Visions of the Year to Come
Michael R. Gorsage
Senior Vice President &
Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer
Tampa General Hospital
I expect Tampa Bay to show substantial growth in 2016. I believe that
downtown Tampa will show dramatic change in 2016 with the addition
of the new development along the southeast side of downtown Tampa.
James L. Spencer
President
CORE Investment Management LLC
For the residents and visitors of Clearwater, St. Petersburg,
Tampa, and the other cities and towns throughout our Tampa
Bay area, this is “WOW” time.
The year 2016 will see our local economy continue to
expand with accelerating job growth driven by the multibillion
dollar construction of the Tampa Bay Express
roadway and the successful recruitment of Fortune 500
companies’ corporate office relocations. In addition, our
area will experience a population influx fueled by the babyboomer
retirement phenomenon, resulting in a staggering
8,000+ people retiring each day over the next 10 years, many
of whom will head to Florida.
Most of the changes we see will actually be “enhancements”
such as the well-publicized expansion at Tampa International
Airport costing just shy of $1 billion and continued growth
of Tampa’s Channelside Development. Also significant
are St. Petersburg’s exciting new Pier District, Clearwater
area’s Belleview Place community of homes on the site of
the historic 115 year old Belleview Biltmore Hotel in Belleair
and the addition of approximately 1,000 new hotel rooms on
Clearwater Beach.
We will continue to see positive changes/enhancements
in educational, medical, environmental and marine science
research. In addition, our cultural and social lives will benefit
from new facilities and special initiatives including the BLUE
Ocean Film Festival which, having firmly established its
amalgamation with the Principality of Monaco, will return
to St. Petersburg in 2016.
48 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016