WHY TAMPA?

• The Tampa Bay MSA consists of a four-county area with a population of approximately 2.5 million. It is the second-largest MSA in the Southeast and the 21st-largest MSA in the country.

• The Tampa MSA will experience the 10th-largest employment growth in the country between 1998 and 2025, according to Newsweek.

• Forbes ranked the Tampa MSA as the 15th top spot for business in the country.

• According to Kaplan Career Services, the Tampa MSA will be one of the 10 best areas in the country to find a job in the next 25 years.

• The Port of Tampa has emerged as the seventh-largest port in the United States, having invested $48 million in projects.

• According to Inc. Magazine’s 2006 annual list of the “hottest cities” to do business, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area ranked 9th among “hottest large cities.”

• As of April 2007, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA had the third-largest employment gain over the year. The combined employment growth of the top three MSAs accounted for 63 percent of the total job growth in the state.