Kforce moving its headquarters to Midtown Tampa
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 29, 2021

Kforce Inc. has signed a deal to move its headquarters to Midtown Tampa, where it will operate what it calls an “office occasional” work model.

The Tampa-based staffing agency said Wednesday that it will lease the fifth floor in Midtown West, the eight-story, 152,000-square-foot office building that sits at the entrance to the mixed-use Midtown Tampa. Midtown West’s floor plates are 22,232 square feet, and Kforce’s 10-year lease will commence in October 2022.

In the Tampa Bay market, a 22,000-square-foot office lease is on the larger side of average. Most office leases in this region are between 10,000 and 20,000 square feet.

Kforce employs 2,000 people as of September.

Earlier this year, Kforce sold its Ybor City headquarters to a group of local investors. The company said at the time of the sale it was looking for a “state-of-the-art headquarters” within the Tampa area and touted the benefits of flexibility and its hybrid work model. Its former headquarters space is 128,000 square feet.

Kforce (Nasdaq: KFRC) says the new headquarters does not mean it is requiring employees to come to the office five days a week or even on a rotating schedule. Instead, its office space is “for interactions best done in person, such as team building, client collaboration and training.”

“Otherwise, Kforce intends for its employees (Kforcers) to continue to work remotely, leveraging the technology and processes the firm has deployed over the past 18 months, enabling them to build an optimal life-work balance,” the company said in a statement. “Kforcers’ workdays will shift seamlessly between Midtown Tampa, their home offices, a coffee shop or wherever their day takes them.”

At more than 22,000 square feet, Kforce is the largest tenant yet to commit to Midtown West, where South State Bank has leased 13,000 square feet and purchased signage rights. Midtown West is a joint venture between New York-based Bromley Cos., the master developer of Midtown, and Highwoods Investment Properties, the Tampa Bay area’s largest office landlord.

“Kforce is a powerful addition to the area that further rounds out the diverse mix of leading national corporations, high-end retailers and local restaurants,” Dan Woodward, Highwoods senior vice president and Highwoods market leader, said in a statement, “and we are looking forward to seeing the added momentum they will bring to Midtown.” 

Kforce President Joseph Liberatore said the company made the decision after learning its employees preferred a remote work environment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This vision comes directly from our people, who are thriving with this newfound freedom,” Liberatore said. “We’ve given them the flexibility to design their best lives, and they responded with a record-setting year.”