Tampa software company to move HQ to former PwC space in Westshore
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jul 28, 2022

Tampa software company Mad Mobile has signed a long-term sublease to take over some of PricewaterhouseCoopers' former real estate in the Westshore business district.

Mad Mobile is taking over floors nine and 10 — a total of 53,272 square feet — in MetWest III, part of the mixed-use MetWest International district near International Plaza. It also has an option to expand to the eighth floor, said Brandan Rabdau, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Mad Mobile.

Michael Fisher, senior managing director at Savills US, and Robert Teachey, corporate managing director at Savills, represented Mad Mobile in the transaction. CBRE Group Inc. senior vice presidents Ryan Reynolds and Bill Obregon represented PwC as the sublessor.

PwC announced in October 2021 that it was transitioning most of its employees to remote work in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. In MetWest III, 110,000 square feet of office space is still available for sublease. The tower was built for PwC and wrapped up construction in 2019.

Cara Castle from CMK Design Studio Inc. in St Petersburg is the architect and designer for Mad Mobile's new office space. Michael Montecalvo of iConstructors Inc. in Tampa is the general contractor, and the company will purchase its office furniture from American Interiors.

Mad Mobile's goal with the new office space, Rabdau said, is to become "an employer of choice" in the Tampa Bay area. Mad Mobile currently leases 21,000 square feet in Tampa City Center in downtown Tampa. In that space, Rabdau said, they've become a hybrid workplace by default, as their office can't accommodate all 120 local employees at once.

Companywide, Mad Mobile has just over 400 full-time employees, with offices in Houston, the Seattle area, Buenos Aires and Sri Lanka. The new space has room for 260 employees.

"We want to build a place where people want to come to work," Rabdau said.

Rabdau said the company's founders never considered moving the headquarters out of Tampa. A big draw to the Westshore district, he said, was its proximity to Tampa International Airport to maximize convenience for visiting clients and employees.

Bruce Bennett, Mad Mobile founder and CEO, said the company wants "to ensure that we're creating a space that encourages our employees to thrive."

"We believe we are 'better together,' and MetWest, our new home, will put us in the best place to be a key employer and a great place to work in Tampa," Bennett said in a statement.