Fast Break Brandon
by Bridget McCrea

SOFTWARE SAVVY Jim Tedesco, senior vice president at Computer Associates, likes the quality of the local labor force. The software firm has hired 300 and plans to quickly grow to 500 employees at its new Highland Oaks center.

IN LIFE, BEING WELL ROUNDED IS a highly coveted quality. In a growing business community, it’s equally as important for a region to boast attractors that range from available land and a business-friendly government, to a good quality of life and reasonably priced housing.

These days, Brandon seems to have it all, judging by the rapid growth that the area is experiencing. Companies like Progressive Insurance, Computer Associates, Coca Cola Enterprises and Citigroup have all made the Brandon area their home or expanded their existing locations within the last year or so. Residential and retail growth is also booming. Combined, the growth has placed the area 12 miles east of Tampa to the top of the list of the fastest growing areas of Hillsborough County.

Moving In
With a population of over 255,000, the Brandon area, according to the Brandon Chamber of Commerce, comprises the communities of Seffner, Valrico, Dover, Durant, Lithia, Mango, Bloomingdale, Riverview, FishHawk, Summerfield, Tampa East and Turkey Creek. Based on recent census data, Brandon would be Florida’s fourth largest city behind Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa (and ahead of St. Petersburg and Orlando), if this defined area were incorporated.

The area is well known for its quality of life, an attribute that Jim Tedesco, divisional senior vice president for Computer Associates International Inc., says ultimately convinced the company to open its new Customer Interaction Center there.

The Islandia, N.Y.-based computer infrastructure management firm opened a 50,000-square-foot customer interaction center that it expects to expand to 70,000 square feet by August 2003. Currently, more than 300 employees (a number expected to increase to 500 by the end of this year), manage phone calls from its customers.

Tedesco says Brandon was selected after a North American site search pinpointed Plano, TX, Atlanta and Tampa as the top three candidates. The Tampa area stood out on its quality of local labor force, he says, and the firm has already hired 250 employees from the local market. It will continue to tap that labor pool as it grows.

“The workforce here is absolutely incredible,” says Tedesco. “We’re pleased with the number of qualified applicants.” Tedesco wouldn’t divulge Computer Associates’ average wage, but says salaries are “above the normal scale,” and typically include benefits like matching 401(k) retirement plans. Operating since December, Computer Associates has so far exceeded its early expectations, according to Tedesco, who says that for the first month of its 2003 fiscal year (which started April 1), the company was 5 percent ahead of expectations.

When putting Brandon up against other sites around the country, Tedesco says the area’s real estate values were also attractive. “When we looked at what it would cost to run an operation like this in Dallas or Atlanta versus here, it absolutely blew us away,” says Tedesco. “We saved a tremendous amount of money. That savings combined with the area’s available labor force made it a real no-brainer.”

Joining Computer Associates in the last year were a host of other companies that moved in or expanded their existing locations. Rich Imports relocated from Los Angeles to move closer to its large, East Coast client base. The company imports and sells gardenware, home accessories and collectibles. It opened in an 81,600-square-foot facility at East Meadow Distribution Center.

Progressive Insurance opened a 62,000-square-foot training center, while lender Household International made an $8-million capital investment in a 520- employee, 60,000- square-foot customer service center. Coca Cola Enterprises opened a 700-employee, 91,000-square-foot accounting shared services facility, while Citigroup Inc. expanded its customer service and sales operations at its campus, where it will add 500 to 700 Hillsborough Community College jobs by the end of 2003.

Attracting those companies, says Robin Ronne, senior vice president of economic development for the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce Committee of One Hundred, is Brandon’s centralized, convenient location along the I-75 corridor, an educated labor supply and a growing residential component. “Brandon has all of the services to support the area’s tremendous growth and job creation opportunities,” says Ronne. “It also has a support structure in place for employees to live and work in their own backyards. These forces are a powerful pull for companies looking to relocate or expand.”

Building Bedrooms
Brandon has pretty much always been thought of as a bedroom community for the city of Tampa. But unlike other areas of Florida that are trying to shake such perceptions, Brandon embraces its reputation as a residential hub for one of the state’s leading economic engines.

Brandon’s HCC Campus Expands, Adds New Programs Dr. Carlos Soto has watched enrollment at Hillsborough Community College (HCC) blossom from 3,500 in 2000 to 5,700 students today at the Brandon campus. It’s near capacity, and includes both day and evening students. “We have few available spaces in any of our programs or classes,” says Soto, campus president. Rather than turn new students away at the door, HCC is currently building a new, 53,000-square-foot student services center, contemplating the addition of new programs and creating offerings like the manufacturing technology program, which prepares students for high-level manufacturing technology jobs – from computer chip fabrication to biomedical equipment manufacturing. HCC recently submitted a preliminary project plan to the National Science Foundation to establish a $3-million regional technology center that would focus on manufacturing technology education. The project would partner HCC with the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg College and various community colleges, area manufacturers and even the public schools. According to Soto, it’s all in the name of getting students interested in modern manufacturing. “We’re trying to get students early,” says Soto, “and teach them that this is no longer their dad’s manufacturing arena.”

“The bulk of our development is either residential, service or retail,” says Laura Simpson, vice president of business and community development for the Brandon Chamber of Commerce. “People who work in Tampa come home here, which means we’re charged with providing the services they need when they come home.”

Because of its booming housing market, Brandon’s civic organizations and smaller businesses are flourishing. “Brandon is growing daily with a mix of both large and small businesses,” says Simpson, “though the bulk of our business base is made up of smaller firms.” (Small businesses comprise 75 percent of the chamber’s membership.) There’s no end in sight to Brandon’s growth spurt. With a current population of 255,165, the area is expected to grow to 262,819 by 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Brandon residents have a median age of just over 34 – slightly younger than that of the Tampa Bay region – and represent a median household income of $59,207, according to the chamber. Median property values are an affordable $115,436.

Eric Eicher, president at Commercial Brokerage Co., has been in the area since the 1980s. Over the years, he’s watched Brandon grow from “a sleepy little community” to what he calls “a large city” (if it were incorporated as a city) by anyone’s standards. He points to the 130-store Westfield Shopping Town’s (formerly Brandon Town Center) opening in 1995 as a key driving force in the area’s retail development. “There’s close to 5-million square feet of retail in Brandon as a result of the mall opening,” says Eicher, who was involved in the development of Sabal Park, Tampa’s largest business park at the intersection of I-75 and Martin Luther King Boulevard. He also helped develop Oak Creek in Riverview and Walden Woods in nearby Plant City.

Eicher says Brandon’s large tracts of available land are a key factor in its residential development. For the last two years, he says, Brandon has represented about 40 percent of all single- and multifamily building permits in Hillsborough County. Many were for homes in FishHawk Ranch, one of Florida’s largest master-planned communities. Seminole Indian Tribe Newland Communities is developing the 3,000-acre spread, where last year home-builders sold nearly 500 homes worth close to $100 million, earning the development the distinction as Hillsborough’s fastest-selling community.

Throughout Brandon, a host of other commercial and residential developments are either in the planning stages or currently underway. One of them is Brandon’s Mainstreet project, a mixed-use development that officials hope will create a downtown feel. According to Simpson, the zoning has been finalized for the project and the infrastructure work is expected to kick off later this year. “Once that’s done, the development can come in right behind it,” she says.

Miller Dowdy, a broker with Metro Area Properties in Tampa, says his commercial real estate firm has for three years focused its efforts mostly on working in the greater Brandon area. The company closed a deal with Morrison Homes last year for a development on U.S. Highway 41 that is expected to result in 220 single-family homes on 68 acres. Metro Area Properties is also developing Gateway East, a 116-acre site that will include an apartment complex, a church and a 40-acre mixed-use site with retail, restaurants and 180 residential units.

Rockin’ and Rollin’ (the dice) in Brandon The enterprising Seminole Tribe of Florida is transforming its 20-year-old casino at Interstate 4 and Orient Road – the first gaming facility operated by a U.S. Indian tribe – to the $100-million, 250-room Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The 90,000-square-foot casino, which was slated to open in June at the time of this writing, ill feature 1,500 electronic gaming machines, 55 poker tables and a bingo gallery that will accommodate 800 people. The 12-story hotel tower and entertainment complex, being developed for the Seminole Tribe by the Baltimore, Maryland-based Cordish Company, is scheduled to open in spring 2004. Brandon’s Hard Rock Café International www.hardrock.com) will be one of 100 operating internationally. It combines a dining experience with rock music and memorabilia from the last five decades. “This exciting new entertainment destination will employ more than 1,500 people and significantly impact the economy of Tampa Bay,” says James F. Allen, executive operating officer of the complex. “Its profits will help to pay for the education, health care and housing of the Seminole Tribe.”

According to Dowdy, the most attractive aspect of the Brandon market is that it “feeds off Tampa’s economic system,” which is characterized not only by a healthy mix of blue-collar job opportunities, but also a good selection of government and emerging businesses.“That’s the draw that has kept the area’s economy very steady, even through the economic downturn,” says Dowdy, adding that stability provides the perfect backdrop for more residential growth.

Boosting Infrastructure
With rapid growth come challenges. And like many Florida cities, Brandon’s hurdles are mostly infrastructure-related. As such, officials have their eye on improving roads for the thousands of new residents who funnel into the area every year.

A Brandon resident since 1979, Ronne of the Committee of One Hundred says Brandon’s road network needs the most attention right now, and he sees the ongoing commitment to improving that network from both the state and local level as a positive move in the right direction.

“There must be a continued focus on ensuring roadway improvements that are necessary to support the ongoing growth of the corporate parks and the retail, commercial and residential developments,” says Ronne.

By summer 2005, one piece of the puzzle will be competed, according to Perrydawn Brown, director of communications and business development for the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority, which is currently improving the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway. That piece is a reversible, segmental bridge in the median of the expressway from Brandon to downtown Tampa.

The reversible bridge will run from Brandon to downtown in the morning, then reverse in the afternoon rush hour. There will be no stopping at toll plazas and the speed limit will be 55 miles per hour. Brown says the impetus behind the $350-million project was the reliance on an older system that could not accommodate the traffic between Brandon and Tampa. “It will get everyone to work and home faster,” says Brown.

Bracing for the Future
Stein Mart knows a progressive region when it sees one. That’s why it recently opened a new 30,000-square-foot location at Lithia Crossing. Stein Mart chose the location for its proximity to the immense FishHawk Ranch community.

“We’re trying to capitalize on FishHawk Ranch, which is just a few miles away from us,” says Mike Kromer, general manager for the 75-employee store. Kromer says the Jacksonville-based department store chain also chose its location based on the entire area’s “phenomenal growth.”

So far, so good, says Kromer, who is anticipating a time when more stores and restaurants move into the center, thus creating more foot traffic for his store. “We’re doing very well,” says Kromer. “The company seems very happy with the results so far.”

Mike Fencel, CEO at Brandon Regional Hospital and chairman of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, predicts even more “well rounded” development in Brandon’s future, including a $4-mil-lion expansion at his own hospital that’s set to be completed by December 2003.

Fencel points to Brandon’s diverse mix of people and businesses, schools, arts and nearby metro Tampa as the components that will help the area achieve its smart growth goals. “Brandon has everything that a big city has without having to be a big city itself,” says Fencel.