Sun Coast
NEWS
Dali Museum
Photography: Tampa Bay CVB VisitTampaBay.com
Tampa Harbor
T
Tampa's cruise terminal has been named one of the best in the world in a report by Fox News. The cruise
terminal is not only modern and centrally located, but it is also extremely close to one of the top-rated airports
in the nation. City planners wisely used the valuable seaside property to incorporate public parks, an IMAX
movie theater, the Florida Aquarium and shopping and dining facilities. There are plenty of first-class hotels
nearby, as well. Tampa now homeports cruises from four cruise lines: Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America,
Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line..
An economic blog from the
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
reports that for Tampa's residential and commercial real
estate markets, "the worst is
behind us, and the outlook is
positive." The report sites rising
home prices have been spread
across the region, both monthover-month and year-over-year.
On the commercial side, construction activity during the first
quarter was up slightly from a
year earlier, with most of the
activity driven by tenant improvements. "The sentiment is
that now is the right time to buy
space rather than rent," the blog
said. "Developers also noted
that labor and material prices
were on the rise."
The
future
of
Tampa
International Airport is a go.
The
Hillsborough
County
Aviation Authority has voted to
approve a new $2.5 billion master plan for the airport, charting
a course for how TIA will expand and handle growth in the
coming years and decades.
New numbers released by
the Department of Economic
Opportunity show Florida's
unemployment rate dropped
to 7.8 percent in January, while
the Tampa Bay area's unemployment rate increased slightly to
8 percent. Florida's unemployment rate fell below the national
rate for the first time since the
beginning of the 2008 recession.
The local numbers included
areas of Hillsborough, Pinellas,
Pasco and Hernando counties.
Humana's St. Petersburg-based
unit that manages chroniccare patients will be adding
100 employees over the next
six months. Humana Cares/
SeniorBridge will also be expanding its 75,000-square-foot
national care center, adding
about 8,000 square feet. The
health insurer, is one of the
Tampa Bay region's largest
employers, with about 3,000
employees in the area.
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