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Phosphate Giant To Build In FishHawk

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By MICHAEL SASSO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 10, 2008

TAMPA - Phosphate giant The Mosaic Co. said Wednesday that it is planning a new divisional headquarters building in the FishHawk Ranch area, where it will consolidate 400 jobs from across the area.

The company said it won't necessarily add workers, nor lay off any, as part of the consolidation. But its new headquarters should create a more central location for its Bay area employees and provide an office anchor for a community in the area planned by land developer Newland Communities, Mosaic said.
Mosaic has signed an agreement to buy 7.4 acres along FishHawk Boulevard from Newland, the developer of FishHawk Ranch, which is southeast of Brandon.

The company plans to build a 100,000-square-foot office building on the site to house administrative and management employees working for Mosaic's phosphate and supply chain units. Currently, those employees work in Mosaic's divisional headquarters in Mulberry and offices in Hillsborough and Polk counties.

Construction may begin in early 2009, with the building finished by early 2010. The company doesn't have a figure on the project's cost, said David Townsend, Mosaic's vice president of public affairs.

The location is roughly at the center of where company employees live in the two-county region, Townsend said. The new building will be on the south side of FishHawk Boulevard east of Bell Shoals Road.

The headquarters will anchor the office of a proposed Newland Communities housing and commercial development in the area. The development doesn't have a name, but had been known as Lake Hutto when it was owned by a different developer, Newland's vice president of marketing, Vaike O'Grady, said. Newland's project is approved for as many as 3,200 homes and up to 360,000 square feet of commercial space, O'Grady said.

Based in Minneapolis, Mosaic is one of the world's largest phosphate mining and fertilizer companies, with revenue of more than $5.8 billion last year.

It employs 7,000 people worldwide, including 3,000 in its Florida phosphate unit.

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at msasso@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7865.

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