Economic Business Development

Affordable land prices, low taxes and competitive construction costs have combined to make the Upper Tampa Bay area - from U.S. Highway 19 on the west to the Veterans Expressway on the east - extremely attractive to all types of businesses, from retail and service-oriented companies to major manufacturing and high-tech corporations.

More than 4,000 businesses currently call the area home and employ an estimated 110,000 workers, and a handful of rapidly-growing business and industrial parks are in place to accommodate any type of business ... no matter how large or small.

Despite being one of the smaller municipalities in the five-county Tampa Bay area, Oldsmar is the fastest-growing city in the region, with new commercial and residential development at an all-time high. The area's population has nearly doubled during the last decade, and hundreds of new and relocating businesses have sprung up here as the city experienced a commercial building "boom" in the early 2000s.

Major Upper Tampa Bay Employers

During the last few years, more than a dozen major employers opened (or will soon be opening) their doors in the Upper Tampa Bay area, including The Nielsen Company's new "Global Technology Headquarters" which employs nearly 2,000 high-tech (and high-wage) workers.

The region's first major multiplex theaters – the AMC Woodlands Square 20 in Oldsmar and the AMC Veterans 24 in NW Hillsborough – have focused the younger generation's attention on the Upper Tampa Bay area. But the county's first Walmart Superstores; the 315,000 square-foot 580 Corporate Center; four brand-name hotels and the new, 650-employee regional headquarters for United Health Services have solidified the Upper Tampa Bay area as a player in the future development of the region.

Major employers in the Upper Tampa Bay area include:

  • Nielsen Media Research
  • Town & Country Hospital
  • Tampa Bay Downs
  • Lockheed Martin
  • CAE Systems
  • SRI / Surgical Express
  • Anchor Glass
  • Baycare Health Systems

Workforce Development

The Upper Tampa Bay Chamber, in cooperation local economic development agencies, is working to assure that the area's workforce keeps pace with the demands of our rapidly-expanding (and evolving) business community. More than 207,000 people live within a five mile radius of downtown Oldsmar, and the total population of the Tri-County Area (which includes Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties) exceeds 2.3 million.

Preparing those workers for the demands of the 21st Century workplace is the top priority of the Chamber and all three counties, who work closely with educational leaders to ensure that high school, college and technical school curriculum is both timely and relevant.

  • The University of South Florida – the nation's 13th largest university and one of the Top 50 research universities in the country – is also home to an award-winning Small Business Development Center.
  • St. Petersburg College's innovative Corporate Training Program is one of the best in the nation. In addition to traditional, on-campus courses, SPC works one-on-one with employers to design the programs they need, in an effort to get employees up to speed on the technologies, tools and techniques they need to keep local companies productive and competitive.
  • The Pinellas Technical Education Centers also tailor their offerings to meet the specific needs of today's employers, and offer more than 50 different technical programs designed to meet the rapidly changing needs of business and industry.

And it doesn't end there. Once new employees are trained and ready to go ... we help them get there! Through a unique partnership involving the Chamber, the state of Florida, three regional transportation agencies and local job placement organizations, a web of bus routes delivers hundreds of able-bodied workers to worksites throughout the Upper Tampa Bay area each and every day of the year.