Foot Locker Leaves NYC, Signs HQ Lease In Tampa Bay
Foot Locker Inc. has leased 111K SF in St. Petersburg, Florida, for its new headquarters.
The footwear and apparel retail company with about 2,500 national locations will take residence in The Feil Organization’s Class-A office building at 570 Carillon Parkway, giving up its former New York City HQ as part of a move first announced last year.
Foot Locker secured nearly $500K in incentives from St. Pete and Pinellas County for the move, which is expected in the latter half of this year, Business Observer reported.
“When a Fortune 500 company relocates its headquarters, its leadership, and its team members to the Tampa Bay region, it’s an investment in the promise of St. Pete’s culture, workforce, and local economy,” St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said in a news release.
The move aligns with Foot Locker’s 2023-announced “Lace Up” plan, which includes simplifying operations and shuttering over 400 underperforming stores.
The Feil Organization’s 250K SF 570 Carillon is within the Gateway Business District, an area in North St. Pete near Old Tampa Bay. The five-story office building is between major thoroughfares, including Interstate 275, which leads to Tampa.
Foot Locker will create more than 150 jobs in the region, Welch said in a prior release. The company already has a large concentration of employees in the St. Pete market, Foot Locker CEO Mary Dillon said in an earnings call.
“We think it's a great place for us to continue to grow and do business and continue to attract top talent,” Dillon said during the call. “We will maintain a limited presence only in New York ... We think this is going to continue to give us better opportunities, both for further collaboration across the business, and there's some financial benefit over time as well.”
Foot Locker will be the third Fortune 500 company based in St. Petersburg, joining Jabil and Raymond James, and the fourth in Pinellas County.
It is also the second major office lease announced in the Tampa Bay area within a week. Insurance giant Geico finalized an agreement for a 190K SF, three-building office campus in Tampa late last week. The lease should bring more than 1,000 new jobs to the region.
But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. The Tampa Bay Rays this month backed out of plans to build a $1.3B baseball stadium in the city, citing “a series of events” that started with damage to the team’s existing stadium from Hurricane Milton in October.
The team first halted its new stadium plans in November after it said officials in Pinellas County failed to approve bonds to offset the cost in a timely manner.
