One year into a three-year economic development plan, the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council is beginning to target the industries, infrastructure and workforce it sees shaping the region’s next stage of growth.
Those bets include data centers and the maritime economy, where the EDC has moved from identifying opportunities to briefing local policymakers, developing a workforce strategy and recommending new investment zones.
EDC representatives studied data center markets in Atlanta and Loudoun County, Virginia, and brought Loudoun County economic development director Buddy Rizer to Tampa Bay before briefing local policymakers. That research comes amid an artificial intelligence-driven construction surge forcing communities to weigh major investment against new demands on electricity, land and water.
U.S. data center employment increased more than 60% from 2016 to 2023, reaching 501,000 workers, according to the Census Bureau, with Florida among five states accounting for more than 40% of those jobs. The EDC’s latest community data ranks Hillsborough County first in Florida for new AI job growth, while Georgia Tech researchers found counties where data centers opened saw employment increase 3.5%, total wages rise 5% and the number of businesses grow 4.7% over the longer term.
The workforce question extends to maritime, where the EDC drafted a strategy with the St. Petersburg Innovation District and Tampa Bay Wave’s Blue Tech Accelerator as Washington pushes to rebuild a U.S. shipbuilding industry that produces less than 1% of commercial ships globally. The White House’s 2026 Maritime Action Plan calls for investment in shipyards, supply chains and workers, including Maritime Prosperity Zones aimed at attracting maritime investment.
The EDC drafted a maritime workforce strategy with the St. Petersburg Innovation District and Tampa Bay Wave’s Blue Tech Accelerator as Washington pushes to rebuild a U.S. shipbuilding industry that produces less than 1% of commercial ships globally. The White House’s 2026 Maritime Action Plan calls for investment in shipyards, supply chains and workers, including Maritime Prosperity Zones aimed at attracting maritime investment.
Those workforce needs brought former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Rick Spinrad to Tampa Bay to discuss the talent the maritime sector will require, though the resulting strategy and its recommendations have not been released. The EDC also proposed Florida locations for the federal Maritime Prosperity Zones but did not identify them.
With fiscal 2026 results not yet available, the EDC’s latest full-year tally reached 2,280 jobs averaging $88,926 and more than $275 million in capital investment from projects it helped recruit or expand in fiscal 2025, up from 1,185 jobs and about $80 million a year earlier as projects nearly doubled from 15 to 29.
Since then, Philip Morris International U.S. has committed roughly $50 million to a Tampa Business Solutions Center at Highwoods Bay Center, signing a 10-year lease in March and projecting about 180 direct and indirect jobs. Orion Edge brought another $20 million with its headquarters, moving from Colorado to Tampa in November with plans for 20 jobs after executives attended the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference. The move put the defense contractor near U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base after the company worked with the city and EDC on the relocation.
Within a year, Orion used workforce and market data from the EDC to evaluate another expansion, committing $6 million to 8,008 square feet in Westshore and 25 engineering and manufacturing jobs averaging $120,000.
“Tampa Bay cannot wait for the future to arrive and then react to it,” EDC President and CEO Craig Richard wrote in the Aug. 28 update. “We must anticipate what’s coming, invest in our competitive strengths and prepare our community to seize emerging opportunities.”