Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on Mosaic in Hillsborough:
Business News
Mosaic near mining out Hillsborough
By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: September 28, 2014
Mosaic’s monstrous draglines will be excavating phosphate from Hillsborough County’s rural landscape for only five to seven more years.
As the phosphate giant completes mining on about 4,000 acres in the Fort Lonesome area in the far southeast corner of the county, it is preparing to move its mining operations south into Manatee, DeSoto and Hardee counties, where it already has some active phosphate pits.
Although mining will end here, Mosaic is not abandoning Hillsborough. Its massive footprint at Port Tampa Bay, where it processes, then exports its products, will stay put. Its multimillion- dollar impact on the local economy will remain, company officials say.
There’s also, however, the little matter of some 61,000 acres the company still owns in Hillsborough County. Mosaic, one of the 10 largest landowners in the state, has turned much of its reclaimed mining lands over to the county for use as public recreation areas over the past 50 years.
The next 50 years are likely to look different, as mining ceases and residential, agricultural and other types of land development replace it.
Mosaic has 4,000 employees in the state and more than half of them live and work in Hillsborough County, said Richard Ghent, Mosaic’s senior manager of public relations. According to an economic report on Port Tampa Bay, phosphate fertilizer production there accounts for 6,800 jobs. It is the No. 1 export from the port. The production of phosphate-based fertilizer accounts for 12 million tons, or 35 percent of cargo coming through Port Tampa Bay.
“The movement of phosphate rock and fertilizer products creates the largest number of direct jobs …,” according to an economic report Port Tampa Bay commissioned in 2013.
With the recent acquisition of CF Industries’ phosphate business, with operations including in Plant City, Mosaic is even larger than when that report was written. It is now the only phosphate company in the region.
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“It’s really important that people understand that mining is tied to processing of the rock and to port activity,” Ghent said. “Even though we won’t necessarily be mining in Hillsborough County, you’d still have the facilities for processing the rock mined in other counties and Port Tampa Bay facilities” from where the processed rock is shipped. “Other business activity will go on here, as well.”
“This movement of phosphate rock and fertilizer products by port shippers and consignees such as Mosaic … creates about 43,500 jobs generating … over $10.6 billion in total economic value to the region,” according to the port study.
Mosaic built a new headquarters building in Circa FishHawk just four years ago because of its central location to various arms of the company. Much of its operations are in Polk County.
In Hillsborough, its Big Bend facility is a warehouse for phosphate and finished fertilizer products and includes a new 100,000-ton warehouse. In Riverview, the company has a 90-year-old concentrate plant for fertilizer manufacturing and an anhydrous ammonia terminal at Port Sutton, where it receives ships from Louisiana and elsewhere, then transfers the anhydrous ammonia, via pipeline, to facilities at Riverview, New Wales near the Hillsborough-Polk line and to Bartow.
The Tampa Marine Terminal, part of the CF Industries acquisition, is a 100,000-ton dry fertilizer warehouse, where product is stored, then shipped to various global locations and across the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi River. The Hooker’s Point Ammonia Terminal also pipes anhydrous ammonia to various locations.
The Plant City facility, acquired with CF Industries operations, is a fertilizer plant on the northern border of the Hillsborough-Pasco Line.
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What the company will do with its former phosphate pits, some reclaimed, some still being reclaimed, remains to be seen. Mosaic’s lands are designated in the Hillsborough County Comprehensive Plan as rural, which allows for residential, agricultural industrial uses and mining.
Company officials say Mosaic has not yet laid out a plan for its reclaimed land here.
But because the company is shifting away from active mining here, it is asking the county to reflect that in writing as part of the update to the comp plan, a blueprint for future growth. That wording change will likely go to the county commission next summer, said Pedro Parra, the planning commission’s principal planner.
The company already has the ability to develop its land in five-, 10- and 20-acre home tracts or for agricultural uses. If, in the future, the county extends its Urban Service Area, the area where water and sewer lines can be installed, the company could apply for higher densities, just like any other landowner, Parra said.
Company officials say they are already working with Hillsborough County to ensure the phosphate company’s future land plans don’t conflict with what surrounding communities want.
“We coordinate very closely with the county agencies,” said Bob Nelson, Mosaic senior manager, public relations. “We’ve got a responsibility to reclaim every acre” mined. “We do look at whether there is an opportunity to put the land back into an environmental status or an opportunity for future development or agricultural uses, or for business development.”
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Realtor Gary Kaukonen of Keller Williams Realty Inc., who oversees about 100 brokers in Apollo Beach and Sun City Center, said the South Shore area is the only area with a lot of land available for development. He sees development of Mosaic’s land there as a plus for the community.
“If anybody wants large parcels, they just aren’t available anywhere else,” Kaukonen said. “We used to be tomato fields. Once they start doing that transition, we’re excited to have our office here. We’re right in the middle of the mix for future growth. We are only 25 minutes from downtown Tampa and not far from Sarasota, so it puts us in a great location. It’s going to be a huge boon for the area.
“Yes, Mosaic will have to work with the community but I don’t know that you will have much community outrage, because it will be a benefit,” he said.
“Mosaic has stayed involved in the community plans” as people in areas like Riverview and Balm have decided how they want their enclaves to look in the future, said Christine Smith, community relations manager for Mosaic. “We are taking a big picture look at where we want to be in 20 years.”
The potential is great and something the county will be exploring along with Mosaic, said County Commissioner Sandy Murman, whose district encompasses South Shore.
“I and (County Administrator) Mike Merrill are working to schedule a meeting with Mosaic. “We are in such a great position with having so much developable land available. It’s going to bring so many companies that will be interested in locating here and bringing jobs. We were with some site locators the other night and talking about what it takes to get manufacturers to come.
“We want to protect rural areas and agriculture at all costs and right now, there is no discussion of moving the Urban Service Area,” Murman said. “We did have a discussion about it with the Economic Prosperity Committee, but agree it would be premature to expand the Urban Service Area without a strategic plan, so the public can understand the impact.”
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But, she said, there may be future opportunities for public-private partnerships, where, perhaps, Mosaic could retain title to some of its land, but open it up to business or residential development.
“Just having the property available is a big plus,” she said. With 370,000 more people projected to live her in the next 20 years, we’re going to have to stay on top of where we can put water plants and all kinds of things.”
As the company’s footprint expands, it has applied to the state or plans to apply to mine on about 51,000 acres in the Manatee, Hardee and DeSoto counties. So, it will still require a skilled labor force to move operations forward, Nelson said.
Mosaic is forming a new program, working with Polk County schools, to recruit replacements for baby boomers expected to leave the company work force over the next decade.
The company is partnering with Florida’s newest university, Florida Polytechnic in Lakeland, to offer curriculum development and provide opportunities for students majoring in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, logistics and supply chain to participate in co-op and intern programs.
Polk State College’s Clear Springs Advanced Technology Center, which opened in January, received $75,000 from Mosaic to benefit the center’s high-tech degree program, including supply chain management and information technology.
“Mosaic, like other companies, is becoming more aggressive in our recruiting efforts,” Nelson said. “We are putting more effort into developing and training our existing employees and workforce planning has become a major focus for our human resources team.”
