Whether low-tech or high-tech, expansion is everybody's game.

by by Melissa Wells

Despite late-summer worries that the economic growth in the Gateway area and northern Pinellas County would slow down, it hasn't happened yet. Everywhere you look from the Gateway north, it's full speed ahead.

The major moves are known, with the IMRglobal decision last year to build its mega-headquarters in Clearwater making the biggest headlines. But several other firms are in expansion mode in various areas of northern Pinellas. It's all part of the Tampa Bay market, the leading market in the South for company expansions and relocation according to Southern Business and Development magazine. The focus, of course, has been on large firms, with impressive numbers of employees and millions if not billions in revenue, but what about the smaller economic engines that huff and puff and pull the economy along? If large firms provide the economic protein, who provides dessert?

Well, companies like former state senator Jerry Rehm's little hobby shop, the Florida Candy Factory, the old-fashioned candy-making enterprise that happens to be the first company to benefit from Clearwater's economic development incentive, the Grow Clearwater Fund. With such national accounts as Disney World and Texaco to satisfy, the little candy factory had to expand, so the owners recently closed on a $190,000 loan guaranteed by the Small Business Administration through this new city program. The result: Rehm is converting 15,000 square feet of warehouse space to refrigerated storage and rebuilding his 1915-vintage candy-making and packaging equipment to beef up production of his proprietary "Angel Mints."

"We have the original, old machinery," Rehm says. "Nobody makes this mint besides us. We've been finding our niche between the big guys."

Rehm has been angling for space on the counter between the likes of Hershey and Mars for 10 years. The Goliaths haven't stopped him. His mints can be found at Seven-Elevens, Luby's and Morrison's cafes, and it's not small change any more. "Our first year we had sales of $60,000," says Rehm. "Last year we did $1.7 million."

With this infusion of capital into his company, Rehm is adding a second shift. "By securing this small business loan, we are assured of the expanded growth required to be successful in the national candy industry. " he says.

Rehm is pleased, and so are officials administering the Clearwater fund. "It's another tool we have in our economic development tool box," says Diane C. Hufford, the city official in charge of business development. Considering the strong concentration of small businesses in northern Pinellas, programs like this may help ensure the viability of an important segment of the economy. "We have 90 percent small businesses with 10 employees or less," says Rick Dodge, executive director at the county's Department of Economic Development. "We need to be able to assist these businesses."

From Bosnia with tea
Not many would put "harmony" and "Bosnia" in the same sentence, but another small Clearwater business is trying, and it seems to be working. New Harmony Coffee & Tea is a partnership between businessmen Terry Davis and Ameer Haverec, who "came from Bosnia to escape the ravages of the war and walked away from his coffee-roasting business," says Davis.

The two decided to manufacture the same type of coffee-roasting equipment that Haverec used in Bosnia, and opened their coffee shop on Drew Street in Clearwater to generate cash flow. Equipment sales have begun to take off.

Now our equipment sales for the last two months are higher than for the first three years," Davis says. The partners are looking to buy a large building with showroom space in downtown Clearwater.

ERA West is a newcomer on the Clearwater scene, too. The international telecommunications and Internet services firm (Nasdaq: ERAW) relocated from Boston last June. ERA West has a subsidiary in Australia and is busy acquiring companies to expand its services. The firm is negotiating to purchase a 50,000-square-foot office building adjacent to Morton Plant Hospital on South Fort Harrison. "We like the community and want to financially contribute to it," says company president Robert Hinson. "This is one of the few places where you can live close to the water and enjoy it year round, and the prices are still reasonable."

New name, headquarters
The biggest move in north Pinellas last year was IMRglobal's decision to build its world headquarters at Cleveland and Missouri. The first 57,000-square-foot headquarters building is rapidly taking shape. "Things are going well," says Robert Molsick, chief financial officer at IMRglobal. "It's on schedule and we should be moved in by the end of June."

The international software firm (Nasdaq:IMRS) Ð until recently known as Information Management Resources Inc. Ð has bought a building across the street to accommodate staff that is relocating from France. "We ultimately expect 60 programmers to make the move," Molsick says.

A second, 75,000-square-foot building will be built on the heels of the first. "It should be complete in December," says Al Justice of the Justice Corporation, which is handling site acquisition, development and management of the center. "We're working on additional acquisitions adjacent to the 15-acre site."

The IMRglobal effect pleases Clearwater officials. "Once the facility is built and operating, we can expect IMR to attract other quality businesses, which is a tremendous economic boost to our downtown district," says city manager Mike Roberto. And there is more.

AMC Publishing's owners bought the former Pioneer Bank building on Cleveland Street and are renovating 16,000 square feet for themselves and another 30,000 square feet for lease. "We are adding windows to all the floors and resurfacing everything," says Bennetta Slaughter, AMC Publishing's CEO. "We'll make the building a part of the beauty of downtown."

Intervest Bank is playing a role in this, too, expanding a 5,000-square-foot branch bank into a 22,000-square-foot headquarters building. The bank, which has four branches in Pinellas County, is adding another 14,000-square-foot building next to its headquarters.

Earlier last year, Bay Tech Optical moved into downtown. "We've picked up a line of optical grinding equipment made in Britain and now have a training facility here on how to use the equipment," says president Norm Tomes. Elsewhere, VeriFone Inc.'s new headquarters are under construction on Park Place just north of Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard. "We're looking forward to going into the new building in June, if not before," says Robert Randelman, Verifone's director of marketing and business development. Covance Inc., headquartered in Princeton, N.J., has set up a research and development office, the Center for CNS Research, in Safety Harbor. It will conduct clinical trials on pharmaceuticals aimed at treating diseases of the nervous system. Covance, which employs 5,000 in more than 16 countries, had revenues of $495 million in its 1996 fiscal year.

"At this office we investigate drugs in the clinical setting for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and migraine headaches," says George Bobotas, the center's executive director. "Our attraction to the Tampa Bay area is proximity to the University of South Florida and University of Florida, which has an excellent central nervous system program and brain institute. We picked this area because it's fairly central and is close to the airport."

Dunedin's prime corporate citizen, Ocean Optics, has occupied its newly renovated three-story office building, part of a major expansion. "This will always be our corporate headquarters," vows the company's chief operating officer, Scott Faris. "It is our commitment to Dunedin."

The company manufactures a miniature fiber optic spectrometer that is 1,000 times smaller than conventional equipment and comes at a cost that is 10 times less expensive than the competition. Founded in 1989, the high-tech firm has grown to 45 employees and $10 million in revenues.

In the northernmost reaches of the county, there is Class-A office space under construction at Coral Landings South on U.S. Highway 19 north of Tampa Road in Palm Harbor. Brokerage firm Robert W. Baird and Co. Inc. will occupy the first floor of the 28,800-square-foot building.

"This office building is the first suburban Class-A office space in Palm Harbor in 10 years," says Bonnie Neiman at Florida Properties Diversified, the leasing agent.

In Tarpon Springs, Anclote Industrial Park landed a corporate expansion when Southern Engineering and Automation, which builds robotics equipment for the automotive, electronics and medical industries, moved from a smaller facility in Clearwater to a new 18,500-square-foot building. "Our business has matured," says Southern Engineering president D. Travis MacGregor." We sell the ability to design and build something that hasn't been done before. It's creative and challenging."

In another move, Metal Industries Inc. last year announced plans to build a $3.5-million, 50,000-square-foot office/research and development building on Commerce Boulevard in Oldsmar. About 40 employees will move to the new facility, which will feature a 100-seat theater. A technical center is planned for developing industrial heating, ventilation and air-conditioning products.

Oldsmar's Chamber of Commerce is the first to take advantage of an offer from the county's Department of Economic Development to fund one-third of the salary of an economic development professional dedicated to retaining businesses in the area. The balance of the salaried position will be shared by the chamber and the city.

"Small businesses fail because they may not know how to market or to control labor costs," says Rick Dodge. "They need support. Oldsmar is the first to create this position."

Kevin Gartland, the Oldsmar Chamber's executive director stepped into the new position. "We're surveying three to 50 businesses a month," he says, "focusing on how we can help them grow or stay alive."

Otherwise, Oldsmar is contemplating a proposed Wal-Mart superstore on Tampa Road and an AMC 20 cinema in Woodlands Plaza, also on Tampa Road. The projects have "been awaiting completion of the Tampa Road project, which should be in late February," Gartland says.

Gateway still grows
Meanwhile, in the Gateway area, where so much new corporate development has occurred in the past two or three years, expansions continue.

Jabil Circuit (JBL: NYSE) is building a new 62,000-square-foot office building to provide corporate services to its sites around the world.

"Our original thesis in locating our corporate headquarters here (15 years ago) was based on logistics," says Jabil president Tom Sansone. "This decision has turned out to be very meaningful over time. This is a wonderful location for light, clean industry. There is a great indigenous population of labor and the lifestyle and cost of living are a big magnet for skilled labor and technical staff. We can recruit successfully from other areas. It puts the wind at our back in operations at this site."

The wind has been at his back in more ways than one. "It's 14 minutes from my desk to a seat in the airplane," Sansone says. Tech Data Corporation (Nasdaq: TECD) last year expanded its Gateway corporate headquarters with a new 250,000-square-foot office building. Now the high-tech firm is adding 328 employees under the Quick Response Training grant from Enterprise Florida. "We're a company that has grown from 20 employees 15 years ago to 3,000 employees in this area," says president and COO Anthony Ibarguen. "This is a great place to live, with relatively low cost of living, which makes it easy for us to attract talented candidates from outside the area. We have just recruited the managing director of operations in Finland to come to Clearwater to be our vice president of international marketing.

Plasma-Therm Inc. (Nasdaq: PTIS) is building a 32,000-square-foot research and development center at its headquarters. The firm, which manufactures plasma processing equipment, currently operates in 62,000 square feet. The new facility will house laboratories, customer service and sales and marketing functions.

Florida Blood Services, currently headquartered in Tampa but with operations in Pinellas as well, bought a 137,000-square-foot building on the west side of 9th St. N. south of Roosevelt Boulevard and is spending $1.5-million to renovate it into both laboratory and office space to accommodate 300 employees.

Computer cable manufacturer CompuLink recently added a 20,000-square-foot building to its Gateway headquarters, where it employs 450 workers. "One reason we selected the Gateway area is that it allows our field personnel easy access to main transportation arteries," says CompuLink vice president Rob Wilkin. "The only difficulty we've had has been recruiting new personnel."

Dynamet Florida, near the St. Petersburg/Clearwater International Airport, has had similar problems recruiting for its production of titanium products for the aerospace and medical industries. "We need more training programs for our manufacturing staff," says general manager Buford R. Riffee, Jr. "In the past several years we have seen an influx of talented employees relocating to this market."

Dynamet, headquartered in Washington, Penn., but a presence in the Gateway area since 1980, operates in two buildings that provide for manufacturing and administrative functions. A recently constructed third building of 24,000-square-foot will allow for expansion of all departments.

PBT International Inc., which manufactures supplies for laser printers, has expanded its ICOT Center space from 10,000 to 30,000 square feet, and its staff has grown from eight to 64 employees. PBT, a wholly owned subsidiary of an English firm, has been operating in Gateway since 1984, but it isn't finished expanding. "Next year our plan is to grow again by another 50 percent," says vice president Mark Perry.

Time to speculate
Some commercial real estate developers have taken the speculative plunge to provide flex space in the Gateway area. Centex Development is currently adding two buildings of 38,400 and 36,000 square feet at Gateway Centre. Leasing isn't a worry. "Everything built on a speculative basis for the past 18 months has been taken by the time the building was complete," says John Jenkins, a commercial broker at CB Richard Ellis. "I'm working with 100,000 square feet of prospects right now."

Another developer, Grady Pridgen Inc., is building a 125,000-square-foot flex warehouse at Gateway Business Park, but that is just the beginning. Pridgen's $25-million project will ultimately provide 585,000 square feet of spec space on 40 acres. Last year he leased 400,000 square feet of Gateway space.

"There is a limited supply of land and very little competition," Pridgen says. "We have many times the action on this project as we had on the last project and inquiries are for large users in the 100,000 and 200,000-square-foot range."

In the Carillon area, PSCU (Payment Systems for Credit Unions) is adding a 140,000-square-foot building, and across the street, on the north side of Ulmerton Road, commercial real estate developer Westfalia is building the 160,000-square-foot, eight-story Tides at Feather Sound Class-A office building.

The Gateway area isn't built out yet, but even a casual drive around its highways gives the impression that Pinellas County's last significant mass of vacant land is filling up fast.