Roy Levy knew Tampa was a great spot for his Israel-based drone company’s new office.
"Being from Tampa [and] being from Florida adds a lot to who we are,” said Levy, the U.S. General Manager of XTEND.
XTEND is one of the nearly 500 international businesses that call Tampa home. And according to a report from the Financial Times and Nikkei, that home is the best spot for them.
The Financial Times named Tampa the top city in the country for foreign-owned businesses. Analyst Johnathan Vincent said the report considers seven categories.
This year, one of those is new.
"The final category we added this year was trade war resilience because [of] the sort of scale of disruption to the trading system and the tariffs imposed on foreign goods,” Vincent said.
He said Tampa is less reliant on foreign trade and it imports and exports less than other major cities
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Tampa Bay Economic Development Council chair Ron Christaldi said there’s a large variety among the international businesses in Tampa so when one industry is hit hard, another might not be – balancing out the overall impact of tariffs on the city’s economy.
"It gives us a strength, a resiliency that if trade with a particular entity in a particular country falters for some reason or if that country seems to have some economic trouble, we aren't as vulnerable to it,” he said.
But XTEND’s Roy Levy said his industry is seeing the prices for foreign-sourced drone parts fluctuate because of the volatile tariffs.
He said those make it harder for him to finalize additional contracts with the Department of Defense because he’ll be locked into a price for several years. He said the U.S. military could use the drones to scope out the insides of buildings, fly despite signal jamming and carry missiles.
"This is where we're going to need the administration, the government, the customer to work with us,” Levy said. “We want to bring the supply chain here."
He said some parts can’t be sourced from the Tampa Bay area or within the U.S. But other parts, like cameras, can be.
"I really need to rely as less as possible on those tariffs, on imports,” he said.
He added some of the locally-sourced parts he needs, like plastic or screws, are still more expensive than what he could buy abroad.
But he’s still happy XTEND found a home in Tampa.
XTEND’s new location, which opened in June, is close to MacDill Air Force Base and CENTCOM. He said Florida’s cooperation with federal policies and guidelines bodes well for local businesses.
“Being from Florida today is a good thing if you need stuff from the administration,” Levy said.
He added local and state governments are also supportive of businesses.
Christaldi said tensions abroad actually encourage people in Tampa to come together.
“It’s been very refreshing to watch the business community be cohesive and
concerted in an environment that sometimes is a little bit caustic,” he said.
And for Medability’s U.S. business manager Justin Grooms, the partnerships available in Tampa help his Germany-based company, which creates surgical simulators.
Grooms said he hopes to tap into the workforce talent at nearby universities, like the University of South Florida. Medability is also staying connected with USF Health, Tampa General Hospital and other practices in Tampa’s medical research community.
“We’re bringing more business here to Tampa and then also working with these large companies across the county and making Tampa a location that they want to come to to train with us,” Grooms said.
The Financial Times also considered workforce and talent for its report including the number of college graduates in the area, local universities and the unemployment rate.
Other categories, like the business environment, also attracted Patrik Hansson and his company, AquaFence, to the area this summer.
AquaFence gained popularity during last year’s hurricane season when its flood barrier protected Tampa General Hospital from Hurricane Helene’s seven-foot storm surge.
The partnerships with local businesses have made the Norway-based company’s move easier.
Hansson, the company’s chief revenue officer, said AquaFence hopes to move production to Tampa earlier than they planned to avoid increasing costs from tariffs and to cut down on delivery times for customers.
"I would say maybe the tariffs accelerated that decision a little bit," he said.
Hansson said the tariffs have not had a direct impact on AquaFence but could increase the cost of the fences.
"It's potentially a necessary evil, but at the same time, we're here to do business,” he said. “We're here to be a part of the community. We're here to help the community."
