Raymond James Senior Vice President Elliot Stern says the company's location in Pinellas has cultivated a unique harmony with the Bay area and the local workforce.

SURROUNDED BY WATER ON THREE SIDES, boasting more than one of the state's best beaches and touting a diverse variety of cultural, sports and entertainment venues, Pinellas County's allure is obvious to visitors and residents alike. Perhaps that's why it is the most densely populated county in the state ­ one that has cultivated a diverse and impressive array of businesses. Home to two enterprise zones that offer tax credits and sales tax refunds to businesses, Pinellas County ranked second of Florida's 67 counties in manufacturing employees this year, according to statistics from the Pinellas County Economic Development (PCED). The group's 2002 Business Assistance survey reveals there is a satisfied group of companies here ­ 71 percent of which rated the Tampa Bay business climate as "Excellent to Good," and 38 percent of which are considering upgrading or expanding existing locations.

Those numbers took on life in October, after St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker stepped up to the podium at a press conference and announced that the city had issued building permits for new buildings and renovation projects totaling nearly $300 million - a 30 percent increase over the year ended September 2001.

That put construction during fiscal 2002 at the highest in the history of the city, excluding 1997, the year when $60 million improvements were made to Tropicana Field.

A combination of factors are driving the growth, says Baker, adding that the developments include small and major projects ­ from multifamily edifices to office, industrial and commercial buildings.

Development is ongoing in many areas of Pinellas, though some are more active than others, including: Tyrone, Gateway and downtown areas of the county. "The downtown district is becoming the place to be in the Bay area," says Baker. "We're seeing residential development down there, including both large apartments and condo projects, and smaller townhouse and retail developments."

Ronald Barton, the city's economic development director, adds that in addition to experiencing a record year for total valuation of construction permits, "our economic base has continued to fare well. With an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent ­ the lowest of all major urban Florida cities ­ we believe St. Petersburg is well positioned to capitalize on these strengths as the economy rebounds," he says.

Setting Examples
In the Gateway neighborhood of St. Petersburg (Gateway is considered the "gateway" to Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg), Raymond James is building new additions to its campus that added greatly to the county's tally. The financial services firm whose name is borne on the home stadium of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers National Football League team, has been steadily expanding its operations in recent years. Today, it is building Tower Four, a 300,000-square-foot, nine-story building that will link to Tower Three via a two-story building.

Elliot Stern, Raymond James senior vice president, is an important figure in that development. He says the company's location in Pinellas has cultivated a unique harmony between the firm's operational and product departments, both of which are located in Pinellas. "Having both of those entities in the same location has created a real synergy," he says. The county and the city of St. Petersburg played critical roles in securing state tax incentives for the development, predicated on the number of new jobs that the company brings to the area, he adds. Total new jobs should reach 500 within three years. The new building should be finished by December 2003, he says.

One the county's most important and attractive elements is that Raymond James can attract employees both from the Clearwater-St. Petersburg and Tampa job markets, Stern says. Also, close proximity to two airports is a bonus for the global financial services company. Raymond James is located just a few minutes from Tampa International Airport and the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport.

Such conveniences, combined with the fact that Raymond James says it is firmly committed to staying and growing in Pinellas, will lead to construction of yet another building roughly about five years after Tower Four is completed. "The company brings on new products that we create here to sell through our retail channels, as well as to other brokerage firms," says Stern. "We also have 1,800 branches throughout the United States and Europe, so as we add more branches there will be a need for more growth here."

Strength in Numbers This year, the Pinellas County metro area ranked first in Florida and eighth in the nation as cities with the most to offer to relocating businesses, according to Outlook Magazine. Made up of a diverse patchwork of cities that include St. Petersburg, Largo, Clearwater and smaller towns such as Safety Harbor, Dunedin and Oldsmar, the county tends to attract smaller businesses that are seeking out a better quality of life for employees.

According to economic development leaders, most of the county's businesses are small, 80 percent having 10 or fewer employees and 89 percent having 20 or fewer. Buzz David, Pinellas' economic development director, notes that the county's diversified economy is one of its chief insulators against economic hard times. While other areas have suffered greatly, this area has held its own. "Pinellas is fortunate to have a fairly diversified economy and one of the highest concentrations of manufacturers in the state," says David. He adds that along with tourism, beaches and quality of life, the area also can boast that more companies here are engaged in more varied types of commerce when compared with other Florida counties. And, "these companies tend to pay more significant (higher) wage levels than service-sector jobs," he says.

Phasetronics, a manufacturer of power controls targeting motor-control and semiconductor equipment industries, is an example of that diverse array of companies. The 110-employee enterprise recently used an industrial revenue bond to consolidate two different operations into a single, 60,000-square-foot facility in Clearwater. It added a few jobs in the process, though not at the rate the company had predicted ­ because of the effects of a national economic downturn in the economy, says Dodd Disler, Phasetronics' chief financial officer.

Disler says that when the company does begin hiring more aggressively, he expects to find a talented labor pool of engineers and skilled line workers, right here in his own back yard. "Much of Pinellas' available workforce can be attributed to companies like Jabil Circuit, which have been here a while, cultivating workers," says Disler. "Overall, we have located a pretty good skill set of labor here in Pinellas County and have found quite a few engineers and skilled assemblers to hire."

But while Phasetronics continues to find what it needs in the labor pool, the PCED's 2002 Business Assistance Survey shows that many other companies aren't quite so lucky. According to the survey, the county's businesses pinpoint finding qualified employees as among the greater challenges. David says the county government, educational institutions and groups like WorkNet Pinellas are working aggressively to try and fix that problem, as are groups in other parts of Florida.

"We can overcome this challenge by introducing our companies to (WorkNet)," says David. WorkNet offers valuable training resources to potential employees. He adds that while Pinellas has a good quality workforce, the real challenge will be in arming workers with skill sets that meet the needs of the area's diverse business structure.

One of Pinellas' newest workforce efforts is the Epicenter project, a $24-million business and corporate training facility that will be built through a partnership between the county and St. Petersburg college. When completed, it will house business-related county agencies, including Economic Development, WorkNet Pinellas and the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Area Con-vention & Visitors Bureau. "We are moving quickly on it," David says. "We're ready to get the design underway and aim to have it completed by mid-2004." The goal of the project is to get the county's economic development support infrastructure under one roof. That way, says David, a relocating, new or expanding business can access a one-stop-shop atmosphere, obtaining assistance from the PCED, WorkNet, area educational institutions and other groups in one fell swoop.

"With our economic engines and drivers working out of the same location, we expect a lot of opportunities for synergy," says David. St. Petersburg College, for example, plans to develop a "collaborative solutions laboratory" there, where businesses will go to do their strategic planning. "They'll come for two-day sessions and do their strategic plan or develop business plans," says David, "then they'll walk out the door with a written record of what they worked on to take back and put into practice in their companies."

Breaking Ground
Bordered by water on three sides and practically considered "built out," Pinellas County is not a land developer's dream. But that hasn't stopped the county from growing and expanding where it can. According to David, manufacturers are holding their own in the central part of the county, while the city of Oldsmar is growing "by leaps and bounds" and recently welcomed a new Nielsen Media Services campus to the fold.

"The business development and business parks in Oldsmar are really moving," says David. "We're also seeing a lot of activity in the way of transportation improvements ­ particularly in the east-west directions. Those and other road improvements will lead to improved traffic flow and help to ease the perception of congestion in the county."

On the residential side, most of Pinellas' individual towns and cities have their own townhouse and other multifamily projects underway, in hopes that they will meet the needs of the county's growing population. In downtown Clearwater, for example, a plot of land that sat vacant for three years will soon be home to a 100-unit townhouse complex and downtown park, to be called Mediterranean Village. Also in Clearwater, a new Memorial Causeway Bridge is expected to more smoothly transport residents and tourists out to the Gulf Beaches.

Downtown Clearwater is particularly attractive to businesses, says Mike Meidel, president of the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce. That's mainly because of its unique status as an Enterprise Zone, Brownsfield and HUB Zone. In lay language, those designations translate into incentives and tax breaks for businesses to move in. "Having one area that qualifies for so many programs means we can piggyback one incentive on top of another and develop a good package of incentives," says Meidel. "That's unique in the county."

Come One, Come All Raymond James Senior Vice President Elliot Stern says the company's location in Pinellas has cultivated a unique harmony with the Bay area and the local workforce. It's no surprise that tourism plays a critical role in Pinellas County's success. With water on three sides and some of the best beaches around, the area is a hotbed for tourists nearly year-round. The area is best known for 35 miles of spectacular beaches, three of which are rated among the best in the U.S., and record-breaking sunshine. The economic impact of tourism is significant. For 2001, the direct economic impact of tourism on the county was $2.6 billion, according to the St. Peters-burg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. Over 47,000 Pinellas residents are directly employed in tourism full time, and 75,000 are directly and indirectly employed by the sector. Some of the area's biggest fans hail from Canada. Last year, more than a million Canadians traveled to Florida. The St. Petersburg-Clearwater area hosted more than 400,000 of them. Along with most of the travel industry, Pinellas' tourism has suffered in the wake of September 11, according to Debbie Stambaugh, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce. She says, however, that the threat of war and economic woes has forced visitors to rethink their travel choices, and that more of them are now driving ­ rather than flying ­ to Pinellas. "We're down right now, but other areas of the state are experiencing more of a downturn," says Stambaugh. "We attribute that to our beaches, and the fact that we've become more of a drive market for people as far north as the Atlanta area." Knowing this, Stambaugh says area tourism groups have restructured their marketing dollars to target that new drive market. The chamber is also working to establish a closer relationship with the corporate and meetings market, and recently brought in a dozen human resources executives from Florida corporations for a weekend of fun and sun.

New Initiatives
Unlike most of the other six Tampa Bay counties, Pinellas and its officials tend to focus less on filling up empty parcels of land with big-name companies and more on providing existing businesses with more qualified labor forces, better access to customers ­ even those based overseas ­ and an improved quality of life overall.

Going forward, David says the county will stick with that focus, and adds that his department will continue to focus its attention on business retention and helping existing companies grow and prosper.

But that doesn't mean the county will stagnate ­ quite the contrary, says David, who expects the creation of an economic redevelopment plan for Pinellas to result in a stronger, more cohesive community.

"We're going to develop an entirely new focus, based on the idea of redevelopment," says David. "All Pinellas communities will collaborate on the plan and on finding opportunities for redevelopment in a county that's nearly built out. It's more time consuming and costlier than going into a green field and breaking ground, but definitely worth it."

Reaching Past Domestic Boundaries Not content to stand by as its small business population limits itself to doing business domestically, Pinellas County officials have worked hard over the last year to expose area companies to foreign opportunities. By joining forces with area chambers of commerce and economic development entities, area officials are well on their way to effectively creating new opportunities for its business community.

In February, Canadian Ambassador to the U.S., the Honorable Ambassador Michael Kergin and Consul General Astrid Pregel visited the Tampa Bay area business community. Focused on establishing links with Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, they encouraged strategic partnerships between Tampa Bay and Canada.

"Strategic trade and investment partnerships between Canada and Tampa Bay are growing in significance and value," says Buzz David, Pinellas County's director of economic development, adding that sectors for potential strategic partnerships include high-tech, life sciences, aerospace/avionics, telecom, environmental, consulting engineering, building/construction and medical.

Later in the year, over 70 public and private sector representatives from Veracruz, Mexico came to Tampa for a 3-day trade mission. Certified by Enterprise Florida and hosted by groups like the PCED and the St. Petersburg/Clearwater airport, the inbound mission's goal was clear: create institutional linkages and promote business opportunities for two-way trade and investment between the regions.

Over the course of the three days, more than 60 one-on-one appointments were arranged for the Veracruz delegates with their Tampa Bay counterparts. The Tampa Committee of One Hundred arranged appointments for the associations, government officials and Veracruz businesses seeking suppliers, with assistance from Enterprise Florida, Pinellas County Economic Development and the Tampa Port Authority. The Gulf of Mexico States Accord arranged Secretary Sousa's itinerary; Bancomext arranged the one-on-ones for Veracruz delegates seeking buyers in Florida. In November, Enterprise Florida reciprocated and hosted a trade mission to Merida, Veracruz and Puebla, Mexico.

In December, the PCED and Enterprise Florida welcomed more than 45 delegates from 29 South African companies. The meeting was a result of Pinellas County's participation in yet another mission this year: the Team Florida Mission to South Africa in February. South African firms that attended the December meeting represent the information technology, tourism, health and beauty care, textiles, food and beverages and agriculture sectors.

According to David, many of the international meetings started with a simple visit or vacation by international visitors. By taking information about the county back to their own countries, they tend to get others interested, and learn more about the county's business opportunities.

"A lot of people make business decisions down the road, after they've been somewhere as a tourist or just visiting friends or family. Digging deeper, they discover that we also have a great business opportunity here," says David. "We certainly attract peoples' attention based on climate, but once they get here they realize that we've got a good labor force, training, partners and departments that can support them in their success."

Nielsen Moves to Oldsmar
Nielsen Media Research could have moved anywhere. After an extensive real estate analysis concluded that the company's existing offices in Dunedin were not conducive to the company's expansion and growth, the company began searching for property both in and out of Pinellas County.

It found a place for its new Florida campus in neighboring Oldsmar, a city that's on a rapid growth curve, having attracted numerous new residential, commercial and retail developments in the last two years. It's also one of the few Pinellas County cities with available land.

According to Amy Rettig, manager of client services for the firm, the company looked both in and outside of the county, seeking options, but "always hoped" that it would stay in the area.

"We're very pleased with the local community and have been very happy in Dunedin and Pinellas County," says Rettig. "The powers that be were hoping that we could work something out to be able to stay in Pinellas County."

The powers that be got their wish in March, when Nielsen Media Research broke ground on the new campus. As the leading provider of television audience measurement, the company is highly anticipating its new, 39-acre facility, located in the Brooker Creek Corporate Center.

The first phase of construction will focus on consolidating the company's six satellite offices and more than 800 employees in the area. According to Rettig, the company has no plans to close its existing Dunedin offices, and the first phase of the Florida Campus is expected to be complete in Summer 2003.

Seven months into a 16-month construction project, Rettig says Nielsen Media Research isn't yet adding new employees, but plans to once the new campus is up and running. "We've been growing steadily since 2000, and have added jobs since then," says Rettig. "We continue to move in that same direction of adding to head count but there is nothing set in stone as far as how many yet."