Interview: Ana Cruz, Managing

Ana Cruz

Managing Partner Tampa Bay Ballard Partners

Why should companies rely on lobbying services?

Everybody needs a lobbyist. Some people think that lobbyists only protect special interests or have a negative connotation but lobbyists are simply advocates. For example, if you or your company were at risk of being over-regulated or under-regulated, unfairly causing harm to you or your company, you would most likely file a lawsuit to stop that action or litigate the issue, and you are not doing that without a lawyer. The same applies for us. Lobbyists are advocates for their clients to ensure their values and points of view are well represented throughout the legislative process. We intricately understand the legislative process largely because we’ve worked in government before going to the private sector. It is also critical to understand what the priorities are for legislative leadership and the Executive Branch, as that knowledge will help us maneuver our clients through the halls of the state capital or Congress. Passing a bill is not easy, and oftentimes takes a few years to lay the groundwork and the necessary support, but having the right team who can effectively advocate on your behalf is critical.

What issues are on your radar?

Certainly, the federal infrastructure bill. We represent quite a few clients in the infrastructure space including the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, construction companies and engineering firms. Cities and counties will benefit greatly from this infrastructure bill that will help fund projects to repair aging infrastructure and facilitate upgrades in transportation, utilities, broadband, housing and job training programs.

We help our clients understand the needs of their specific communities, building bridges with small and minority-owned businesses and teaming up on small and large projects and contracts. We also know that equity, diversity and inclusion are paramount to public policy in the new administration, but also incredibly important to our minority small-business owners, especially in Hillsborough County where I call home. ( ) Economic performance The Tampa Bay area is no longer just about sandy beaches and dynamic nightlife. Now, the region boasts a variety of industries bolstering its revenues, ranging from finance and insurance and IT to healthcare, construction and defense. The diversity has helped the Tampa MSA become one of the Top 25 metro areas in the country in terms of Gross Metropolitan Product (GMP), coming in at No.24 with GMP valued at $156.67 billion, according to Stastita forecasts for 2020. The New York-Newark-New Jersey MSA tops the list with $1.67 trillion GMP.

Tampa Bay is also a financial hub, with almost one in four business and information services firms having offices in the city. Some notable financial institutions in Tampa include Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase,

A third of Florida’s entire population lives within a two-hour drive of the City of Tampa.

Amanda Thompson

Director – Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency

We’ve made significant progress on Imagine Clearwater, which is an immense, $64 million redevelopment of our waterfront Downtown. While working remotely and dealing with the pandemic, our city council, who also serve as the CRA trustees, and our team have continued to move forward on this important project. At a time when it would be normal to not want to spend money and move big ideas forward due to the uncertainty, our council, the city and the community have shown great leadership in communicating that they are investing in Downtown and moving forward.

Wells Fargo, Raymond James Bank and Truist. Finance and insurance accounts for around 7.25% of the jobs in the Tampa metro area, with a workforce of over 105,000. It is the most specialized and fourth-highestpaying industry sector in the area with median earnings of $55,640. In the last year, more financial firms have moved or are planning to move to Florida, in particular to Tampa. One of these is BelHealth Investment Partners, a healthcare private equity with $500 million in assets under management, which plans to open a Tampa office.

One emerging and growing sector is IT. The region is known as the gateway to the Florida Tech Corridor – a 23-county network that was created by the University of South Florida, the University of Central Florida and the University of Florida. IT product distribution company Tech Data is one of Tampa’s largest employers, providing over 14,500 jobs and process outsourcer Sykes employs almost 18,000. Cybersecurity firm KnowBe4 also provides jobs to almost 1,000 people in the region. Several Tampa tech companies are innovators changing the face of the industry. Suzanne Ricci, founder of Computer Coach Training Center, held over 150 jobseeker networking events and provided connections between jobseekers and recruiters during the pandemic. Venuetize, a Tampa-based mobile-ticketing company, won the Emerging Tech Company awarded by Tampa Bay Tech in November.

The tech sector is also growing with the number of companies relocating during the pandemic. During the last year, the region welcomed Instagram, Snapchat, Wag! and HelloFresh. Tech companies in the Tampa region are now embarking on a hiring spree to ensure their talent pipeline remains constantly refreshed. Restaurant tech startup Omnivore, edtech company

Tampa Bay is among the country’s top areas for job growth with another 2,316 tech jobs forecast to be added by the end of 2021

Knack, insurance tech company Trust Layer and fintech CrossBorder Solutions are all among the companies aggressively hiring at the moment. This places Tampa Bay among the top metro areas for tech job growth in the country, with CompTIA’s annual “Cyberstates” report predicting that it will add a further 2,316 tech jobs by the end of 2021.

In terms of job generation, healthcare and social assistance is the No. 1 employment sector in the region, providing jobs for just over 208,000 people, or 14.3% of the workforce. The region has a variety of top-rated healthcare facilities for both adults and children. According to a US News and World ranking, Tampa General Hospital is the fourth-best medical institution in the state. Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater ranks seventh and St. Joseph’s Tampa campus ranks 15th. The region has a burgeoning medical community with almost 53,000 nurses and 9,200 physicians, creating a physician to patient ratio of 1:341. Due to its IT strengths, Tampa is also emerging as a healthtech incubator. In November, St. Petersburg-based telehealth firm IMCS group and Tampa-based DataLink Software both received funding injections from investors to accelerate growth.

The region’s housing and construction sectors flourished during the last year as the region’s population grows. According to Realtor.com, Pinellas County is among the Top 10 most affordable warm-weather destinations in the country with a median house price of $275,000. The hot housing market has been stoked by migration from the Northeast and in Tampa Bay as of April, median rental prices have increased by about 6.9% on the year. In Hillsborough County, the median home

price is at a record-breaking $305,000. Greater Tampa Realtors® says it has less than one month of available inventory with high competition among buyers. As of April, there are around 1.2 million square feet of office space under construction with new developments that include Water Street and Midtown. The construction sector in the region employs about 7% of the population.

As a state with great exposure to sea level rise and extreme weather events, regions within Florida are also invested in marine research. The University of South Florida’s Center for Ocean Technology is a leader in microelectromechanical systems research and development, using technology for a range of purposes, from monitoring water quality to providing port security. Tampa Bay is also the home of the MacDill Air Force Base, Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater and Coast Guard Station St. Petersburg, three of the country’s major military installations.

Another plus? Companies in Tampa Bay have little trouble accessing funding, with $77 million raised in just the first quarter of 2021 across 17 deals. The most notable included Aspen RxHealth, which raised $23 million in a Series B funding round, SOMA Global, which raised $22.5 million and Clearwater-based Red Rover, which raised $13.6 million.

Employment The barometer for the strength of any economy is its employment rate. As of February, the counties of Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough collectively recorded an unemployment rate of 4.2%, about 2 ( )

Tampa is considered the industrial, commercial, and financial hub of Florida’s west coast.

Craig Richard

President & CEO – Tampa Bay EDC

Just like any other community with a diverse economy, some sectors did well, and some are doing better. The areas for us that are doing better are information technology, distribution and logistics, cybersecurity, and healthcare. These are all sectors that have actually grown over the past few months, and we see that continuing.

What Florida is known for, obviously, is hospitality and tourism, and we’ve worked really hard to diversify our economy so that when we have periods like these, we are able to recover quickly. That’s helping us out. There are several reports out there that show how Tampa Bay is better poised for a quick recovery than many of our counterparts in the Southeast region.