TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa: it’s not as big as Atlanta, not as fun as Miami and not as sophisticated as Washington D.C.
But there’s something about Tampa that has millennials who grew up in the city coming back and starting their lives after leaving for more opportunities.
They’re called “Tampa boomerangers,” and now that they’re back in their hometown, they’re leaving their marks.
Preston Reid graduated from the University of Florida in 2007 and moved to Atlanta afterward to pursue more opportunities. Now he works as a real estate broker and says Tampa has a lot to offer.
Reid said when people talk about Tampa, they usually joked that their grandparents had a place somewhere in St. Pete.
Kasey Siegel was born and raised in Tampa. She left after she graduated high school and ended up in New York City after college. She said Tampa wasn’t offering her what she was looking for career-wise. But now, she and her family are back in Tampa.
“We wanted a little more square footage, to be frank. We wanted a better work-life balance. We started to see that there were a lot of big opportunities in Tampa,” Siegel said.
Now, she works at a role she never thought would have existed at Oxford Exchange.
Her husband, Nate, is also a Tampa native who is opening a new restaurant in North Hyde Park later this year.
Tyler Hudson is a real estate attorney. He says the Tampa he came back to in 2013 was different than the city he grew up in and left 10 years earlier.
Hudson said the Tampa he came back to was a much more exciting, eclectic place with more of an identity.
“It is the type of place where no matter where you come from, you can really make a big difference right away,” Hudson said.
Hudson wants to see Tampa improve its public transportation. He said he’d like to see more walkable communities and for more money to go into public transit.
Santiago C. Corrada, president and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, said there's no surprise the area was growing and appealing to younger people.
“We are thrilled to see the growth in popularity in Tampa Bay as a place where people want to live, work, and play,” Corrada said. “In 2013, we repositioned our Tampa Bay branding to better distinguish the destination as the hip, urban and cultural heart of Florida’s Gulf Coast – a place where treasure awaits. We’ve also partnered with the Economic Development Corporation and Hillsborough County’s Tourist Development Council on a talent attraction campaign - the Make It Tampa Bay initiative targets millennials and showcases Tampa Bay as a hotbed for job opportunities and new business creation.”
The Tampa boomerangers said a little pride goes a long way, and Tampa believed in itself again.
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