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Pinellas commissioners OK incentives to lure Fortune 500 company

Veronica Brezina

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Photo: City of St. Petersburg.

A Fortune 500 company has secured the approval of county incentives, provided it establishes its global headquarters within Pinellas County.

The county commissioners unanimously approved the ad valorem tax exemption package during Tuesday’s commission meeting.

Pinellas County will continue to receive $146,000 in annual taxes for the property, and the county estimates the project will bring in an additional $80,000 a year.  The total tax exemption amount will be based on the final assessed value of the real property improvements, additions to tangible personal property and other data.

The St. Pete Catalyst first broke the news that the Fortune 500 project, codenamed Project Athena, would bring at least 300 high-paying jobs to the area, and lease at least 100,000 square feet.

“The attraction is the number of jobs that we’re bringing to the county,” said Commission Chair Dave Eggers. “That’s a critical component, and so if we’re not doing that, the benefit should go away or partially go away.”

The county’s approval follows the St. Pete City Council approving its share of the economic package earlier this month. Which under the city’s package, if the company meets certain conditions, it would receive an initial base incentive of $250,000, it may also receive a one-time hiring incentive up to $125,000.

County documents, which refer to the project as Project C1071544713 rather than Project Athena, reveal the company is a Fortune 500 firm currently located in New York City that earns over $7.5 billion in revenue, and that it has stores in 27 countries around the world.

The documents also showed Tampa Bay is competing with New York and Atlanta for this project.

The applicant indicated it would require at least 100,000 square feet of office space, while the county documents state the company would be the sole occupant of a 150,000-square-foot building.

Local real estate experts told the Catalyst the company will likely locate its HQ in the Gateway area as downtown St. Pete does not have the available square footage it’s seeking.

The company will invest $10 million in the property and $6.5 million in equipment for the new facility, according to the county records.

The direct payroll impact of 350 new jobs with an average annual wage of $120,000 a year represents $42 million per year and $460 million over 10 years.

The business activities of the company will generate approximately 1,300 annual hotel room rentals in the county.

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1 Comment

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    Kris

    October 28, 2021at3:14 pm

    Do the corporate employees also where referee shirts?

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