[DC-2017] Tampa CommunityProfiles_01-25-2017

Photo courtesy of visittampabay.com
“America’s Next Greatest City,” that has already
established itself as more than just a beautiful, white sandy beach.
Welcome to Tampa
mover essentials
State of Florida Info
(850) 488-1234
myflorida.com
Vehicle Tags and
Driver’s License
(850) 617-2000
flhsmv.gov
Voter registration online at
election.dos.state.fl.us
City of Tampa
(813) 274-8396
tampagov.net
Greater Tampa Association
of REALTORS®
(813) 879-7010
gtar.org
Greater Tampa Chamber
of Commerce
(813) 228-7777
tampachamber.com
Tampa Bay & Company
(813) 223-1111
visittampabay.com
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CommunityProfiles
Published annually by:
Wieland Communications, Inc.
301 Bombay Lane
Roswell, GA 30076
Phone: (678) 319-4433
Email: Lou@CommunityProfiles.Info
Online: tampacommunityprofiles.com
By Camie Williams
Named “sticks of fire” by a Native American tribe, possibly
due to the natural displays that have led it to be dubbed the
Lightning Capital of the World, Tampa is a bustling business
center filled with entertainment and cultural options, bottled
up with the sunny, warm climate of a Florida beach community.
Located on Florida’s West Coast, bordering the Gulf of Mexico,
Tampa is a growing city of about 350,000 people, while the greater
bay community is home to nearly 3 million.
These days, the Tampa economy is quite diverse, spread across the
service, retail, finance, insurance, shipping, defense, tourism and
real estate industries. Fortune 1000 companies OSI Restaurant
Partners, WellCare, TECO Energy and Raymond James Financial
are headquartered in the Tampa Bay area, and many corporations
maintain regional offices in the community, which also houses
the main server farm for Wikipedia and other companies.
True to its beginnings as a frontier outpost, Tampa remains a
military town. Historic Fort Brooke (which became its own standalone
town for a time) remains a part of the history of Tampa,
currently housing the Tampa Bay History Center and Tampa
Convention Center. The military has moved to more modern
digs. MacDill Air Force Base employs more than 15,000 active
military, Department of Defense civil service, and contractors
in the bay area. The installation hosts the 6th Air Mobility Wing
and is home to U.S. Central Command headquarters, U.S. Special
Operations Command headquarters, the 927th Air Refueling
Wing, U.S. Marine Forces Central Command headquarters and
U.S. Special Operations Command Central headquarters, as well
as other active and reserve components of the military.
Among the bay area’s 20 hospitals are three ranked on US News
and World Report’s “America’s best hospitals” list. The University
of South Florida’s Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute is a prominent
research and care facility, and the area is also home to the H. Lee
Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute and the Pepin Heart
Institute. Tampa is also home to one of 22 Shriners Hospitals for
Children.
Tampa Bay has been a favorite location for sea travel and shipping
since the 16th century, growing into the seventh-largest port in
the country, handling nearly half of all seaborne commerce in
Florida. It is also the second-most-popular destination for cruise
ship travel in Florida, serving as a port of call for some of the
President and Publisher
Louis A. Wieland
Associate Publisher
Lynn Webb-Bettinger
Writers
Gwyneth Herbein
Ben Edwards
Camie Williams
Creative Director
Ray Knapp
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most popular cruise services, with ships traveling to Mexico,
Honduras, Belize, and Eastern and Western Caribbean Islands.
All throughout the year, Tampa has offerings for sports lovers.
If you count the NBA’s Orlando Magic, which plays about an
hour and a half away, the city has a team in every major league
sports league, including the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the
NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning and Major League Baseball’s Tampa
Bay Rays. Arena football’s Tampa Bay Storm and the Tampa Bay
Rowdies of the North American Soccer League also play in the
bay area, and several MLB teams conduct spring training in the
area. In addition, local colleges, including the University of South
Florida, the University of Tampa and Hillsborough Community
College, field teams in a variety of sports.
Among the city of Tampa’s 165 parks and beaches — and 42 more
in suburban Hillsborough County — is the Bro Bowl, the first
public skate park built in Florida, which opened in 1979.
Only in Tampa
One of the oldest attractions, the Tampa Theatre, has been
a symbol of Tampa’s arts and cultural imagination since
1926, hosting not only film festivals but concerts and other
performances, and even a popular summer film camp under
its faux starry sky. The ornate theater, designed to look like a
Mediterranean courtyard, has been recognized by Life Magazine
as one of “America’s 21 Wonders” and was recently named one of
the 10 best movie theaters in the world by The Motion Picture
Association of America.
Tampa is home to a wide variety of museums, including the
Museum of Science & Industry, the University of South Florida
Contemporary Art Museum, the Tampa Firefighters Museum
and the Henry B. Plant Museum, not to mention the World War
II Victory Ship museum, located on a permanently docked ship.
For fun, residents can visit Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, a theme
park that covers 335 acres. In addition to roller coasters, the park
is filled with African wildlife. Next door, Adventure Island is a
water park that allows families to have fun while beating the heat.
Visitors can enjoy more than 2,000 animals, rides and exhibits
at the Lowry Park Zoo, and the 250,000-square-foot Florida
Aquarium features more than 20,000 species of aquatic plants
and animals.
PERMISSIONS: Material in this publication may not be
reproduced without permission. Requests for permission
should be directed to Wieland Communications, Inc.
Dept. of Rights and Permissions, 301 Bombay Lane,
Roswell, GA 30076. Information in this publication is
based on authoritative data available through local
sources at the time of printing and is subject to change
without notice. Every effort has been made to ensure that
all information is accurate. However, some information is
subject to change after the magazine’s publication. We
regret any inconvenience this may create for our readers.
We welcome reader input and suggestions. @2014
Wieland Communications, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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