St. Petersburg Market

St. Petersburg is at the heart of a booming metropolitan area consisting of Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties - often referred to as the St. Petersburg-Tampa-Clearwater MSA. The St. Petersburg region has approximately 2.4 million residents making it the 12th largest market in the United States and the 3rd largest market in the Southeast. The area's expected population growth rate over the next ten years is 15.3 percent, making it a prime location for businesses seeking an easily accessible customer base and labor force. The area is home to world-renowned corporations, educational institutions, health care facilities, and professional sports franchises, including Raymond James, the University of South Florida, All Children's Hospital, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Economy
The city's major strengths are employment, income and education. The market makeup is incredibly diverse, allowing the city's economy to be very resilient. Five major industry clusters have flourished in St. Petersburg — manufacturing, medical technology, information technology, marine science and financial services.

Pinellas County has the second highest number of manufacturing employees in the state. It also is first in Florida for the manufacturing of computer and office equipment, electronics components and industrial and commercial machinery. Manufacturers of plastic products, sensors, defense-related products, micro-electronics, lasers, medical devices, instrumentation, computer components, and printed circuit boards are also numerous.

Over 53 percent of all medical manufacturing companies in Florida's High Tech Corridor are located in Pinellas County with six of the 15 largest medical technology firms in St. Petersburg. There is a unique opportunity for research-to-commercialization partnerships with the area's world-renowned research hospitals like Bayfront Medical Center, All Children's Hospital, the Moffitt Cancer Center, and with the University of South Florida's School of Medicine.

The IT cluster has also taken advantage of the research and development partnerships with local universities and colleges, often sharing funding and creating strategic alliances.. Downtown St. Petersburg is home to a large number of small-to- medium size software and Web development companies. St. Petersburg is a natural environment for supporting the IT industry with its excellent telecommunication and educational infrastructure and entrepreneurial spirit.

The area is also home to numerous marine science research institutes and organizations including: the University of South Florida College of Marine Science- Center for Ocean Technology, the Florida Institute of Oceanographic Research, the U.S. Geological Survey Center of Coastal Geology and Regional Commission, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission-Florida Marine Research Institute, the Center for Marine Conservation and SRI International. This internationally recognized marine science cluster has proliferated in the Downtown Bayboro District and is the largest marine science community in the Southeast.

Another anchor in the economy of St. Petersburg is the large Financial Services cluster. The financial services industry provides access to credit and equity that allows for the growth of local companies and, in turn, provides services and administrative support to help these companies manage their new wealth.

Growth Support - Transportation, telecommunication and Utilities.
The City's superb transportation, telecommunication and utility infrastructure allows business to be conducted efficiently and quickly. In fact, nearly half of all U.S. freight destinations are within a day's drive of St. Petersburg. The City is within minutes of three international airports, two deepwater ports (that together handle almost half of all seaborne commerce in the state), rail lines, an extensive network of easily accessible roadways and has its own Free Trade Zone (FTZ No.193).

Tampa International Airport (TIA) is consistently ranked in the top best airports by frequent travelers around the world for its easy-in, easy-out design. The St Petersburg - Clearwater International Airport serviced over 590,000 passengers using its commercial airlines in 2005.

The Albert Whitted Airport is on the waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg. It caters to corporate aircraft, helicopters, and private pilots.

The Port of Tampa is the largest port in the Southeast and the 10th largest in the nation by total tonnage handled. The Port of Manatee is the closest of the three Tampa Bay deepwater ports to the Gulf of Mexico. It is one of the state's busiest, ranking fifth among Florida's 14 seaports in total annual cargo tonnage.

The Port of St. Petersburg is a "non-operating" or landlord port. The city manages and provides the facilities for private entities to carry out shipping activities. A major tenant is the U.S. Coast Guard.

The major highway in St. Petersburg is I-275 which connects the area with Manatee and Sarasota to the South and Tampa to the northeast. It extends to I-75 to the north and I-4 to Orlando and Florida's East Coast. I-275 provides quick, easy access to Tampa International Airport and St. Petersburg/ Clearwater International Airports from the downtown and the City's business parks. Plans to connect St. Petersburg to several other major Florida cities using mass transit rail are being developed.

It's also important to note that Interstate 175, 275 and 375 (feeders into downtown) were built with the future in mind and have an abundance of capacity to serve future developments, as do many arterials in St. Petersburg. Transportation improvements over the next five years of more than $1.1 billion are projected for St. Petersburg and its region.

The following are some of the many top rankings given to the City of St. Petersburg and the greater St. Petersburg area:

• 2007 "Top 10 Community for Creative Class" (Southern Business & Development)
  
• "Top 10 Hottest Large City" for business (Inc. Magazine)
  
• 2006 & 2007 America's Promise - The Alliance for Youth, founded by Chairman General Colin Powell, recently named St. Petersburg one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People.
  
• No. 1 Mega-Market in the South two years in a row (Southern Business & Development)
  
• No. 1 in South for Job Announcements (Southern Business & Development)
  
• No. 1 Best Place for Business and Careers in Florida (Forbes Magazine and the Milken Institute)
  
• No. 1 Airport in the U.S. and No. 3 Best Airport in the World (Conde Nast Traveler)
  
• No. 2 Highest Labor Force Participation (UF; Bureau of Economic and Business Research)
  
• St. Petersburg is the 4th largest city in Florida (U.S. Census)
  
• St. Petersburg is part of the 2nd largest market in the Southeast United States (St. Petersburg Times)
  
• No. 12 Largest market in the U.S. (Nielsen Media Research)
  
• No. 2 Highest Amount of Deposits in state chartered banks and trust companies (UF; Bureau of Economic and Business Research)
  
• No. 2 Best State in the U.S. to Run a Small Business (www.bcentral.com)
  
• No. 3 Metro Area for Highest Percentage Increase in Employment and No. 4 Metro Area for Highest Percentage Increase in Gross Metropolitan Product (Global Insight/ USA Today)
  
• No. 3 Best State for Industrial Diversity, number of new companies and job growth due to new businesses (Center for Enterprise Development)
  
• No. 4 Best U.S. Metro Area in which to live (Place Related Almanac)
  
• No. 4 Best Place to live in the South (Money Magazine)
  
• No. 5 Most Popular Beaches in the U.S. (National Geographic Traveler and Yahoo! Travel)
  
• No. 6 Top Growth Areas (U-Haul)
  
• No. 7 Best State Tax System in the Nation (Tax Foundation)
  
• No. 7 Major Metro Area for Private Construction Intensity (The Philips Institute)
  
• No. 8 Best Place for Small Business (Entrepreneur Magazine)
  
• No. 9 Best Area for Manufacturing Expansion and Relocation (Governing Magazine)
  
• No. 10 Lowest Construction Costs in the U.S. (Expansion Management)
  
• No. 10 Market for Projected Job Growth (Newsweek Magazine)
  
• A Top 10 City for Small Business (2006 Dun & Bradstreet)
  
• 2004 "America's Most Livable Community" by the Partners for Livable Communities, a national nonprofit organization that recognizes cities that are innovative in bringing vitality, growth and an improved quality of life to their communities.
  
• 2003 "Most Livable Downtown in the Southeast" (Southern Business & Development)
  
• St. Petersburg is one of the top 10 cities for entrepreneurs in the South (Entrepreneur Magazine)
  
• Part of One of the Top Seven Intelligent Communities Worldwide of 2002 (Intelligent Community Forum)
  
• No. 12 State in overall graduation rates for universities (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
  
• No. 14 Best Large Region in the U.S. to Start a Business (Inc. Magazine)
  
• A Top 15 Best Logistics Metro Area in the Southeast (Expansion Management)
  
• No. 15 MSA for High-tech and Computer Companies (Business Development Outlook Magazine)
  
• No. 19 Metropolitan Area Health Care Economy in the U.S. (Milken Institute)
  
• A Top 20 Art Destination City (American Style Magazine)
  
• No. 26 Hottest City in America (Expansion Management Magazine)
  
• St. Petersburg has a cost of living less than the national average and lower than that of Miami, Orlando, and Ft. Lauderdale.
  

PCPI growth is an excellent measure of the economic vitality of a region. The St Petersburg area's ranking for per capita personal income (PCPI) growth has held consistentily in the top for the U.S. with a growth rate of 3.88%. Per capita personal income is the total of all income, including wages, proprietor income and transfer payments, such as Social Security, coming into a region divided by the region's population.

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