Commissioner Murman quoted in this StPetersBlog article on the Innovation Alliance:

With great fanfare, the Tampa Innovation Alliance kicks off in North Tampa

By Mitch Perry on January 9, 2015

According to the U.S. Census, the number of college graduates with a bachelors degree or higher in Tampa is 33 percent, higher than Charlotte, but lower than San Diego, Austin and Raleigh, North Carolina, cities that Mayor Bob Buckhorn frequently compare his town to.

That’s why business leaders and local lawmakers in Hillsborough County have made it a mission to retain some of the tens of thousands of college students who graduate each year from the University of South Florida. A heretofore unaddressed part of that vision is an attempt to the revitalize the moribund North Tampa region that surrounds the USF campus, with the goal of turning the university area into a more dynamic economic center

That’s what the Tampa Innovation Alliance is all about. It’s central partners are USF, Busch Gardens, the Moffitt Cancer Center and Florida Hospital Tampa. Former Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe is the Alliance’s executive director, and he welcomed an overflow crowd treated to free box lunches from Jason’s Deli to the organization’s kick-off event at the USF Connect building on the North Tampa campus on Friday afternoon.

“Our doors have been opened since the 18th of November, ” said Sharpe, who departed the County Commission just two weeks earlier. “It’s a small office. We need help. But I can tell you this. We’re going to work 24/7 to get the job done.”

There was a sense of great expectations and possibilities for the corridor which runs from Busch Boulevard north to Bearss Avenue, Interstate 275 east to Interstate 75. As several speakers noted, the region includes some of the wealthiest and poorest people in Tampa.

 There were short speeches by a number of local officials such as Sharpe and his former board colleagues Sandy Murman, Victor Crist and Les Miller. Bill Carlson from the Tampa P.R. firm Tucker/Hall played the part of emcee, wandering into the crowd a la Phil Donahue to ask audience members a variety of questions, such as why they located their businesses in the district, to what were the advantages and disadvantages of doing business there.

“The county is completely committed that we get this done,” assured Murman. “We have over 100,000 post-secondary students at any given time here in the Tampa/Hillsborough County area with USF, HCC (Hillsborough Community College) and University of Tampa. And quite frankly, we need to find a way to keep those students here.” In fact, the County Commission has been developing plans over the past couple of years to address the area, most notoriously the region west of USF known derisively as “Suitcase City.”

Not surprisingly, there wasn’t too much focus on the negatives, though obviously the very fact that there is such a need for an alliance illustrates that it needs help.

“The demographics are very challenging, ” offered Tampa City Councilwoman Lisa Montelione, who represents the district in City Hall. “It has a negative reputation, ” she admitted.”But it’s a challenge to overcome that.”

Paul Sansom’s company runs Westshore Pizza franchises in the corridor. He complained about having to go through excessive red tape to partner with USF. “I have to go through 17 different divisions and talk to 24 people.”

But others mostly saw unlimited potential. Attorney Ron Weaver talked about hundreds of acres of available property, existing rail lines (via CSX) and potential future rail. “We can be audacious about growing, audacious about jobs, and audacious about integrating all those opportunities of the environment…”

At one point during the discussion, Temple Terrace City Councilwoman Cheri Donohue clarified with Sharpe that the Alliance wasn’t just to be a Chamber of Commerce for the corridor. She said it should be a “conduit” for the rules to change so that businesses can be recruited to the area and eventually set up shop. Later Ron Barton, the Hillsborough County Assistant Administrator, said he also thought the county could serve as a “conduit” for the district.

Whether this comes to fruition won’t be known for years to come. But at least for one day, the potential for “Suitcase City” never looked greater.