For all the high-profile attention rightfully focused on downtown–from the infilling of the Riverwalk and the repurposing of property for hotels to CAMLS and concerts–there is no better piece of catalytic news for this city than what’s happening over at the Port of Tampa.
As has become evident, the future of this critical cog in Tampa’s economic growth is in diversification to more (containerized), job-generating general cargo. That’s how Tampa will realize its potential as the true gateway to Latin America. That’s the course it’s obviously charting.
To that end, earlier this month the port authority board approved an incentive agreement with Mediterranean Shipping Co. That means the world’s second largest shipping container line will be helping to sell Tampa. And what helped to sell MSC on Tampa was the relative success of the incumbent Zim Integrated Shipping Services, the recently completed rail loop that enables containers to be off-loaded directly from ships to trains, and the I-4 Connector now nearing completion.
No less notable, however, the Port Authority got its man, new CEO Paul Anderson, who used to run the port of Jacksonville. By all accounts, that’s a marketing-and-sales coup and worth the Florida-top dollar he’s being paid–if only for his political connections. He officially started last week. And it’s hardly coincidental that Raul Alfonso is coming aboard next month as chief commercial officer. He was previously director of trade development and global marketing at Jaxport. Before that he oversaw Latin American trade and cargo containers at the Port of Miami. He’s fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese.
Timing was critical. Tampa has been container-challenged forever.
According to the American Association of Port Authorities, the Port of Tampa ranks 45th in the country with slightly less than 40,000 containers handled in 2011. It ranked 6th in Florida behind Panama City (42,000), Palm Beach (212,000), Port Everglades (881,000), Jacksonville (900,000) and Miami (907,000). The top-ranked container port in the U.S. is Los Angeles (7.9 million).