The St. Petersburg based financial services company Raymond James has announced that it's looking at expanding its offices into Pasco or Hillsborough county. Though they say they have no intention of leaving their Carillon office park headquarters, officials say they'd like a satellite office to mitigate concerns about their prime location being situated in a hurricane evacuation area.
Popping up to make a helpful suggestion is Tampa mayoral candidate Ed Turanchik, who says that the Raymond James folks consider the empty National Guard Armory in West Tampa, where despite lots of news coverage in recent days, continues to be owned by the National Guard. However, they'll soon be leaving it in the city of Tampa's hands as it relocates to Pinellas County.
“This is prime, high and dry urban land. Locating the Raymond James satellite IT complex at this site is a great fit for them. It would be one of the closest sites to their main office, it lies virtually dead center between Westshore and downtown, and is close to where many of their employees live,” said Turanchik. “It is not the only site in the city that works, but it is a pretty good one. I will work hard though to locate this facility in the City of Tampa.”
Last September, Congresswoman Kathy Castor asked acting Haley VA Center administrator Nancy Resissener to consider opening a veterans clinic at the site. It was announced a year ago that Heritage Square LLC, which won the drawn out selection process in 2007 to build a 300-room hotel and spa on the site where the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory sits, dropped their plans.
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.