Tampa Electric to build and move to new HQ building

Tampa Electric is moving out of its downtown headquarters and into a to-be built 17-story office building in the Midtown Tampa development.

Construction on the new building, which according to a company spokeswoman will cost between $230 million and $250 million, is set to begin early next year, and the company expects to move more than 900 employees into the new space in 2025. Tampa Electric will own 11 stories of the tower which will be called Midtown East.

Tampa Electric says it looked at “multiple locations” before landing on Midtown Tampa. It chose the property because it is inland and away from the potential flood areas and because construction will meet “modern codes and efficiency standards with significantly improved hurricane resiliency.”

Archie Collins, the company’s president and CEO, says in the statement the new “location will be situated on higher ground and readily accessible to employees at all times, including during storm response, which is an important part of our service to customers.

“This is an investment in resiliency, allowing us to continue to reliably serve our customers as we strive to provide power that’s always on.”

The company announced the decision Dec. 9.

For Tampa Electric, the move is a return to its roots of sorts. The company’s headquarters were about a mile south at the corner of Dale Mabry and Kennedy Boulevard for 25 years before it moved to its current downtown location in 1981.

The company’s lease at the downtown location, 702 N. Franklin St., expires in 2025.

Midtown is a 23-acre, 1.8-million-square-foot, $1 billion development on North Dale Mabry Highway. It is made up of offices, apartments, hotels, restaurants and retailers REI and Whole Foods. Kforce, the Tampa-based publicly traded technology staffing company, opened its new headquarters building in the development in November.