Writer: Felipe Rivas
3 min read January 2021 — The COVID-19 vaccine roll out will be a major step to ending the pandemic. Without losing sight of the challenges, and with this light at the end of the tunnel seemingly approaching, the post pandemic landscape for the Tampa Bay region looks bright. Local leaders across sectors remain optimistic on 2021 as they position themselves to take advantage of market opportunities. Whether it is opportunities for development and construction of residential, commercial, or industrial projects, or expanding healthcare capabilities in the region, Tampa Bay is positioned to capitalize on positive economic activity despite COVID-related challenges, leaders told Invest: Tampa Bay.
Pat Gassaway, President, Heidt Design
Our strategic planning used to cover five-year cycles. Now, we think in one-year cycles. The world just changes too quickly. Our strategic plan is shockingly almost the same, because after 75 years we know how to deliver a service to our clients and that the quality and the predictability of that service is the most appealing part of what we do. We are now working with a large community up in the Panhandle because of our clients who have worked with us previously here in Central Florida. Our customers couldn’t imagine living without that level of service, even though the property is in the Panhandle. We’ve discovered how important it is to be able to take our show on the road.
We are very bullish on 2021. We are constantly looking to expand our resources in Orlando. The nature of the work provided to the national homebuilders as well as the national community developers is just incredibly robust.
Larry Richey, Florida Managing Principal, Cushman & Wakefield
Most in
dustrial experts would say that, pre-COVID and even now, the distribution of goods to the end user has been the hottest part of the industrial market. That’s what we call the last mile, the real estate that helps supply the customers. That’s continued. People have gotten so used to e-commerce now that one would think the current situation accelerated that part of the market.
Would that revert to people going to brick and mortar stores once this is over? Time will tell. I believe there’s going to be a positive impact on e-commerce because of this but it’s not going to be as dramatic as it has been during the pandemic. We see the opportunities in that last-mile fulfillment and also in some large distribution facilities that have been either opened or planning to open in the near future.
Ravi Chari, MD, President & CEO, HCA Healthcare- West Florida Division
We are excited to see the vaccinations begin and are actively participating with our local teams to roll this forward. All of us understand
that this is an important step to ending the pandemic, but there is still a lot of work to be done. We will see a landscape change, and COVID-19 has no doubt changed the hospital industry. For HCA West Florida, we’re continuing to expand with two new free-standing ERs opening in the latter part of 2021 and early 2022, and we’ll continue to expand our services in the community. Our focus remains on working with our physicians to enhance the complexity of care available in our hospitals for surgical oncology, cardiac care, neuroscience and orthopedics services, to name a few.
Todd Fultz, Managing Director, Central Florida Office, Plaza Construction
We are trying to position ourselves staffing-wise and capacity-wise for a big year of growth. We are seeing that there are opportunities in the market that are starting to pop up. A lot of it is on the multifamily residential side, which is one of our core markets, especially the rental market. The buyer market is definitely there and it has been strong. The same could be said about luxury condos. We are bullish on Tampa and even Orlando, which experienced greater challenges during the pandemic.
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