Fortune 500 company wants to move global HQ to St. Petersburg
By Breanne Williams and Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 11, 2021

An unnamed Fortune 500 company currently located in the Northeast is aiming to relocate its global headquarters to St. Petersburg — bringing with it hundreds of high-paying new jobs.

The city of St. Petersburg, along with the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corp., has been working with a site selection firm to bring the company to the area, according to city documents. Under the code name Project Athena, the company is seeking financial incentives of up to $475,000 from the city to create at least 300 jobs.

One possibility behind the code name: Foot Locker Retail Inc., which has been rumored for months to be looking for a large block of office space — between 75,000 and 100,000 square feet — in St. Petersburg.

Foot Locker, based in New York City, ranks No. 385 on the Fortune 500. It already has a presence in St. Petersburg and is hiring dozens of support and technology positions at 140 Fountain Parkway.

Foot Locker did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The $475,000 would come from the unappropriated balance of the general fund to the Economic and Workforce Development Department, which will distribute the money if the company meets the conditions required for each level of incentives. The 300 new jobs could also include any current employees who relocate to St. Pete, or it could be a new hire.

City council members are expected to vote on the decision at Thursday’s meeting. Alan DeLisle, city development administrator, will present the project to the council.

The vote will come just over a week after Wall Street icon Cathie Wood said she would move her Ark Investment Management to St. Petersburg and shutter her Manhattan offices.

Mayor Rick Kriseman declined comment Monday. J.P. DuBuque, president and CEO of the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corp., was not immediately available for comment.

“With the emergence of the St. Petersburg office market and with the impact of the pandemic, the city has been exploring new incentive ideas to attract more headquarter opportunities, knowing that they create economic development stability, strengthen the business sector and establish community partners for a growing city. That opportunity has presented itself with this project,” city documents read.

In order to obtain the incentives, the company must meet several conditions, but city documents said the incentive package “is an investment, not only in the company but in the community as well. Both the city and the company have a similar vision that includes cultural empowerment, inclusion, diversity and community development.”

The total financial incentives are broken into three categories.

The company will receive $250,000 if it creates at least 300 new qualified jobs, ensures the average annual wage for employees is not less than $120,000, executes a lease for not less than 100,000 square feet of office space for its global headquarters, meets with the city to consider utilization of Small Business Enterprise firms for services it may need and considers individuals identified by St. Pete Works for job openings if they meet the qualifications.

If the company meets the base incentive conditions, it will be eligible for a one-time hiring incentive of up to $125,000. The company will get a $5,000 hiring incentive for each employee it hires that lives in the boundaries of the South St. Petersburg CRA. If the company contracts with a city registered SBE firm whose office is in the South St. Pete CRA boundaries it also will receive a $5,000 incentive for each SBE firm contract. The company will be eligible for these hiring and SBE incentives for a period of five years.

The company can also receive up to $100,000 in a workforce development incentive. It can get $50,000 if it submits a workforce plan to the city to relocate its workforce and global headquarters within the first year after it relocates to St. Pete — and if the city approves the plan. It will get another $50,000 if the company “implements and conducts the training identified in the workforce plan for a period of three years from the approval date.”

Council members on Thursday will be asked to also approve a resolution that would allow the company to “add tangible personal property while preserving its ability to apply for an Economic Development Ad Valorem Tax Exemption Ordinance at a later date.”

This is just the initial step in the process of approving the unknown company for the tax exemption and doesn’t bind the council to further action, according to city documents.

The Economic Development Ad Valorem Tax Exemption was adopted by St. Petersburg voters on Nov. 8, 2011, and allows the city council to grant ad valorem tax exemptions to new businesses or expansions of existing businesses that are going to create new jobs in the city. A clarifying ordinance was adopted on June 15, 2017, after the Legislature made changes to the program.