Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on new jobs:

BUSINESS NEWS

Tampa company adds 108 jobs at Port Redwing

By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: August 18, 2015

APOLLO BEACH — When Tampa Tank and Florida Structural Steel moved to Port Redwing three months ago, the company didn’t wait for electricity at the site.

Employees set up generators and got to work building a four-span drawbridge going to Miami, a pedestrian bridge going to Austin and the world’s largest coal conveyor system headed for Louisiana.

So far, the 63-year-old homegrown company has added 33 of an expected 108 jobs to accommodate the string of projects it has in the works, including three steel bridges that will be part of the I-4 Ultimate project — a rebuild of Interstate 4 through Orlando.

Gov. Rick Scott and an entourage of local officials visited the 25-acre site Tuesday to congratulate the company and its employees and to tout the jobs created since the governor took office four and a half years ago.

“It’s fun to watch all the things getting built here,” the governor said, after touring the operation with Tampa Tank CEO David Hale. Growing jobs in Florida is “a team sport,” Scott said and it took the whole team to get Tampa Tank to expand close to home, instead of moving to another state or to the Bahamas.

The deal included giving the company property tax breaks for expanding on a brownfield and state and county incentives to grow its workforce. Tampa Tank plans to add 24 jobs at its headquarters in Ybor City and 84 jobs at Port Redwing, where it will also invest $18 million in capital and infrastructure improvements.

The Tampa region, in the past year, has added 32,900 jobs and dropped the unemployment rate to 5.3 percent, the governor said. “Every job we add changes somebody’s life.”

Tampa Tank is expected to be the first business in a steel cluster Port Tampa Bay is attempting to coordinate on land available at Port Redwing, a portion of the port just north of the Tampa Electric Big Bend Power Station along Tampa Bay.

The location works well for the company, Hale said, because it gives Tampa Tank the ability to ship its finished products by rail, ship or truck.

Many of the company’s projects involve exporting, recently to places like Saudi Arabia, Africa, Panama and Freeport, Bahamas, he said.

“Obviously, we’re here because we’re going to build a huge manufacturing hub here at Port Redwing,” said Hillsborough County Commission Chair Sandy Murman. “Tampa Tank is leading the charge to attract importing and exporting” and will draw more ships from the Panama Canal to Port Tampa Bay, she said. “I’m excited to be part of it and I can’t wait for the next announcement from Port Redwing.” Murman sits on the Tampa Port Authority board.

“It’s all about growing our exports,” said Rick Homans, president and CEO of the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp., which helped broker Tampa Tank’s move to Port Redwing. “We build things here and sell them around the world.”