Tampa’s sunny construction market has builders feeling good

Tracy Hunt describes Tampa, Florida, as a city with a “small town/big town” vibe. And it’s a town that’s growing bigger by the second.

Hunt, the vice president and Florida general manager for Sweden-based builder and developer Skanska, told Construction Dive about why he thinks Tampa is an excellent market for builders today and his prediction for continual growth.

“In the last seven years that I’ve been here, the skyline of Tampa has changed drastically,” Hunt said, noting that he appreciates the metro for its diverse markets and location in the center of the state.

Even friends and visitors have noticed the changes. Hunt recounted a story where a friend came to visit the city again, only to find how much neighborhoods had evolved. 

His friend wanted to stay at a hotel in the Water Street area, which Hunt’s friend knew for its quiet atmosphere at the time. In the decade since his friend was in Tampa, much had changed.

“I said, ‘Well, just get ready because it’s not quiet anymore,’” Hunt warned him.

There’s a good reason for the city’s evolution. The Tampa Bay region and all of Florida have seen some of the highest population increases in the country in recent years. Florida’s population grew by 2% from 2021 to 2022, leading every other state. The Tampa Bay region swelled from 3.2 million people to nearly 3.3 million during the same time period.

This, coupled with the Sunshine State’s reputation as a destination for retirees and people seeking year-round warm weather, is a mix that’s resulted in a hot multifamily market across the state, and particularly in Tampa. Some large projects include the 758-bed Park Place near the University of South Florida and the 502-unit Renata at Lakewood Ranch.

“I think we’re actually getting a lot more younger folks coming to our region just because of the lifestyle and the business climate,” said Steve Cona, the president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors’ Florida Gulf Coast chapter. “It’s not typically people who are coming here to retire, we’re getting an influx of the younger generation coming into the area as well.”

Breaking out of its shell

But that doesn’t mean that construction work in Tampa is solely multifamily-oriented. Cona said that private equity investment in the region is attracting more business, with healthcare as the main driver. Hospitality and infrastructure projects, like the $787 million Airside D Terminal expansion at Tampa International Airport, are also on the rise.

However, Tampa grapples with the same issues that contractors across the country deal with including labor struggles and supply chain snarls. The latter is healing, but finding workers to staff jobs amid high demand is tricky. 

Further complicating matters is Florida’s recent adoption of the federal E-Verify system, which checks an employee’s form I-9 to ensure they are legally allowed to work in the country. Reports of employees leaving jobsites across Florida fueled contractor uncertainty right after the change went into effect.

Despite the obstacles, Tampa is still on the upswing.

“I think for a while, [Tampa] was technically a little bit underserved and underdeveloped. I think we’re now taking advantage of all of the assets that we’ve always had,” Cona said.