by Melissa Wells

It wasn't Bob Keller's fantasy that a major corporation would choose downtown Clearwater as its global headquarters and give the city a much-needed economic boost, but it certainly has the fairytale quality of a dream come true for the assistant city manager. IMRglobal Corporation made the choice last year, and as its structures rise, the move has been the best news for the city since Keller arrived from Baltimore a few years ago.

John Pelc, director of operations for Bausch & Lomb Surgical, expects Clearwater to continue to be the manufacturing center as the company expands.

"IMR is the biggest economic development project in the history of the city," he says. "This is the most significant business renaissance in at least a generation or two in terms of the economy. In every one or two generations, the window of economic development opens and stays open for a couple of years. Our job is to stuff in as much as possible."

IMRglobal will add 900 jobs to the downtown Clearwater count, and that, taken with its $62-million, 300,000-square-foot corporate headquarters going up at the corner of Cleveland Street and Missouri Avenue, adds up to more than a $100-million positive economic impact on the city. But there are other benefits, too.

"There is a major impact on land values downtown," Keller says. "We have two deals pending that are a direct result of IMRglobal (Nasdaq:IMRS), both housing related. But the psychic advantage may be as large as any direct spin-offs. We're on the map now, and taken seriously in the world of business development."

One of those pending deals is the recent announcement by JMC Communities to develop a $60-million mixed-use complex at Clearwater Beach. What did IMRglobal's commitment have to do with that?

"IMRglobal's moving to downtown Clearwater is a big positive for this development. It was a consideration in our going forward," says Mike Cheezem, JMC's chief executive officer. "Any time you have the creation of that many additional jobs it's a help, but even without that we would be proposing this development because of the overall demographics and fundamentals of the real estate market in this region and the niche that this development will fit."

While IMRglobal and the JMC project are currently the talk of the town, another Clearwater company is creating its own splash in economic development circles. Bausch & Lomb Surgical (NYSE:BOL), a manufacturer of intraocular lenses (IOLs, used as replacement lenses in cataract surgery) has been located in Clearwater since 1979 under a variety of corporate identities. Now the company is closing two California facilities and adding their operations to Clearwater. It will mean an additional 150 jobs for Clearwater.

The eyes have it
"This is a time of major expansion of our local businesses," Keller says. "The poster child is Bausch & Lomb Surgical. They are doubling their work force. It is phenomenal, the percentage of profits coming to Bausch and Lomb from its Clearwater operation."

VeriFone Inc., which develops and manufactures remote payment systems software, will soon move into its new 65,000-square-foot headquarters on Park Place Boulevard.

Through four changes of ownership since 1979, Bausch & Lomb, located on Park Place Boulevard across from Clearwater Mall, has continued to grow in size and profits. The Clearwater helm of this medical device manufacturer has been steadily controlled by one man over the years, John Pelc, director of operations.

Pelc started out in the industry from college in 1976, when he went to work for Coburn Optical, a subsidiary of Revlon Inc., in Colonial Heights, Va. When the firm decided to move its manufacturing operation from London to the United States in 1979, Pelc selected the site for the new facility.

"Florida is a right-to-work state and Pinellas County has quite a bit of optical technology," he says. "With low labor costs and a high level of implants because of the area's elderly population, we decided to come here."

The first manufacturing plant was a 17,000-square-foot building on South Fort Harrison Avenue in Clearwater. "We grew rapidly over the next seven years," Pelc says. "Then in 1987 American Cyanamid bought our company. They also owned Storz Instrument Company in St. Louis, which had a plant in Santa Barbara, Calif. They closed that plant and moved its operations to Clearwater."

In 1989 the sales and marketing divisions were moved to St. Louis, and the company name changed to Storz Ophthalmics. A few years later the firm moved its operations into a new state-of-the-art facility on Park Place Boulevard. In 1995, American Home Products, the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical and agricultural giant, purchased Storz Ophthalmics parent company, American Cyanamid. But the Clearwater operation didn't fit American Home Products' traditional portfolio.

"They had no other business like ours, but kept us because we were profitable," says Pelc. "Several companies were looking at us for purchase."

The inevitable came in late 1997 when Bausch & Lomb, now headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., acquired Storz Ophthalmics and Chiron Vision, which had operations in Irvine and Claremont, Calif. "We both make the same products," Pelc says. "Consolidation was obvious. Because we are a low-cost, high-quality IOL manufacturer, we've been the recipient of these consolidations, adding 150 employees."

Renovations are being made at the plant's woodsy 15-acre campus to accommodate the new operations and the firm's 350 employees. The company has another 10 acres reserved for future expansion. "We're at 100,000 square feet and using every bit of it," says Pelc. "I never expected that when we first built here. But we can do a mirror image of this building. We have a lot of flexibility for the future."

Another consolidation remains. Bausch & Lomb owns a manufacturing facility in Lyon, France, and in the near future a decision will be made about where to concentrate manufacturing. Pelc is confident. "We've worked for a number of different owners now," he says. "They have moved responsibility for manufacturing here to Clearwater each time we've merged. Our low cost structure has been the key issue to bringing products here."

While low costs have fueled Bausch & Lomb's corporate expansions, it is access to the technology available at the University of South Florida that resulted in IMRglobal's choice to locate its corporate headquarters in Clearwater. "This is the biggest reason we were able to lure IMR," Keller says. "We have been able to put them in closer relationship with USF. It will be our largest for-profit employer by a factor of two."

IMRglobal's first world headquarters building is due to be occupied in mid-July, even as the second rises just to the west.

IMRglobal wades in
IMRglobal, an information technology service company with 1998 profits of $18.9 million on revenues of $158 million, employs 2,500 people worldwide and will ultimately accommodate 900 employees at its new corporate headquarters. While last year's news was the selection of the site, this year's news has been the company's decision to double the size of that headquarters.

"They have planned for six commercial structures totaling 310,000 square feet, plus a parking garage," says Al Justice of the Justice Corporation, which is responsible for development and management of the facility. "I never thought we'd do more than three buildings. After 40 years of office development, and after completing 38 projects, this is the best and the prettiest. And to think when I moved here in 1972 there was a Montgomery Ward store on the site, and the city cleared it because it was so environmentally polluted."

In mid-July, 162 employees are due to occupy the first building, a three-story, 51,000-square-foot structure. A second, 80,000-square-foot building is under construction and is due to be completed at the beginning of 2000.

"The development team has done an incredible job," says Robert Molsick, IMRglobal's chief financial officer. "Despite a difficult client [IMRglobal itself] who continually made changes, provided late decisions and often brought conflict with third-party vendors, the development team kept the ship on an even keel and the completion never slipped even a day."

As to the firm's expansion of the original plan, "we continue to grow," Molsick says, "and to need more space. Clearwater has been chosen as our global headquarters and is the most logical place for the growth of our corporate support functions. Global recruiting, total software quality management, sales support and all of our research and development will be based in Clearwater."

And Clearwater economic observers needn't worry that when January 1 comes and goes, IMRglobal will disappear with it. Chief executive officer Satish Sanan assured shareholders in June that although the company has been popularly labeled as a Y2K specialist (solving problems related to the changeover to the year 2000 in computer systems not originally programed to deal with it), it is far more than that. IMRglobal "is not a Y2K company," he said, adding that it is involved in all kinds of software-related problem-solving. He also told shareholders to expect revenues of $1 billion in three or four years, and that Clearwater is the place to be, because high-tech workers are paid less in the Tampa Bay area than in other high-tech centers.

Although not nearly on the same scale as IMRglobal, other firms are investing in downtown Clearwater as corporate headquarters.