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Tampa Bay economic development leaders showing some swagger

 
Published Oct. 22, 2014

Let's call them Team Swagger.

The core of business and political leaders keen on taking Tampa and Hillsborough County to the next level celebrated the area's recent success in economic development with this big promise:

We've only just begun.

Such was the can-do theme at Tuesday evening's fifth annual meeting of the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp. A pro-expansion group with a too-long name, the EDC in short order emerged quickly as the region's high-energy leader in pushing forward bolder economic ambitions.

Sometimes amid kicking and screaming.

"The last time I stood in front of you, I said it was time to 'go big' or go home," said SunTrust banker and outgoing EDC chairman Allen Brinkman. "I said it was time for us to embrace our swagger."

Gathering at Channelside's Amalie Arena before hundreds of business and political leaders, the EDC briefly saluted such big successes as recruiting Amazon's immense distribution center with more than 1,000 jobs. And there was applause aplenty for the potential looming behind Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik's massive Channelside redevelopment plan. That transformative city project recently won financial backing from billionaire Bill Gates.

Vinik even appeared on the arena's huge screen in a promotional video in which he told why Tampa was his top choice after he had searched for the right community and right NHL team to acquire. Tampa's slogan should be "The Welcoming City," Vinik states in the video.

Six Team Swagger members then offered up six big ways to move this area forward.

Tampa International Airport chief Joe Lopano described the burst of international flights and TIA redesign plans, saying we have gone from the "City of No We Can't" to the "City of Watch This."

Port Tampa Bay chief Paul Anderson spoke of shipping thousands of autos from Mexico through the port. And cranes being made in China soon will prepare Tampa's port to handle massive container ships coming via the enlarged Panama Canal.

Mark Sharpe, wrapping up an activist career as Hillsborough commissioner, then pitched 2016 as the year when his county will push a "multi-modal" plan for mass transit.

USF College of Public Health dean Donna Petersen floated the growing possibility of the Morsani medical school and other USF health assets relocating downtown from the Tampa campus as yet another catalyst for growth.

Newly named Tampa Bay Rays president Brian Auld told a rooting EDC audience that "baseball can be a catalyst" for economic development "no matter which side of the bay" the Rays may land.

And Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, the king of area swagger as he wraps up his first term, summed it all up as if at a revival meeting. "Don't stop believing in the capacity of this city," he beamed.

Yes, hurdles abound. But Team Swagger made a good case.

Contact Robert Trigaux at rtrigaux@tampabay.com. Follow @VentureTampaBay.