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Recruiting specialist Velocity Resource Group moving its headquarters from Chicago to Tampa

 
Published Sept. 24, 2016

TAMPA — Velocity Resource Group, a recruiter specializing in resume mining and candidate qualification, is pulling up stakes at its Illinois headquarters to relocate to Tampa.

The move will create 50 jobs and involve a $375,000 investment locally, with the new positions including executive management, sales and marketing, accounting, recruiting and software development.

The company will move into its new corporate headquarters at the downtown BMO Harris Plaza at 501 E Kennedy Blvd. on Nov. 1. It is leasing 2,000 square feet to start, but plans to move into a larger space within a year.

"After visiting many times to meet with clients here, we fell in love with Tampa and the surrounding areas," said John Fortino, co-founder and senior managing partner at Velocity. "Tampa offers us a much friendlier business climate than Chicago, a lifestyle that helps us to recruit top talent, and an outstanding airport that makes it easy for us to travel to our clients across the country. We can't wait to settle in and enjoy all that this community has to offer."

The company is based in Aurora, one of Chicago's western suburbs. It will keep a second office in Bangkok, Thailand.

Velocity said as a sourcing partner, it can identify strong, qualified and interested job candidates for a fraction of a search firm's cost and in a fraction of the time. Employees mine job boards and the Web to find appropriate resumes. Advanced technology and its global presence allow the company to provide results overnight.

Velocity received an incentive package totaling $150,000.

In May, the Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County Board each approved awards of $15,000, and the state added $120,000. Such incentive packages involve a contract laying out job-creation goals, a schedule for the jobs to be created and an average wage. The minimum is 115 percent of the prevailing average wage.

"Our low-tax, business-friendly environment is why Florida is clearly the best choice for growing companies like Velocity to succeed, and we will keep working to attract even more job creators to our state," Gov. Rick Scott said in an announcement of the move.

Florida is home to nearly 3,000 headquarters offices. Velocity joins the IT consulting and staffing firm Cohesion, Bertram Yachts and the e-commerce division of Ashley Furniture in recently announcing relocations to Tampa.

Contact Jerome R. Stockfisch at jstockfisch@tampabay.com.