A Good Mix of Business
But it's not just research science that's taking place in St. Petersburg. The Gateway area is home to several large high-tech firms, including Jabil Circuit, a worldwide circuit board manufacturer with headquarters in St. Petersburg; Catalina Marketing, which manufactures technology for generating coupons at cash registers; Unaxis USA, a manufac-turer of semiconductor processing equipment; and Lucent Technologies spin-off firm Avaya.

These companies have managed to fare well enough through the recent recession. Some of them have expanded.

"Given the events of Sept. 11, we're very pleased with where we are today," says Ronald D. Barton, director of economic development and property man-agement for the City of St. Petersburg. "Orlando, Miami and Jacksonville got slammed but our diverse economy fared well. There was no one major employer that put us at risk. We had no huge loss of jobs in our market."

Presidential Accolades In fact, the expansion of one St. Petersburg high-tech company prompt-ed a visit by President George W. Bush earlier in the year. "The president visited America II Corporation," Barton says, "as a company that continued to expand even in this adverse economy."

Raymond James & Associates Inc. has broken ground on a new nine-story, 300,000-square-foot building at its campus in Carillon.

America II distributes computer chips and other electronic components and recently added an 80,000-square-foot facility to its 300,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in the Gateway area. The firm has annual sales of $300 million and 500 employees.

Unaxis USA, a Swiss-owned high-tech firm, recently added a new 32,000- square-foot cleanroom to its St. Petersburg research and development facility. "As a Class 100 cleanroom, it's the cleanest cleanroom in Pinellas," Barton says.

Avaya (NYSE:AV), a global provider of voice and data networks and communications services, recently consolidated a Jacksonville operation into its 100,000- square-foot St. Petersburg facility. "We added 60 positions from Jacksonville," says Joan Grohe, the firm's data services staff director. "The Jacksonville team had a reassignment in technology and part of that facility is closing. Their technical expertise fit in nicely in St. Petersburg and we had the space. This expands the technical expertise in this center. Their strength is voice and ours is data. New technology is the converging of voice and data and now we have teams with both skillsets in St. Petersburg."

This brings the number of employees at the Avaya data services center to 350. "What we do here is remote technical support for multi-national companies around the world," Grohe says. "We provide integration network manage-ment services. We put it in, watch it and fix it."

Another high-tech expansion has occurred at Sure-Feed Engineering Inc., which recently doubled the size of its manufacturing facility to 64,000 square feet. The firm makes envelope-feeding equipment for use in corporate mail-rooms. Todd Werner, its founder and president, recently received the Florida manufacturing entrepreneur of the year award from Ernst & Young.

"We've added a new department," says Jim Naset, the firm's vice president. "We decided to invest in sheet metal fabrication equipment and do that function ourselves. It's a new offering we're now bringing to customers. We have regional service throughout the Southeast in addition to our original equipment."

The firm this year ranks no. 2 on the Florida 100 list of high-growth companies. "Our envelope-feeding equipment is our largest revenue generator," Naset says. "We just hit the first anniversary of our contract with Pitney Bowes. That is going very well and we have new products that we're introducing in the market place. They are labor-saving systems for the mailing industry."

Another consolidation has led to an expansion of headquarters space for Cox Radio. The firm recently consolidat-ed its six radio stations ­ Magic 94.9, The Point 101.5, The Dove 105.5, Real Classic Rock 102.5, The Bay 107.3, and 97X 97.1 ­ under one roof with an expansion to 25,000 square feet at the BayView Center in the Gateway area. The company has 150 employees.

"This location is very central to the Tampa Bay area," says Jason Facer, the company's controller. "Our employees live on the beach, in north Tampa and Bradenton. That's the primary reason for picking this location. And the site is cen-tral to all our main towers. We can trans-mit from our small tower here at the office."

A Fortress of Finance
The largest corporate expansion this year is under way at Carillon in St. Petersburg. Raymond James & Associates Inc. is adding a $29-million, 300,000-square-foot office building to its headquarters campus, which already has three office buildings totaling 684,000 square feet as well as a 26,000- square-foot bank building and 1,000- space parking garage. This expansion is to accommodate the ongoing growth of the financial services firm.

"We currently have 3,000 employees and expect to be at 4,000 within several years of completion of this building," says Elliott W. Stern, the firm's senior vice president of office services. "We currently lease 110,000 square feet off site. We'll be bringing those people back onto our campus and will immediately occupy 40 percent of the new building when it's complete."

While the accommodations sound plenty spacious, Stern says, "one director looking at the plans for this building questioned if it's going to give Tom (James, the company's chairman and chief executive officer) enough room for his artwork."

James displays his impressive art col-lection throughout the corporate head-quarters.

The Gateway location provides advantages, says Stern. "We have access to a significant employee base in St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Tampa. And we're just 10 minutes from Tampa International Airport and five minutes from the St. Petersburg/Clearwater International Airport.

Future expansion plans at the 56-acre campus call for a fifth 300,000-square-foot office building and a third parking garage. "We've had the opportunity of enough land for our long-range plan-ning," Stern says. "We are utilizing that aspect."

Allstate Insurance Company (NYSE:ALL) is also utilizing that aspect in its planning. The firm is in the process of consolidating its back office opera-tions into its regional services facility at Carillon.

"We have an existing campus of three buildings totaling 332,000 square feet and 900+ employees," says Carol Barber, the firm's communications consultant. "We've been in St. Petersburg since 1989 and were one of the first companies in Carillon, along with Raymond James."

Back office operations in Fort Myers and Sarasota are relocating into the Carillon facility. "We're consolidating to gain efficiencies," Barber says. "Eighty-five employees have been offered a relocation. At this point the final numbers are not in as to who has accepted the offers. Some people are moving now. We plan to complete this reloca-tion by year end."

The choice of St. Petersburg was nat-ural, Barber says, "because of our large presence here. Our regional office for Florida is in Carillon, with management and support staff for agents and claim offices all around the state located in this complex."

As companies continue to expand their operations in St. Petersburg, private and public investment also continues in new residential and commercial devel-opment. The $9-million Hampton Inn hotel adds 91 rooms to the 773 rooms offered by the Renaissance Vinoy Resort, Hilton St. Petersburg and Heritage Holiday Inn in downtown St. Petersburg.

"There has been a perceived need for a hotel like this in this market," says Lee Allen, vice president of finance at JMC Communities, developers of the new hotel. "Hampton Inn is a popular name brand with the corporate and leisure traveler.

"The success of BayWalk was part of the thought process in bringing this hotel downtown," Allen says. "It provid-ed confidence that downtown St. Pete is a place to invest capital."

A Reuse of Waterfront Views
Another prime investment opportuni-ty is the potential for redeveloping the 156 acres currently occupied by the Bayfront Center and Albert Whitted Airport in downtown St. Petersburg. "We need new residential development downtown," says Ron Barton, director of economic development and property management for the City of St. Petersburg.

Studies to date indicate that a 40-acre waterfront park and 3,000 to 4,000 mul-tifamily residential units are a good use of that site. "We don't need office build-ings or a shopping center there," Barton says. "But we do need more residents."

Before any decisions can be made, which will require a public referendum, the city must first study the feasibility of phasing out the wastewater treatment facility also operating at that site. "If it can be closed, it makes the redevelop-ment scheme feasible," says Barton. "This has a $20-million annual tax impli-cation to redevelop this land into resi-dential. That's a huge impact."

The Bayfront Center is also under scrutiny by Barton's department. "We've commissioned a study on the feasibility of the arena," he says. "We're looking for an upside on the arena, whether we should keep it or not. If we don't keep it in its current capacity, we'll have to decide what to do alternately. The study will give us guidance on that site."

The neighboring Mahaffey Theater, however, will continue on its course. "There is almost complete consensus that the theater is a viable asset for the community," says Barton.

The future of the Port of St. Petersburg is likewise uncertain. Its des-tiny hinges on the results of a feasibility study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on dredging its channel. The question is how deep dredging equip-ment can go before hitting bedrock.

"If it can be dredged, we'll do a cost estimate on that project," Barton says. "We're looking to see if we have an opportunity to bring cruise ships to the port."

While the city evaluates the best use of its waterfront properties, the private sector has not announced plans for new office buildings in downtown St. Petersburg. But investors have been active in the past year with purchases of downtown property. Michigan-based Osprey bought the 17-story Bankers Financial Center for $17.4 million and a group of local investors that have formed a partnership called One Progress Plaza II paid Echelon Development Corp. $41 million for the 27-story Bank of America tower and $11 million for McNulty Station.

"We're more of a typical developer," says Mark Stroud, vice president of Echelon Development Corp. "Our intent is to build our product and sell it when it's time to sell. It was time for us to sell these buildings. It made economic sense for both the buyer and seller."

In another acquisition of downtown property, local developer Ed Jackson hopes to renovate the four-story YMCA building on Fifth Street South into a mixed-use project with restaurants and retail shops on lower floors and residen-tial units above.

That's not far from the planned University Village, another mixed-use project that will replace the Dew Cadillac dealership with a 27,000- square-foot Publix, additional retail space and 250 apartments. The Sembler Co., developers of the $40-million BayWalk entertainment and retail com-plex, and Orlando-based ZOM Development are joining forces on this $28.2-million project.

New restaurants emerging along the Fourth Street North corridor include a Tijuana Flats Tex-Mex restaurant and Starbucks that will occupy a 3,000- square-foot building being developed by Felix Fudge. An Outback Steakhouse and Panera Bread are soon to open across from Sunken Gardens, which is itself in the midst of a $2-million renova-tion.

In view of the activity in St. Petersburg, economic good sense seems to prevail. "Things could be a lot worse," says Don Shea, executive vice president of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership. "And they are a lot worse in other downtowns. We have a lot going for us."

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