MetLife to add 430 jobs at expanded Tampa campus (Average wage of $74,561 in Florida)

The Tampa Bay Times ^ | November 6, 2017 | Richard Danielson

[2ndDivisionVet]

TAMPA — MetLife plans to add 430 new jobs and spend $25 million upgrading its existing campus in New Tampa, the nonprofit Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp. announced Friday.

The company has committed to hire for a range of new positions that will pay an average of at least $74,561 a year, according to city and county records. That’s 150 percent of Hillsborough County’s average private sector wage.

MetLife, whose arrival in the 1970s raised Tampa’s national profile as a potential landing spot for corporate expansions and relocations, already has more than 1,500 employees in Tampa.

The company will be expanding its campus on Cranes Nest Drive in the Highwoods Preserve business park, said Tony R. Varnon, the company’s vice president for global communications. Most of the positions to be created will be in MetLife’s global technology and operations organization.

The state of Florida, Hillsborough County and Tampa agreed to provide a total of $2.58 million in tax refunds to facilitate MetLife’s plans.

Of that, 80 percent, or $2.064 million, will come from the state. The city and county will each contribute $258,000. Before Hillsborough County commissioners voted to approve the incentive package on Oct. 4, their staff told them the company had alternative sites available in other states and had made receiving the incentives "a condition for further consideration of locating its expansion" in Hillsborough.

The incentives are scheduled to be paid beginning in 2019 and ending in 2025, according to county records. The money won’t be paid until "after the jobs have been created" and "the people have been hired at the wages that were promised," EDC spokeswoman Michelle Bauer said....

[petercooper]

bttt

[Deplorable American1776]

Another expansion for a Tampa company. Great job, Florida!!