Hospitality in Tampa Bay

Tourism studies conclude Tampa is losing major conventions because its meeting space and walkable hotel inventory have not kept pace with downtown’s growth.

By Chuck Merlis

Downtown Tampa has added thousands of hotel rooms, new residential towers and a rapidly expanding waterfront district over the past decade, but multiple tourism studies conclude one piece of the city’s visitor infrastructure has not kept pace.

A February 2024 report by JLL concludes Tampa has reached a point where continued growth in the convention market depends on expanding the Tampa Convention Center while increasing the supply of hotel rooms within walking distance of the facility. The study estimates Tampa lost 161 convention leads representing more than 967,000 hotel room nights between 2023 and 2031.

Nearly 250,000 of those room nights were tied to groups that required either more exhibit space or larger blocks of nearby hotel rooms than Tampa could provide. More than half of those lost conventions required at least 1,200 peak room nights, and 68% came from just five market segments, suggesting Tampa is repeatedly losing the same types of events.

A separate tourism product analysis prepared by HCP Associates for Visit Tampa Bay reached similar conclusions, identifying convention center size and the limited supply of nearby hotel rooms as two of Hillsborough County’s primary tourism weaknesses.

JLL likewise ranked the convention center among 16 priority tourism investments alongside Brightline, Riverwalk improvements and Tampa International Airport’s expansion, concluding that meeting planners increasingly evaluate destinations as complete convention districts rather than individual facilities.

More than two years later, Tampa Convention Center Executive Director David Ingram echoed those findings during an April interview on the city’s Tampa Tea podcast, saying the facility is “busy to the point of you can’t get it” and that a recent feasibility study found “we just need to be a little bit bigger.” He said additional exhibit space would allow the convention center to host multiple events simultaneously while more walkable hotel rooms would help attract larger meetings.

The city has already begun planning for that expansion. Tampa hired Conventions, Sports & Leisure International to complete an expansion market feasibility study, and in July 2025 City Council reappropriated $471,545 for that study and a separate facility assessment after the funding carried over from the previous fiscal year. According to the agenda memorandum, the market study evaluates convention demand, expansion options, funding strategies and the number of additional hotel rooms needed to support a larger convention center. City officials describe the study as “the key component in developing a master plan” for the facility, while the companion assessment evaluates its mechanical, electrical, structural and fire protection systems to guide future capital improvements.

JLL recommends adding about 90,000 square feet of exhibit space, 35,000 square feet of ballroom space and additional meeting rooms, increasing the building’s rentable space by more than 125,000 square feet. The report also recommends a 1,000-room headquarters hotel connected to or immediately adjacent to the convention center, concluding the two projects must move forward together if Tampa hopes to compete for larger national conventions.

The Tampa Convention Center contains about 200,000 square feet of exhibit space and 36,000 square feet of ballroom space, compared with averages of roughly 369,000 square feet of exhibit space and 54,000 square feet of ballroom space among comparable convention destinations, helping explain why JLL recommends adding about 125,000 square feet of rentable space.

Meetings requiring 1,800 to more than 3,000 peak room nights account for only 17% of booked events but generate 36% of hotel room nights and nearly 40% of the convention center’s economic impact.

JLL identified 3,341 hotel rooms within one-half mile of the convention center across 10 properties, ranking Tampa near the bottom of a competitive set that includes Orlando, Nashville, Austin, San Antonio, Charlotte, Fort Lauderdale, Baltimore, Louisville, Milwaukee and Fort Worth. HCP likewise concluded the city’s walkable hotel inventory limits its ability to compete for conventions requiring more than 2,000 peak room nights.

During peak periods, downtown hotels reported making only about 37% of their inventory available for convention room blocks, leaving roughly 1,245 peak room nights despite more than 3,300 nearby hotel rooms. HCP found that allocation increases to about 56% during slower periods, illustrating that Tampa’s greatest constraint emerges when convention demand is strongest.

A connected headquarters hotel with a dedicated room-block agreement would change that equation by concentrating approximately 1,250 peak room nights across four hotels instead of requiring planners to coordinate blocks across roughly 10 separate properties. HCP estimates pairing that hotel with a convention center expansion could generate about 50,000 additional hotel room nights each year. Ingram said the convention center has access to approximately 20,000 hotel rooms countywide, but future growth depends on increasing the number within walking distance of the facility. “Nothing is off the board,” he said, referring to concepts that could include public-private partnerships and a headquarters hotel.

The tourism strategies also identify Brightline, Tampa International Airport’s master plan, Riverwalk improvements, Gasworx, Ybor Harbor, the TECO Streetcar, ZooTampa, the Florida Aquarium and additional downtown hotel development as complementary investments intended to strengthen Hillsborough County’s position as a convention destination rather than solely a leisure market.

Hybrid work is creating new demand for places where professionals can work, meet clients, build relationships and socialize under one membership.

By Chuck Merlis

Professionals are increasingly looking for a place between home and the office, and private business clubs are reshaping themselves around that demand by combining workspace, client meeting space, networking and social programming under a single membership. Hybrid work accelerated the shift by reducing the time many employees spend in traditional offices while increasing demand for places where they can work, entertain clients and build relationships throughout the week, a pattern that has helped membership-based clubs expand in major cities while established business and country clubs report rising enrollment among younger professionals.

Few local clubs illustrate that change more clearly than The Tampa Club, where membership has grown from fewer than 900 members to 1,245 since BNG Hospitality acquired the downtown property in 2019. As membership expanded, the average age fell from 56 four years ago to 47, while monthly enrollment climbed to roughly 25 to 30 new members, according to General Manager Alissa Costello and Membership Director Erin Stancick.

One of those members is Nick Homolka, a 30-year-old investment manager with Truist who first encountered the club through Tampa Bay Chamber events, then returned as a guest for breakfasts, lunches, dinners and drinks before deciding to join. Rather than paying for another coworking space, Homolka wanted one place where he could work between appointments, meet clients and spend time with people he hoped to know better, a combination he described as “work and play” within a “third place” outside the office and home.

“It’s not working or at home, but you have another place where people are trying to get to know each other in a laid-back setting,” Homolka said, describing the same familiarity Costello hears from members who compare the club to a neighborhood gathering place. “Many of our members call it their ‘Cheers’ bar,” she said. “We see people who work from home who are looking to engage with others. You invest in a private club because you want people who are on the same level or can help you grow your business.”

That familiarity developed for Homolka over several visits, when repeated invitations showed him that members used the club throughout the week rather than carrying the membership as a title or occasional status symbol. Watching friends return for meals, drinks and events helped justify paying for the membership himself, while the club’s intermediate category lowered the cost of joining early in his career and gave him more time to build relationships. The optional Palmer Advantage program, which provides reciprocal access to participating private clubs and golf courses around the country, extended that value beyond the downtown clubhouse.

Employers are reaching the same conclusion, with companies increasingly paying for memberships that give employees a place to meet clients, network and work outside the office rather than reserving private clubs for senior executives. That demand has increased corporate membership sales at The Tampa Club from one or two each month to roughly five, led by law firms, banks and construction companies, while many corporate accounts begin with a single employee who later persuades the company to enroll additional workers. About 60% of members currently hold individual memberships, with the remaining 40% participating through corporate accounts.

“Companies are genuinely investing into the intermediate employees’ future,” Stancick said. “They want them to go out. They want them to network. They want to take clients where they know it’s going to be a proper environment to close business.”

That investment reflects how members use the club once they join, often moving through several parts of their workday without leaving the building. “It’s awesome to see a member do the full day,” Stancick said. “They come for breakfast, work remote, have a lunch meeting with a client and then bring their family in for dinner.”

Those repeated visits also changed Homolka’s view of the people he expected to meet, because he had assumed longtime members would already have established circles and little interest in someone younger. Instead, many senior members introduced themselves first and encouraged him to participate. “I originally thought it’d be tough to introduce myself,” Homolka said. “The more senior members there are really open to talking and helping you out. It really is a pretty casual atmosphere.”

That pattern of repeated use is what BNG Hospitality set out to create after acquiring The Tampa Club, one of six private clubs the company owns nationwide. Since 2019, BNG has invested about $3 million renovating the property while improving member retention by roughly 80%, according to Costello, whose management strategy centers on repositioning traditional business clubs as all-day destinations rather than places reserved for occasional lunches or formal dinners.

The strategy depends on members participating often enough for the club to become part of their routine, which is why prospective members are encouraged to return for dinner, networking programs or Cigars Under the Stars before deciding whether to join. “You get out of this club what you put into it,” Stancick said. “I’m happy to make introductions and I want people to connect, but I can’t do that if you’re at home on your couch.”

Once members begin returning regularly, Costello said, retention depends less on the physical amenities than on whether employees recognize them, remember their families and understand how they use the club. “Knowing everyone’s name the moment they walk in the door and understanding everything about their families,” she said, “I think that is really what defines luxury at this point.”

That attention extends the membership beyond business meetings as members who first arrive for client lunches later return with their families for Mother’s Day brunch, Brunch with Santa and holiday celebrations. “We genuinely care about the membership,” Costello said. “It’s not so much about a transactional business investment.”

The club’s emphasis on accessibility also reaches back to its founding in the 1980s, when it opened as an alternative to private clubs that excluded women and minorities. That philosophy has remained in place even as membership surpassed the former 1,000-member cap set in its bylaws and management became more selective about admitting new members. “We’re not using the word waitlist,” Costello said. “But we’re getting there.”

That rising demand has changed what the club sells, because members now expect more than access to a dining room or a prestigious address. “People think it’s just a space,” Costello said. “It’s not really a service. It’s an experience.”

For Costello, the club’s growth reflects its ability to preserve the personal service associated with traditional private clubs while adapting the space to professionals who work, network and socialize differently than previous generations. “Our greatest value right now in the community is bridging the gap between that old world hospitality and the new world,” she said.

Independent operators face higher purchasing costs, fewer financial reserves and none of the loyalty programs that help national hotel brands compete, but Tampa Bay’s year-round visitor economy still gives them room to survive.

Hillsborough County hotels generated a record $121.5 million in taxable revenue during April, part of a tourism economy that produced $6 billion in direct visitor spending and a total economic impact of $9.5 billion last year. Leisure and hospitality employment across the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro reached a preliminary 172,600 jobs in May, about 5,200 more than a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As the market expanded, national brands, soft brands and boutique collections claimed more of it, leaving fewer hotels entirely independent. Nilesh Patel has watched that change from both sides. His family operates Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn and TownePlace Suites properties while also owning Hotel South Tampa, one of the region’s remaining independent hotels.

“The number of independents that are left out there that are actually only independent is not very high,” Patel said. At Hotel South Tampa, every purchasing decision begins from scratch. “We have to come up with everything at the independent property,” he said. “We don’t want the cheapest item. We want the best quality.” The hotel can buy the same mattress from the same manufacturer used at its Holiday Inn Express properties and still pay more because IHG negotiates contracts for thousands of hotels while the independent property negotiates for one.

The same imbalance extends beyond furniture. Patel said banks and insurers generally view branded hotels as lower-risk investments, making financing and insurance more difficult and often more expensive for independent operators.

Independence also comes with one financial advantage: Hotel South Tampa does not pay the franchise fees required by major brands. “We don’t have to pay the brand that much money,” Patel said. “Therefore we can give a portion of that savings to customers.”

“The number of independents that are left out there that are actually only independent is not very high.”

Nilesh Patel, Hotel South Tampa

The chains also give travelers benefits that a single independent hotel cannot match. “A guest earning Hilton Honors points in Tampa can use them on the next trip,” Patel said. “If they earn points here, they can only use them here.” Hotel South Tampa instead depends largely on Google, Booking.com and Expedia, where travelers compare review scores, photographs and nightly rates before making a reservation.

Each booking carries a commission, while Patel’s staff must build and maintain the listings by updating photographs, amenities, room descriptions and promotions. “It’s a lot of extra work to get to the same spot,” he said. Before TripAdvisor, Google Reviews and online booking platforms, travelers unfamiliar with an independent hotel were more likely to choose a recognizable brand. Online reviews have since narrowed that advantage.

Patel said a comparable branded room may command about $250 during peak periods, while Hotel South Tampa competes closer to $160 or $170. About 20% to 30% of the hotel’s guests are international travelers, many of whom book after comparing prices and review scores online.

Those higher purchasing costs come on top of inflation affecting hotels across the industry. Asked which expenses had risen the most, Patel answered without hesitation. “Insurance, utilities, payroll, food, maintenance, operating supplies,” he said.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association found hotel operating costs are rising four times faster than revenue. Insurance costs increased 111% between 2019 and 2025, followed by utilities at 28%, property operations at 23%, administrative expenses at 18% and labor at 15%.

Those costs weigh differently on independent hotels, said Brooke Hansen, an associate professor of hospitality at the University of South Florida, because national brands can spread financial risk across hundreds or thousands of properties while smaller operators have fewer reserves.

“The big challenge in our area of Florida is some of our big operators are doing great,” Hansen said. “Our challenge is to pull up our mom-and-pop small and medium-sized enterprises.” Independently owned hotels face many of the same insurance, labor and borrowing costs as national chains, she said, with fewer reserves to absorb a hurricane, a sudden increase in interest rates or another disruption.

“Hilton can do that,” she said. “But your independently owned hotel doesn’t have those reserves of capital to weather all of these challenges.”

The broader industry reflects those pressures. CBRE reported hotel operating profits fell 2.7% as expenses outpaced revenue growth and expects inflation to continue exceeding gains in average daily rates through 2026 while occupancy remains under pressure.

Hansen said smaller operators help give destinations their own identity. “Small and medium-sized businesses are critical because they give our destinations a sense of place and difference,” she said. “Everyone doesn’t just want to go to a chain store everywhere they travel.” Patel has built Hotel South Tampa around that opening in the market, offering an independent property with the quality standards travelers expect from a branded hotel.

Hansen pointed to organizations such as Amplify Clearwater, along with cooperative purchasing programs, as examples of ways smaller operators can lower costs and strengthen their businesses.

“We need to think about more ways that we can support some of the smaller businesses that are fed by our tourism dollars,” Hansen said.

Even with those disadvantages, Patel believes Tampa gives independent hotels an opportunity that many markets do not. A steady stream of conventions, sporting events, military activity and leisure travel keeps visitors arriving throughout the year rather than during a short seasonal rush.

“Tampa’s pretty much year-round,” Patel said. “We’ve been very fortunate.” That consistent demand gives independent hotels room to operate without matching the occupancy or room rates of the largest brands.

Technology may reduce some operational disadvantages. Hansen said artificial intelligence gives independent hotels access to market analysis and tools that once required corporate research departments. An owner can ask an AI platform who is likely to visit over the next six months and receive a summary compiled from reports published by Booking.com, Expedia, Destination Analysts and other tourism organizations.

If those reports point to stronger business travel in June and July, Hansen said, a hotel can shift its advertising toward that market. She offered a hypothetical example of a Pinellas County hotel targeting construction companies in Minnesota rather than buying a broad campaign aimed at all travelers.

The technology can also reduce waste in hotels with food-service operations. Hansen cited Winnow, a system that uses a camera above a food-waste bin to record what servers discard, allowing managers to adjust orders when guests repeatedly leave certain items untouched. A manager reviewing the data might conclude, she said: “We threw away 500 pounds of peas yesterday. Guys, we’re not doing the peas anymore.”

Patel expects many of those tools to reach independent hotels through the reservation, pricing and marketing vendors they already use. “We’re all learning through these different vendors,” he said. “They’re starting first because they have all the technology that’s using it. And I think within a few years we’ll kind of know where that shakes out.”

Patel does not expect Hotel South Tampa to match Hilton or Marriott on occupancy or room rates.

“We’ve kind of figured out our place,” he said. “I don’t ever expect that we will outdo those brands as it relates to our rate and occupancy. But I feel like there’s a really healthy spot for independents.”

“I don’t see it as a competition,” Patel said. “There will be different lanes to play in. Luckily, Tampa is very fortunate to have a lot of customers coming. I think we can all fill a role in that hospitality market.”

The waterfront institution opened before Water Street Tampa existed and became one of the anchors that helped make the district’s transformation possible.

By Chuck Merlis

When the Florida Aquarium opened on Tampa’s waterfront in March 1995, visitors arrived at the edge of downtown, not in the middle of a thriving neighborhood. The Tampa Convention Center had opened five years earlier, but beyond it stood warehouses, port facilities, industrial buildings and acres of surface parking. The Ice Palace, now Benchmark International Arena, was still more than a year away.

What is now one of the country’s largest urban redevelopment projects consisted largely of disconnected civic destinations surrounded by infrastructure designed to move cars and cargo rather than people. Three decades later, that same stretch of waterfront has become Water Street Tampa, a neighborhood of hotels, apartments, office towers, restaurants, medical facilities and public gathering spaces that welcomes millions of visitors each year, with the Florida Aquarium now sitting near its center.

Roger Germann, the President and CEO of the aquarium, believes the institution helped make that transformation possible, and he often returns to a conversation with Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik that took place before Water Street existed as either a master plan or a construction site.

“He sat over there at the arena and looked east and said, ‘Hey, there’s a world-class aquarium over there,’” Germann said. “He saw that vision of why you would build Water Street.”

When Tampa established the Channel District CRA in 2004, officials were attempting to reverse decades of decline in what planning documents repeatedly described as an aging industrial warehouse district.

The city’s Finding of Necessity concluded that 63% of buildings were deteriorated, dilapidated or terminal, while 83% were more than 40 years old. 77% of surveyed properties exhibited excessive maintenance problems, 30% had histories of code enforcement violations and officials cited “general economic distress resulting in a diminished tax base and tax revenues.”

The report also described aging water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure with “questionable capacity for new development,” an obsolete street network that no longer accommodated modern vehicular or pedestrian traffic, fragmented property ownership, inadequate parking, potential environmental contamination and a shortage of sidewalks, parks and other public amenities.

During public hearings, one property owner reminded City Council that the Channel District had “always been a warehouse district,” adding that many streets “never had sidewalks to begin with,” before describing a future in which people could “live, work, shop and play.”

Fourteen years later, Strategic Property Partners unveiled Water Street Tampa with an initial master plan calling for more than 9 million square feet of residential, office, hospitality, educational, entertainment and retail space across roughly 50 acres, including 1,500 residences, approximately 50 retailers and restaurants, two luxury hotels and the first new downtown office towers in nearly a quarter century.

Even as it introduced an entirely new neighborhood, the company highlighted institutions that already occupied the waterfront, including then Amalie, now Benchmark International Arena, the Tampa Convention Center, the Florida Aquarium and the University of South Florida’s Morsani College of Medicine.

Before joining the Florida Aquarium in 2017, Germann spent years in Chicago, where institutions such as the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum and the Art Institute had become inseparable from the city’s identity.

“I saw what happened in Chicago when anchors like the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute and the Field Museum were so much part of the driving fabric to create a world-class city,” Germann said. “When I came here, I said, ‘We’re making no little plans at the Florida Aquarium.’ We’re going to build a world-class aquarium that will help attract and put Tampa and Tampa Bay on the map.”

His first drive to work passed the convention center, then Amalie Arena, a temporary Ferg’s, gravel lots and little else before ending at the aquarium. Today the same route winds through Water Street, Sparkman Wharf, new apartment towers, hotels, office buildings and the expanding medical district before reaching the aquarium.

“My drive nearly doubled,” Germann said with a laugh. “I probably went from six minutes to 12 minutes. But the city skyline has just changed dramatically.”

“I think it’s a symbiotic relationship,” Germann said. “We benefit from our growth, but we’re also a driver for why people would want to come here.”

He said downtown’s growing residential population has begun changing how people think about the aquarium.

“We’ll see people say, ‘Hey, that’s my aquarium.’ They’ll wake up in the morning, grab a stroller and walk over because they live around the corner,” Germann said. “The other part of that is the work-life-play balance. With more restaurants, more people are coming downtown and saying, ‘Oh, there’s an aquarium.’”

The aquarium has also become part of how other institutions describe downtown Tampa. Tampa General Hospital includes it in presentations used to recruit physicians, researchers and life sciences companies to the Tampa Medical and Research District.

“They use us in a good way as part of the narrative,” Germann said. “You want to relocate your business here. You want to build this world-class medical district, and you have the Florida Aquarium that’s kind of in your neighborhood.”

Two decades after the CRA was established to reverse blight in the Channel District, it committed $15 million toward the aquarium’s $44 million expansion, with the aquarium raising the remaining funding through private philanthropy and corporate contributions.

The project represents the first comprehensive modernization of the aquarium since it opened in 1995, but Germann said the goal extends beyond adding new exhibits. The first phase converted former event space into the Mosaic Special Exhibit Hall, allowing the aquarium to host rotating traveling exhibitions instead of offering the same experience year after year. The second phase transformed underused second-floor space into a nationally recognized tide pool gallery, while construction beginning after Labor Day will add the country’s first two-story puffin habitat. A separate outdoor expansion will bring California sea lions, expanded penguin habitats and new presentation spaces by late 2028.

“It’s the first time that we’ve really taken, since we opened our building, a comprehensive look at the facility,” Germann said. “Once that whole entire project is completed, it’s transformational. It speaks to a world-class aquarium that this community deserves. It’s our responsibility to deliver on that.”

Since Germann arrived in 2017, annual attendance has grown from about 800,000 visitors to more than one million. He expects the completed expansion to establish a new baseline of roughly 1.1 million visitors a year.

Attendance growth has expanded the aquarium’s economic role beyond its own walls. A 2024 analysis by the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council estimated that about 45% of aquarium visitors travel from outside the Tampa Bay area. Those visitors spent an estimated $83.8 million in Hillsborough County during 2023 on hotels, restaurants, transportation, shopping and other purchases associated with their trips, generating roughly $100.1 million in total economic output across the county.

Germann doesn’t believe downtown has reached the residential density envisioned for the district, leaving room for both the neighborhood and the aquarium to keep growing together.

“I think our best days are still ahead of us,” Germann said. “It’s still getting started.”

Next Level Brands opened its second Forbici in a 12,300-square-foot Sundial space built to serve nearly 400 guests and support a broader expansion strategy.

Nearly 600 meals were served on opening night at Forbici’s new Sundial location as Next Level Brands expanded the Italian restaurant beyond its original Hyde Park Village location.

The restaurant served 575 meals Wednesday night, drew about 200 walk-in diners and filled its 100-seat bar throughout the evening, according to founder and CEO Jeff Gigante.

Reservations for the second night were stronger than opening day, he said, even though late June is typically one of the slower periods for Tampa Bay restaurants.

“This is the brand that we’re looking to grow,” Gigante said. “We want the number two to perform to the metrics that number one is.”

Gigante said a third Forbici is planned near Wiregrass in Wesley Chapel within the next year to year and a half. If the first three restaurants perform to expectations, he said, the company believes the concept could ultimately expand to between 20 and 40 locations across the Southeast.

“We believe there can be anywhere between 20 and 40 of these concepts throughout the Southeast United States,” Gigante said.

The St. Petersburg restaurant is the second Forbici location after the original opened in Tampa’s Hyde Park Village and the largest restaurant Gigante has built.

The 12,300-square-foot restaurant occupies the former Sea Salt space at Sundial, with seating for nearly 400 guests, private dining space, live music and indoor and outdoor bars.

The opening follows more than two years of planning. Next Level Brands originally pursued another space at Sundial before litigation involving neighboring property owners changed the redevelopment plans.

The company ultimately secured the former Sea Salt space, allowing it to renovate the existing restaurant rather than build one from the ground up while gaining a larger footprint.

For Gigante, who grew up in St. Petersburg, the opening represents both a homecoming and a business expansion. Many of his childhood friends invested in the restaurant, he said, and opening week also drew longtime Hyde Park customers across the bridge to visit the new location.

Gigante said Forbici combines moderate pricing, live music and a nearly 400-seat dining room in a format designed to appeal to a broad range of diners.

Unlike the company’s higher-end concepts, he said, Forbici is intended to become part of customers’ weekly routines rather than a destination reserved for special occasions.

That operating model shapes the restaurant’s economics. Gigante said pizza and pasta keep ingredient costs relatively stable compared with restaurants that rely more heavily on proteins.

Portions are intentionally generous, prices typically increase only once or twice a year and the strategy is designed to encourage repeat visits rather than special-occasion dining.

“People are voting with their pocketbooks,” Gigante said.

“We’re looking to increase guest visits to two to three times per week,” he said. “You’ve got to really create the trust in your consumer where they’re like, ‘Every time we come here, there’s music playing, there’s great vibe, there’s energy, it’s good, the food’s consistent and we get a good portion.’”

Gigante said Next Level Brands documents construction, hiring and employee training before each opening, so customers become familiar with a restaurant before visiting for the first time.

“He who tells the best story wins,” Gigante said. “They take the ride along with us right through opening.”

Next Level Brands is already planning its next investment in St. Petersburg. Drift, a cocktail bar under development at Sundial, is expected to open later this year, and Gigante said additional concepts could follow.

“When we move, it’s with purpose,” Gigante said. “We’re here in such a significant way that it’s just natural that we’re going to be looking to do more brands in the area.”

Gigante said the region bears little resemblance to the Tampa Bay where he opened his first South Tampa restaurant in 1996. At the time, he said he often walked servers to their cars after work because there was so little around the neighborhood.

Population growth, downtown redevelopment and the expansion of technology, finance and cybersecurity have since created a much larger customer base for restaurants.

“People are eating out as part of their culture now,” Gigante said. “They’re not looking at it as just a commodity. They’re looking at it as their entertainment, their travel, their culture.”