Tribune Supports Poaching for Downtown

The Tribune editorial today recommends support for Jeff Vinik poaching of MOSI from the USF area to downtown Tampa.

Moving the Museum of Science and Industry from its location near the University of South Florida’s main campus to downtown Tampa is an appealing prospect on a number of fronts.

The move would boost MOSI’s attendance by exposing it to more people. Tampa’s downtown would benefit from having another attraction. And the nearly 80 acres of county-owned land where the museum now sits could be marketed to private companies wanting to benefit from being near USF and the Moffitt Cancer Center and James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital.

This is precious. The Tribune has supported the relocation of the USF Medical School to downtown Tampa away from Moffitt and Haley. Keeping USF Medical near other medical research institutions in the USF area would make too much sense I guess. They would rather gamble with MOSI on the hope of Vinikville and an unknown private company to rescue the USF area.

If the move were to happen, MOSI would join two other educational institutions in the Channel District, the Florida Aquarium and the Tampa Bay History Center. And it would be near the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, the Tampa Museum of Art and Glazer Children’s Museum. Together, those facilities have established downtown as a center for culture and entertainment offerings in the Tampa Bay area.

We've heard the same story about downtown again and again. Build this educational, cultural, or entertainment venue downtown, and magic will happen. It's so important, we have to subsidize all these investments with your tax dollars from the local, state, and federal level.

MOSI Imax Theater

All these downtown investments receive some subsidies from local, state and/or federal government:

• Straz Center for the Performing Arts
• Tampa History Museum
• Tampa Museum of Art
• Glazer's Children's Museum
• Riverwalk
• Tampa Convention Center
• Tampa Theater
• Florida Aquarium
• Several parks
• Tampa Streetcar

Yet we need more? Yes, as MOSI receives it's share of subsides as well.

With all the investment in these attractions, is it really working to draw the crowds into downtown? Apparently not, as now they need MOSI to make it work.

If the current MOSI property can be marketed to recruit private companies and result in some great benefit, why can't we do that for Vinikville?  Vinik has stated as much, yet neither he nor anyone else has yet been successful in the mission to draw more private sector, taxpaying business into downtown. So now their plan is poach local business and attractions into their kingdom.

The land along East Fowler Avenue where MOSI sits is owned by Hillsborough County, which could benefit by having a private company move onto the land and generate jobs and tax revenue. A tech company moving into the neighborhood would be a bonus for the Tampa Innovation Alliance, a nonprofit that is working under the guidance of former County Commissioner Mark Sharpe to rejuvenate the area around USF and Busch Gardens.

Moving MOSI to even more expensive land downtown will somehow recoup more tax revenue? Show your math on that one, please.

By the way, former County Commissioner Sharpe's Tampa Innovation Alliance is expected to receive a $1.5 million subsidy from the state too.

Much remains to be worked out. Moving an institution of that size is a major undertaking. But the move could signal a new beginning for MOSI and for the neighborhood being left behind. And it would add another intriguing piece to the Channel District’s transformation.

Not to mention the taxpayers, who surely will be asked to pay for the move, just like they are with USF Medical.

It's part of their plan for you to pay and pay and pay.

More Vinik poaching?

The downtown proponents seem to be having a hard time making the case for their vision of what downtown Tampa should be. They've not shown much success in recruiting outside businesses to relocate downtown. Most that are moving in plan to move into Westshore or elsewhere in the county.

They've already poached the USF Medical school to relocate substantial operations at higher costs to downtown as an anchor tenant of Vinikville, rather than grow in place at USF. As we've discussed before (here and here), this is at best a net zero economic benefit for Hillsborough County to relocate from one part of the county to another.  I recently talked to a very senior Tampa medical leader, and he and most medical professionals continue to see this move as big boondoggle.

Vinik tried to recruit Syniverse to relocate is HQ from New Tampa to Vinikville.  But Syniverse refused, citing quality of life concerns from its highly paid staff.  Sources told us employees reacted quite negatively, started a petition drive, and management quickly backed off.

Now Vinik is going after MOSI?

The billion-dollar neighborhood Jeff Vinik is building downtown may well end up having a notable new addition: MOSI.

Hillsborough County officials confirm they are in advanced talks with Vinik about how to move the now-struggling Museum of Science and Industry from its present site on Fowler Avenue to somewhere in the 40-plus-acre area Vinik is redeveloping on the waterfront downtown.

If successful, the plan would add yet another major attraction to a downtown area that’s already flourishing with new hotel and residential development.

MOSI IMAX Theater

Do Vinik and the downtown proponents not have a real business plan besides poaching existing businesses and facilities to relocate from one part of the county to another? There is no clear win-win here. Any benefit for downtown is offset by the losses from where they came. At best, this is a zero sum game for the county.

We are wasting our time and monies for nothing, other than to sooth the egos of the downtown proponents.

“I think it’s a tremendous opportunity obviously,” County Administrator Michael Merrill said in an interview. “Obviously there are a lot of details to be worked out ... . But I think the opportunity to be part of the transformation of what’s happening downtown would seem to be the opportunity of a lifetime.”

They don't get it.  Merrill has fiduciary responsibility for the entire county, not just downtown. It's not Hillsborough County's job to continue to subsidize and pick winners and losers across the county.

MOSI has issues -- outdated facilities, wasted space, red ink, annual subsidies of $585,915 from the county, etc. But there is no reason to assume that moving to downtown will magically fix what ails MOSI, nor that the problems cannot be fixed in the current location.

It's not as if the Florida Aquarium in downtown Tampa has been an overwhelming success over the years. While it's recently doing better, it always receives annual operating subsidies from the city of Tampa, currently nearly $500,000. The city still pays $6.7 million annually on the $84 million construction debt, payments that will continue until 2027. The county chips in another $307,135 per year.

Has anyone asked the questions around moving yet another tax exempt organization to downtown Tampa and the impact on the tax revenues?  Taxable property values downtown are increasing, but how does relocating MOSI downtown from its perfectly suitable current location benefit the county?

Vinik has received a ton of favorable and uncritical press. Many of our local political leaders seem to blindly support whatever he wants.  But his vision is still just a vision.  Beyond buying some downtown land and adjoining properties such as the Marriott, his major success to date is poaching the USF Medical School. We do give him credit for improving the Lightning and Amalie Arena.

Now he's trying to replicate that poaching strategy again.

Recruiting a corporate HQ is high on Viniks priorities.

I suggest Vinik work harder to recruit corporate candidates for downtown Tampa outside of Hillsborough County.  That way, everyone in the county benefits, not just him.