Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on BlueGrace Logistics adding jobs:
BUSINESS NEWS
BlueGrace Logistics to add 100 jobs at Riverview headquarters
By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: July 8, 2015 | Updated: July 8, 2015 at 08:51 PM
RIVERVIEW — A homegrown transportation logistics company announced plans Wednesday to expand its headquarters and add 100 new jobs, many of them immediately.
BlueGrace Logistics, which started in Apollo Beach in 2009, will receive $300,000 in county and state incentives for jobs creation through Florida’s Qualified Target Industry program. The minimum average wage will be $54,664. The incentive money will be distributed as the jobs are created.
The expansion almost happened elsewhere. BlueGrace CEO Bobby Harris said he has another headquarters in Chicago and was well on his way to expanding in Illinois when he spoke to representatives of the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp. who convinced him to expand here.
“Florida is such a business-friendly state,” said Harris, who lives in Hillsborough County. “Chicago has great logistics and trade, but we actually can easily get people to come here to live and work.”
Harris said the company has nearly finished expanding its footprint on Falkenburg Road in Riverview. “There are plenty of seats waiting to be filled. They’ve got chairs and desks, everything waiting.”
The company offers a web-based proprietary transportation management system called BlueShip that consolidates freight shipping needs for businesses, whether they are looking for a truck to move a partial shipment, a full shipment, ocean freight or air freight.
Harris has committed to adding the new jobs by 2017, but said he is looking to immediately fill a number of positions, the first within his IT department. Anyone interested in employment with BlueGrace can visit www.mybluegrace.com, then click on a button for Career Link.
Gov. Rick Scott visited the company’s Riverview office Wednesday, along with EDC President and CEO Rick Homans and Sandy Murman, chair of the Hillsborough County Commission.
“I want to thank BlueGrace for bringing 100 new jobs to Florida and expanding its headquarters in our state,” Scott said, according to an EDC press release. “We are working every day to make Florida the number one state for job creation and the more than 879,000 private-sector jobs created in the last four and a half years let us know we’re well on our way.”
BlueGrace, which has 165 employees nationwide, joins a growing list of businesses that have decided recently to expand operations here. That list includes Cognizant, Xcelience, ReliaQuest, BluePearl Veterinary Partners, Tribridge and Laser Spine Institute.
More than half a million Floridians are employed in the broad wholesale trade, transportation and logistics industry, according to the EDC. And that industry is poised to grow more with the widening of the Panama Canal in 2016.
The EDC, Enterprise Florida, and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity all worked to put this deal together. “These additional 100 jobs will provide even more opportunities in the Tampa area and contribute to Florida’s thriving private sector,” said Jesse Panuccio, executive director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
Murman said three other states offered BlueGrace location packages. “But we are committed to keeping them here and giving them the support they need to achieve greater success and bring more jobs to our community.”
