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Developers: We need to get along

By ROBERT TRIGAUX
Published April 29, 2005

WESLEY CHAPEL - It's laughable how St. Petersburg and Tampa used to spar over petty claims of business superiority, or how often the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas dueled over economic bragging rights.

These days, if one of these cities or metro areas sneezes, the other is just as likely to catch cold. Dips in theme park attendance at Disney World help neither Busch Gardens nor beach tourism here. And too many folks live in Pinellas or Hillsborough but work in the other county for old business rivalries to make sense any more. Ditto for Pasco and other nearby counties.

As the places we live get bigger, more mature and more interdependent - and the world grows smaller and more competitive - economic developers warn the Central Florida economy must pull together. Or be pulled apart.

"We are a nation of regional economies," consultant James Davitt Rooney on Thursday told the annual regional leadership conference of the Tampa Bay Partnership, held at the Saddlebrook Resort. The partnership's conference theme? We Are Not Alone.

The partnership, formed by Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco economic groups in the late 1980s, was created to help promote the still-divided bay area as one business market.

At first, Rodney Dangerfield got more respect. But 16 years later, the partnership and its message of unity have gained credibility. The group represents seven area counties encompassing Sarasota to the south, Hernando to the north and Polk to the east.

Themes old and new emerged from Thursday's conference.

More than one speaker stressed that the single most important action that can be taken to strengthen a regional economy and assure its likely success in the future is to increase the area's percentage of college graduates.

"For every 2 percent increase in college degrees, a region enjoys a 1 percent increase in economic growth," said Riccardo Bodini, an associate with RW Ventures.

Two concerns stood out. Areas full of smart people got even smarter in the 1990s. And the economic chasm between wealthier and poorer cities appears to be widening.

The education message slices to the core of Florida's economic vulnerability. The state and the Tampa Bay area simply are not producing, retaining or attracting enough four-year college graduates to keep up with other states and metro areas. Toss in the fast-rising global threat of better quality jobs heading to India and China, and the education race becomes more critical.

Persuading companies to move to your metro area is fine, as far as it goes, Bodini said. But a metro area that wants real growth will get it through innovation by local businesses.

In other words, grow your own. And that means encouraging smart, educated people to stick around.

Another trend cited is how regional economies are starting to rely more on the stable leadership and government funding of big area universities, and less on the turnover of regional executives working for consolidating corporations. The Tampa Bay Partnership's chairman, Bill Habermeyer of Progress Energy, will pass the group's chair to Dewey Mitchell of Prudential Tropical Realty. He will then be succeeded by University of South Florida chief Judy Genshaft.

"Area managers may come and go, but university presidents tend to stick around," reasoned Stuart Rogel, CEO of the Tampa Bay Partnership.

The rise of USF and other Florida universities as heavy hitters in the regional economies of this state has been under way for years. But the pace is accelerating as university funding balloons. And the university system is forging closer bonds between its entrepreneurial professors and business communities eager to commercialize university research in such fields as biotech and engineering.

A more confident Tampa Bay Partnership is also stretching its wings. The group is becoming more organized and aggressive in lobbying Tallahassee and federal legislators on business issues. And the partnership is trying to form fresh relationships with other area economic organizations, ranging from the still-young CreativeTampaBay group to more established convention and visitor bureaus that promote tourism.

But isn't tourism yesteryear's economy? The reason why Florida is so full of low-wage jobs?

Maybe so. But tourism remains an enormous piece of the Sunshine State, and an industry funded by taxes to advertise Florida's beaches, theme parks and natural wonders.

Perhaps there is an opportunity for better coordination of all these separate pots of promotional funds.

Louis Miller, who heads Tampa International Airport, wants to see more efficiency of cross-fertilizing TIA's business and vacation passengers.

"The groups are not working together with the economic developers," he said. "There are CEOs of major companies who come to town. Why not tell them what a great place this is?"

Somehow, regionalism is gathering steam even with so many voices and economic fiefdoms in play.

The big economic wild card remains education - if the experts and the feeling in our own gut are to be be trusted. Can we catch up?

Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or 727 893-8405.

[Last modified April 29, 2005, 00:34:18]