Northpinellas: Oldsmar shines for tech company expansion

A rapidly growing technology company with headquarters in downtown Dunedin is considering expanding into a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oldsmar, a move that would bring in about 300 employees with an average annual pay scale of $35,000.

Oldsmar is one of the top sites that Ocean Optics is considering for an expansion that will see the company close its manufacturing facility in Largo. The planned move will nearly triple the size of the 11-year-old manufacturer of high-precision optical filters, company officials said Wednesday.

"It will be a fairly well-paid, educated workforce and a lot of equipment," Scott Faris, Ocean Optics chief operating officer, said Wednesday. "Oldsmar is a prime site because it is close to our existing operations."

To help entice the company to move to the Tampa Bay Park of Commerce in Oldsmar, Pinellas County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to give the company a $90,000 refund on property and other taxes over seven years. That is the county's share of the $900,000 tax refund state officials plan to offer the company over the next seven years.

As part of the package of public incentives, the city of Oldsmar also would have to kick in $90,000 in tax refunds, according to county records.

The new facility will be an expansion of Ocean Thin Films, a division of the company located in the high-tech Bryan Dairy Road corridor. Ocean Optics opened the 22,000-square-foot facility, which has about 40 employees, at the beginning of this year and quickly needed more space.

The Bryan Dairy Road facility produces highly specialized optical filters. The filters have several uses that include fire control equipment, infrared gun sights for the military, special effects and stage lighting, environmental monitors, chemical analysis systems and DVD imaging.

The company is still in the process of securing approximately $50-million to build the facility and purchase new manufacturing equipment. Faris, who declined to list the other communities vying for the expansion, said the company plans to move into the new facility in about two years.

"The day we get commitment for the funding . . . will be the moment we say, "Let's put down the down payment on the building and let's get going,' " company president Michael J. Morris said. "We are eager to get going."

The company has about 100 employees, more than double the number of workers Ocean Optics had a year ago, Morris said. The company, which had $9.3-million in sales in 1999, is on track for $20-million in sales this year with plans to become a publicly traded company during the second quarter of 2001.

In June, the company opened an office in Duiven, Netherlands, to serve its European clients. Ocean Optics also recently acquired a handful of companies around the country and is looking at buying a few more.

"The last 18 months, it has been taking off like crazy," Morris said.

Morris said sky-rocketing demand for optical filters is pushing the need for a bigger facility.

"Things are rapidly progressing where we need to come up with large-volume production," Morris said.

The company also produces the tiny filters that help power fiber optics networks and is using the technology for sensors that can detect certain diseases through non-invasive means.

"We make things that make light, move light, modulate it and detect it," Morris said.

The incentive package given to the company is called the Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund Program, a state program created to lure specific industries. Companies must fulfill requirements such as creating new jobs and having an average salary 15 percent higher than local salaries.

"It is a performance-based incentive which means the company must meet the standards that they have set," said Catherine Deans, spokeswoman for Enterprise Florida, the state's economic development organization. "If they do not meet those standards, the refund stops. This way, the taxpayers know they are getting a solid company coming in paying higher wages and hiring the amount of workers they said they would."

Kevin Gartland, president of the Greater Oldsmar Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday the chamber and Pinellas County economic development officials have been working for months to come up with incentives that total more than $5-million to lure the project to Oldsmar.

"It's definitely a blue-chip company," said Gartland, who declined to name the company, citing a confidentiality agreement. "It will be a fantastic company for the city."

Faris said the Tampa Bay Park of Commerce location is attractive to the company because it would be close to its Dunedin headquarters, and the Oldsmar location has room for growth. The Tampa Bay Park of Commerce recently landed a claims processing center for a national health care services provider that will staff about 700 employees.

"The nice thing we like about the Oldsmar site is there is room for future expansion," Faris said. "Obviously we want to do what we can to grow locally and put resources in the community. Ocean Optics is one of the best kept secrets on the west coast of Florida."

- Staff writer Edie Gross contributed to this story. Staff writer Ed Quioco can be reached at (747) 445-4183 or at quioco@sptimes.com.

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