Brandon Lights Up for the Future
An emerging community flexes its corporate muscles.
by Melissa Wells
Uniroyal Technology Corporation vice president
business development, Andy Lipman, left, and
CEO Robert L. Soran believe their high-tech
diodes will change lighting concepts.
Photo by Jeffery Young
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A bright green light is shining in Brandon, and it's not just a spectacular diode from Uniroyal Technology's new optoelectronics facility at Sabal Park. No, this one-time Tampa bedroom community is on a fast track toward becoming a center of commerce in its own right, as major corporations choose Brandon as the home of their gargantuan campuses.
Brandon's "crown jewel," Citibank Center Tampa, opened last year in Sabal Park. It has four office buildings totaling 700,000 square feet and two 1,500-car parking garages for its 2,200 employees. Other firms took Citicorp's $250-million bricks-and-mortar endorsement of Brandon as a green light, and now the move is on to the I-75 corridor.
Robin Ronne, director of the Tampa Committee of 100, attributes this flurry of activity to the developments of regional impact (DRIs) along the I-75 corridor.
"Originally DRIs were looked upon as a deterrent to realty investment," he says. "Today they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. A company can easily do its initial relocation with 30 days to site plan and 30 days to permit. And it can come back in subsequent phases to expand and not go through another public hearing process, because everything has been put into place beforehand. [In Hillsborough County] the I-75 corridor is approved for 98 million square feet of commercial development from the Pasco to the Manatee county lines. That's 39 miles of office and industrial entitlements with built-in flexibility to allow companies to go in there. And as business conditions change, and they need to grow, they don't have to go through a lengthy approval process. It's a great opportunity we have here."
Fully aware of opportunities afforded by the I-75 corridor, Sarasota-based Uniroyal Technology Corporation (Nasdaq:UTCI) last year selected a 77,000-square-foot building in Sabal Park as the center of operations for its newest venture in the optoelectronics industry. The firm, which had 1998 net sales of $220.6 million, has invested $25 million in leasehold improvements and capital equipment at its semiconductor plant for 130 employees to manufacture light chips which will have the width of four human hairs. It's a technology the company says will revolutionize the lighting industry.
"Market synergies did not dictate where the facility should be located. We could be anywhere," says Robert L. Soran, Uniroyal's president and chief operating officer. "We needed an existing building that met our manufacturing criteria, and access to an airport for travel. Another issue is providing quality of life for our employees. Our technical people are picky about where they work and live. And the big overall factor was if the community would want us and work with us on a fast-track permitting process."
Lucent Technologies added its high-tech
presence to this space in Regency Park, at the
northeast corner of I-75 and State Road 60.
Photo by D.J. Wilson
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Brandon and the Hillsborough County economic development team came up the clear winners among six sites in Florida. "The Tampa Bay Partnership and Committee of 100 put together a good team of people," Soran says. "They assembled key figures in all disciplines who answered questions and told us they wanted us here."
Another deciding factor: Brandon's proximity to universities along the I-4 high- tech corridor. "We need access to a good university system focusing on optoelectronics," Soran says. "And there are other companies in the Tampa Bay area associated with this industry."
While the manufacture of light emitting diodes (LEDs) is not a new industry, the cutting-edge technology is in high-brightness LEDs. "That technology started five years ago," says George J. Zulanas Jr., Uniroyal's chief financial officer. "These lights use only 10 percent of the power of conventional lighting and last over 50 times longer."
The Brandon facility will be one of only three or four manufacturers of "cool" (blues and greens) color LEDs worldwide. Hewlett Packard operates a facility in California. "That technology is more difficult and more complex [than other aspects of lighting technology]," Soran says. "It is our prime focus."
The technology is well suited for interior and exterior automotive lights, traffic signals and outdoor signs such as stadium score boards and video displays. "The market for high brightness LED colors is expected to grow dramatically," says Howard R. Curd, the firm's chairman and chief executive officer. "In 1998, that market grew approximately 64 percent to $386 million and is projected to reach $1 billion by 2003."
If business goes as well as anticipated, Uniroyal has the option to double the size of its Brandon facility.
Brandon 33610
So does Citicorp. The Citibank Tampa Center, so large that the Tampa post office gave it its own ZIP code, has future plans to build 1.5 million square feet to accommodate its two corporate division headquarters and 23 business units.
Cleveland, Ohio-based Progressive Insurance employs
1,000 at its new call center on the east side of U.S.
Highway 19 south of Brandon Town Center.
Photo by D.J. Wilson
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"This project raises the bar in terms of corporate headquarters," Ronne says. "This is the largest corporate expansion in the history of Hillsborough County, and was selected as one of the top 10 economic development deals in the world last year by the Industrial Development Research Council."
The two divisions operating in Brandon are Citicorp's global operations and technology unit, which handles functions such as processing financial transactions and developing software, and the business services division, which provides Citicorp's facilities around the world with real estate services, security and insurance and purchasing of goods.
In addition, all Latin American client services are handled from this facility. Its recent acquisition of Buenos Aires-based Banco Mayo made Citicorp Argentina's second-largest private bank, with 106 branches and $5.7 billion in deposits. All told, Citicorp has $23.5 billion in assets in Latin American banks, making it the largest foreign-based bank in that part of the world, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
"The Brandon campus is the prototype for Citicorp worldwide," Ronne says. "It incorporates design and engineering technologies that will be taken around the world through the year 2005. For the state of Florida and Hillsborough County to win a project of that magnitude speaks volumes."
"The good thing is Brandon has quality of life, accessibility to goods and services and great residential communities," he adds. "And it has great roads to handle traffic. The Lee Roy Selmon Expressway provides tremendous ability to move people to different areas. This growth along the I-75 corridor isn't going to stop."
As if to underscore Ronne's thesis, Garland, Tex.-based Software Spect-rum is in the process of opening a 100,000-square-foot call center in the Interstate Corporate Center, at I-4 and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, that will employ 750 people to provide technical service for subscribers of America On-Line. The firm also has call centers at its headquarters in Texas and another in Spokane, Wash.
"This is our first call center in Florida," says Jim Picone, the firm's site manager. "We chose this area because of the low cost of real estate, and the location is convenient to draw from a lot of communities for employees. There is a good work force in the Tampa Bay area."
Also investing in Brandon real estate is Progressive Insurance, based in Cleveland, Ohio. The auto insurer, with 1998 operating revenues of $5.3 billion, has recently opened a 300,000-square-foot call center in Crescent Park, south of Brandon Town Center at I-75 and U.S. Highway 301. The firm presently employs 1,000 people; its new campus will accommodate 3,000.
"Our company has experienced dramatic growth over the past few years," says Brian Dwyer, the firm's general manager. "We've been in Tampa since 1971 and decided to relocate in an area that would meet the needs of our employees. This is a very accessible location, close to the interstate and easy to get to."
How does it play in St. Paul?
Advantages such as these have made it possible for the St. Paul Companies to retain its Brandon call center in the midst of corporate mergers. The firm, originally operating as USFG Corporation, opened a 72,000-square-foot claims processing center a few years ago in Sabal Park and quickly grew to a staff of 500. Last year USFG merged with St. Paul, Minn.-based St. Paul Insurance Companies and experienced a downsizing as a result of the merger.
"We dropped from 500 to 300 employees," says Terrie Morrison, the firm's director of organizational effectiveness. "We handled that through attrition as much as possible. Since then St. Paul Companies has been looking at the quality of employees, cost of operations and now we're winning back production and business for them. We are pleased with our ability to hire quality employees in this area."
St. Paul Companies, which previously used vendors to handle claims processing, is moving some of these operations to its Brandon facility. "Right now we have about 350 employees and are in a slow-growth mode," Morrison says. "They're watching us to make sure we can deliver on productivity rates that we've promised. The fact that they're shifting more business here is a good sign that they're pleased with what we're doing."
Distributing the brew
Pleased with Brandon's accessibility for distribution of products, Premier Beverage Company is building a 222,000-square-foot facility in Oak Creek at U.S. Highway 301 and I-75. "This is their third expansion in the area," says Nancy Phaneuf of Eastgroup Properties, the firm developing the distribution facility. "They are doubling with this expansion and this may be the largest build-to-suit for industrial property in Hillsborough County."
The project has incorporated a lot of extras to accommodate Premier Beverage's special needs. "These are upgrades today's modern warehouse user would demand," Phaneuf says. "It has an insulated roof to control heat for their product line of wine and spirits. The sprinkler system avoids the requirement for in-rack sprinklers, making it easier to store their product. And they have an upgraded slab with special reinforcement. They use very sophisticated forklifts and any change in the floor could have an impact up top."
One significant build-to-suit project in Brandon - currently on the drawing board - is a 75,000-square-foot distribution center for Frito-Lay at Pinebrooke business park. "They're doing infrastructure work now," says Bob Dikman of The Dikman Company, a commercial and industrial real estate firm.
Another company, Canariis Pump, presently located in Sabal Park, will soon be moving to a new 43,000-square-foot facility at Oak Creek South. "They're doubling in size and will occupy their new building within eight months," says Eric Eicher of Robert E. Woolley Corporation, which owns the business park.
But even an impressive number of build-to-suits doesn't account for all the commercial activity in Brandon. A good deal of speculative construction is also in the works.
Crescent Resources, a real estate investment trust based in Charlotte, N.C. is building a 100,000-square-foot spec warehouse in Oak Creek South. It is currently spending $7 million putting in new roads at Crosstown Center. "They'll be delivered in September," says Joe Taggart, the firm's vice president of commercial development for the Florida region. "We plan on doing a 120,000-square-foot building in there starting sometime this year. It's all speculative.
"Brandon is a great residential market and we think there's room for nice office and industrial development," Taggart says. "We're excited about being in the Brandon market. There's not that much inventory and there will be demand there. Being along the I-75 corridor is good for a lot of reasons. With its heavy residential, there's a ready labor supply for companies moving there. And its proximity to downtown Tampa, the airport and the university system is good. It's well located...."
Another REIT is adding inventory to the Brandon market. The Weeks Corporation, headquartered in Norcross, Ga., recently opened a speculative $100-million, 132,000-square-foot Class A office building in Highland Oaks at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and I-75.
Spec fever?
After a 25-year wait, Orlando-based CNL Corporate Properties has finally green lighted for development its land along the I-75 corridor, which it has owned since 1973. The firm is opening Legacy Park at U.S. Highway 301 and Lumsden Road. "We plan to build 900,000 square feet of office space on 80 usable acres," says Jim Kersey, the firm's chief operating officer.
"We expect to break ground on our first building around year end. We're excited because there seems to be good activity in the whole I-75 corridor. All the fundamentals seem to be good in that marketplace. It's not only multi-tenant, but what gets our attention are the big build-to-suits in the past few years, especially Citicorp. This is a sign of healthy interest when those kinds of corporations look at a corridor. Our park is intended to accommodate some of those users as well."
Eastgroup Properties just received permits for a 90,000-square-foot spec building at Palm River, which should be completed in October. "A lot of the new development on the east side of Tampa is much further south than ever before," Phaneuf says. "The center of the circle has shifted from Sabal Park to a little further south."
A town called FishHawk
New single-family residential construction has also shifted farther south. FishHawk Ranch is approved for 7,600 homes that will accommodate 25,000 people. "In other words, it's a town," says Kevin Smith, general manager at Genstar Land Company, which is developing the community. "We're 30 minutes from downtown Tampa and 15 minutes to Brandon Town Center."
Multifamily residential construction is popping out all over Brandon. "The apartment growth is phenomenal," Eicher says. "There are somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 apartment units under construction. Brandon continues to capture around 40 percent of all the building permits for residential construction in Hillsborough County and there's still room to grow."
At 1.1-million square feet, Brandon Town Center mall, at I-75 and State Road 60, has for the past five years attracted shoppers commuting from as far away as Sarasota and Lakeland. Of the 10 million consumers who annually shop at the mall, 20 percent are tourists and mall management says that sales are strong.
"We're doing exceptionally well," says Angela Sweeney, senior marketing manager for Chicago-based Urban Shopping Centers Inc., which also owns the new Citrus Park megamall in northwest Tampa. "Our occupancy rate is in the high 90 percentile and has been since we opened."
Structuring for growth
The success of Brandon Town Center has not escaped notice. "It has acted as a magnet to other retail development," Eicher says. "On the south side of the mall an additional 700,000 square feet of new retail has been built since the mall opened."
Can Brandon's infrastructure handle all the growth? (Brandon's citizens never did approve incorporation, so properly speaking, what seems to be the name of a town is simply a general area in Hillsborough County.) "I believe the infrastructure is able to handle this load," says Eicher. "We have major improvements under way at I-4. Highway 301 and State Road 60 have been widened and the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway is also going to be widened. Plans are for construction to extend the Expressway into the center of Brandon."
Design work is under way for a $50-million feeder road project and new bridge over I-75 at the Expressway. "This will create a new direct link to the Expressway and relieve traffic congestion during morning peak rush hour," says Harold Aldrich of Tampa-based Clarity Consulting, a consultant to the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority. "We expect the new roads to open to traffic by summer 2002."
The project encompasses a nine-mile, reversible-lane bridge that will handle traffic between I-75 and downtown Tampa. Another new feature will be electronic toll collection. Cost of the project will be financed by an increase in the toll, the first increase in 10 years. Drivers who use the full length of the Expressway will pay an additional 50 cents, or $1.75, starting on the third day of October.
"The new bridge, designed by Gene Figg, who designed the Sunshine Skyway bridge, will be a landmark," Aldrich says. "We'll have main feeder roads from Pauls Drive and Lumsden. These will be major gateway intersections that are heavily landscaped."
Vandenberg Airport, at the intersection of I-4 and I-75, is in the midst of $37 million worth of improvements. A new 5,000-foot runway opened last October and a 9,000-square-foot terminal is in final stages of construction. All told, the complex will be 46,000 square feet, including a storage hangar for corporate aircraft and a maintenance hangar.
"This will take the airport to a new level in terms of capacity to handle corporate jets," says Ed Cooley, director of general aviation at the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. "It's being developed to complement the growth in Brandon and corporate industrial development along the I-75 corridor. Vandenberg will be attractive for someone with their own corporate jet and a business in Brandon, because the airport is just five minutes away and has the same high-end amenities as Tampa International Airport."
Wandering Fairgrounds?
In the same neck of the woods, the Florida State Fairgrounds is in the midst of a possible major transition. Mills Corporation, which developed the 2.5-million-square- foot Sawgrass Mills outlet mall in south Florida, has submitted a proposal to officials to relocate the state fair in order to build a 1.6-million-square-foot mall on land the fair uses at I-4 and Orient Road. The project would entail finding a new site for the fairgrounds.
"The Fair Authority is concerned about loss of business and how a new location would handle the traffic," says Eric Collazo, vice president and development director at Mills Corp., a REIT based in Arlington, Va. "We have two primary sites under consideration farther south in the county: the southwest corner of I-75 and State Road 672, or the northwest corner of I-75 and State Road 674. This is 15 minutes away from its present location."
The scope of the project for Mills Corp., if it receives a green light, will include acquiring the new location for the fairgrounds, building improvements at the fair's new location, demolishing the existing fairground and building the new mall.
"We like the tourist market in the Tampa Bay area and this location is ideal to intercept traffic at I-4 and I-75," Collazo says. "We can benefit that market by being another attraction along the I-4 corridor. Another benefit to the county is the mall will be a taxable entity."
The next step is for the Fair Authority to enter into a due-diligence study with Mills Corp. to address their concerns. "We suggested six months, but if the Fair Authority decides to enter into this agreement, nine months is reasonable," says Collazo.
"This would be a positive for the area if it happens," Eicher says. "Mills would create $7 million in taxes, if my math is good. For that reason alone I believe it makes sense to do the project. And it would create between 3,000 and 4,000 jobs."
That many new jobs in Brandon is another reason it no longer considers itself a bedroom community. "Within a 10-mile radius of the intersection of Highway 301 and Bloomingdale Road are more than 200,000 people," Eicher says. "Developers are out in front developing infrastructure to help create a balanced community and thousands of jobs.
"This bedroom community is becoming a corporate address."
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