Tampa office park to get 1,000 jobs

IN BRIEF Series:
St. Petersburg Times. Jun 4, 2005.


An unidentified 'Fortune 50 company' is expected to bring more than 1,000 jobs to a suburban Tampa office park as part of a $24.5- million real estate deal, property managers said Friday. Highwoods Properties Inc. said it has signed an agreement to sell two buildings at its Highwoods Preserve complex in Tampa to the company. The vacant buildings total about 240,000 square feet. They previously housed Intermedia Communications. Highwoods said the new company will use the space for accounting, contract fulfillment and information processing. With the sale, which is expected to close by September, Highwoods will have leased or sold 700,000 square feet at Highwoods Preserve, or 89 percent of the campus.

This is part of the space once occupied by Intermedia, up in New Tampa... The entire park was purportedly being looked by Deutche Bank, who is/was searching for a site in the US to create as many as 4,000 financial services jobs.

Who knows who bought these buildings or what kind of jobs they're going to bring though...I guess we will find out sometime later this year, when the buyer's name is revealed.

Yay, more support for suburban sprawl in our fair city.

At least the buildings were already there, and they were vacant too. I can't say no to 4,000 new jobs.

^It's only 1,000. I don't think this is Duetche Bank bringing thier 4k jobs.

I'm eager to know if this buyer also bought (or optioned) the empty parcels within the park though... If they did, then the odds of it being Duetche Bank increase dramatically.


And LouReed, sure, this company building in Westshore or DT would be great, but the buildings are already there. I gaurantee that not having to wait 2-3 years to have a facility built played a role for the buyer. And at least it's in the city limits. That means a tax income boost for the city and a number of new, good jobs. That is always a good thing.

1,000 new jobs is still great news anyways.

very good points. I concur. :)

well, now that highwoods is gone there will be less empty office space in the burbs and less competition for downtown

Deutsche Bank has started to offer certain jobs to people in the banking industry already HERE. so...im not sure what that means, except some form of the bank will operate here.

^here is where? In St Pete?

Deutsche Bank has started to offer certain jobs to people in the banking industry already HERE. so...im not sure what that means, except some form of the bank will operate here.

I work for BoA and there has been some talk about Deutsche is trying to lure people away. I have heard there might be an office in Tampa or St. Pete in the future.

Well, maybe Deutche bought these buildings, as was expected all along?

here as in the tampa area......

Oh, and DB's whole motivation here is that they are entering the US retail banking market full bore as part of their growth strategy (like other foriegn banks have been doing, like HSBC and RBS). They were looking for a city to serve as thier US HQ...Whichever city got it, this was going to be a major coup, as DB expects to create thousands of jobs at the HQ in the years to come.

It would be nice if they'd put the HQ somewhere in Tampa...especially if they'd put it in the downtown area.

Well, rumors abound, but I will just wait and see. If DB was actually going to move their HQ here I have to think they would want a better buildings than that office park - nice and useful as it is - for their main signature office - though I suppose they could move in and then set up.

Getting the HQ for the US operations of DB would be great for DT Tampa, but most likely they would go for the cheaper prices in the suburban office parks.

It appears that this will be MetLife and will not create any new jobs, just relocate them from Westshore. However, it may lead to redevelopment of the old Metlife site.

Tampa Bay Business Journal - 3:09 PM EDT Thursday
MetLife relocating to Highwoods Preserve
Carl Cronan

MetLife Inc. plans to move its Tampa operations from its longtime location in the Westshore business district to two buildings at Highwoods Preserve near Interstate 75 north of Tampa, the Tampa Bay Business Journal has learned.

The New York-based financial services firm announced Thursday that it purchased two buildings totaling 240,000 square feet from Highwoods Properties Inc. for $24.5 million. The vacant buildings were previously occupied by now-defunct WorldCom Inc. and its subsidiary, Intermedia Communications Inc.

MetLife plans to sell its current 20-acre site at the corner of Boy Scout Boulevard and Lois Avenue, across from International Plaza, once its current facilities are vacated.

"It's an extension of the operations we've had there for over 30 years," said John Vazquez, MetLife VP of corporate real estate. He noted that the nearly new buildings at Highwoods Preserve feature modern amenities such as updated telecommunications lines, a full-service cafeteria and a fitness center.

"It was really about finding an appropriate location for our associates," Vazquez said during an afternoon conference call. MetLife has had operations for its institutional and individual business lines in Tampa since 1972, he said.

About 1,300 MetLife employees at the company's financial services center in Tampa will relocate to Highwoods Preserve starting in October and lasting through the first quarter of 2006. In addition to its two-story, 185,000-square-foot building at 4100 Boy Scout Blvd., MetLife leases 75,000 square feet at One MetroCenter building next door.

MetLife plans to redevelop the Westshore site into a mixed-use complex including up to 900,000 square feet of office, retail and multifamily residential space, said Kevin Thorwarth, the company's managing director of real estate investments.

"We're early in the process of determining what to do with the site and in what order," Thorwarth said. "It is clearly one of the very best pieces of land on the west coast of Florida."

MetLife will join a number of other high-profile tenants at Highwoods Preserve, including Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., VoiceStream PCS and Syniverse Holdings Inc. Highwoods Properties originally developed the 816,000-square-foot campus along Bruce B. Downs Boulevard five years ago, with WorldCom vacating the premises in January 2003 as part of its historic multibillion-dollar bankruptcy.

http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2005/06/06/daily41.html?jst=b_ln_hl

^The redevelopment of the Metlife site has been talked about for some time now... Perhaps they will actually get on with it after the move?

Its too bad it wasn't DB's new US HQ. At least the MetLife building will be put to good use and not left vacant.

^That site will be redeveloped soon enough... You can count on that. Its location demands it.