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Tampa Business Groups Hold A Meeting Dominated By Polk County

Posted Apr 12, 2007 by Billy Townsend

Updated Apr 12, 2007 at 05:00 PM

If you want a measure of the state of the local logistics/shipping industry in Polk County, consider this. The Port of Tampa and Tampa Bay Partnership held a very well-attended meeting/panel discussion Wednesday dubbed: “Tampa Bay Distribution Center Site Selection Workshop.”

The point was to highlight for various industry players the distribution business opportunities in Tampa Bay. All they talked about was Polk County.

Well, that’s a slight exaggeration. They also spent a few minutes talking about how the port sees itself tapping into the growing Polk distribution market.

It was different from the many government meetings reporters tend to attend. This meeting was made by, for and of men and women looking to make money in warehousing and shipping. To the extent that quality of life, planning and regulatory questions were raised at all it was in the context of the hurdles they cause for developers. Don’t misunderstand. There’s nothing wrong with that. These were business people, not elected officials. Their jobs are to exploit opportunities. But it was unique perspective, nonetheless. 

Two of four featured speakers had direct ties to the Polk logistics industry. One was George Livingston, chairman of NAI Realvest. He was the consultant CSX hired to find a site for the new logistics center in Winter Haven. He said the company gave a north and south limit for possible sites and some specifications, and he came up with the location just north of State Road 60. 

He also had glowing things to say about Polk’s economic development officials and local governments and the cooperation they give developers.

“All of the people in Polk County go out of their way to help you,” Livingston said.

The other was Bruce Abels, president of Lakeland’s Saddle Creek Corp., a major trucking and storage company. He gave a fascinating talk about Polk’s shipping industry. And he expressed some uncertainty about the economic success of the Winter Haven logistics center and whether it will be good for Tampa’s port, given Florida’s market patterns and the lack of a good intermodal container rail link with the port.

He had a power point slide labeled: “CSX Center: A Solution Or A Puzzle.” In the end, Abels said he expects the center will work, for this basic reason: “CSX isn’t stupid.”

One other thing Abels said bears on CSX and the 1,150 daily truck trips it’s expected to produce. In assessing the state of Polk’s road system, he said most highways function pretty well. But he added, “I don’t know how much [S.R.] 60 on the stretch between Polk County and Yee Haw Junction [where it meets the Florida Turnpike] can take.”

I asked Abels if that mostly two-lane stretch of road is the prime truck route from Polk County to the urban areas of South Florida.

He said it is and added that his company often sends its own trucks on that route.  Ron Morrow, head of the East Polk Committee of 100, also attended Wednesday’s meeting. He said he thinks the S.R. 60 traffic won’t be that bad because many trucks will use U.S. 27 to get to South Florida.