library," Sparkman says.
"We’re also beautifying the section between City Hall
and the library with landscaping, new lighting and brick pavers,
a theme that carries throughout our entire downtown."
South of downtown Augusta, Ga.-based Hull Storey Acquisitions
is developing a 181,000-square-foot Lowe’s Home Improvement
Store. "This is one of their larger stores," Waldron
says. "That is the major project in Plant City right now."
Developer Allen Goins has set his sights on the north side for
his most recent retail development in Plant City. Plant City
Crossings is anchored by a 37,860-square-foot Publix with an
additional 47,000 square feet of local retail space at Interstate
4 and Thonotosassa Road. "We’ve preleased approximately
89 percent of the local space," says Goins at AG Development
Group Inc. "Plant City had no retail on the north side.
This is a chance to serve the people in that area."
Coming to the new center is a Blockbuster store and across the
street a 4,998-square-foot Applebee’s and 6,115-square-foot
Outback Steakhouse restaurant are soon to open.
Goins has previously developed Walden Square shopping center
at the south end of Plant City and Tall Timbers, a 120-unit
apartment complex near Plant City’s high school. Goins
plans to build an additional 60 units. "We’re designing
it now," he says. "Plant City is a great community.
With a six-lane interstate connecting Plant City to Tampa, transit
time is probably less than 10 minutes."
"This is a nice climate to live and work in," agrees
Waldron.
Corporate
Report: Pinellas County click here
|
