Spotlight On: Bemetra Simmons, President & CEO, Tampa Bay Partnership

Key points:

• Tampa Bay is sustaining strong in-migration while addressing affordability, mobility, and housing supply pressures.

• The Partnership is using data and regional coordination to advance transportation, housing, and workforce solutions.

• Scaling successful initiatives across counties is central to the region’s long-term competitiveness.

January 2026 — Invest: sat down with Bemetra Simmons, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Partnership, to discuss how the region is managing rapid growth while staying focused on fundamentals: housing affordability, efficient mobility, and a stronger talent pipeline. Simmons described the Partnership’s role as a neutral, data-driven convener that helps scale what works across an eight-county footprint. “Tampa Bay is still a magnet for people and for business investment,” Simmons said.

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What key changes over the past year have most impacted the Tampa Bay Partnership, and in what ways?

A lot of exciting things have happened in the last year, and I’ll name a few.

First is our relationship with the Tampa Bay Regional Infrastructure Accelerator Office (RIA). The City of Tampa received a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Build America Bureau, and this will help accelerate transportation and transit projects in the three-county Tampa Bay region, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas.

The Partnership was brought in to be the regional convener, making sure agencies and employers understand what RIA is, what projects can unlock, and how to engage. If we can bring transportation projects to life faster through, for instance, innovative financing tools, that has real implications for how people move around the region and how employers plan for growth. We also intend to apply for the next grant cycle, so this is not a one-time effort.

Secondly, the Partnership has made progress in addressing housing affordability. We received a grant from the Duke Energy Foundation to create a qualitative report and heard from over100 stakeholders, from developers and bankers to nonprofit and public leaders, and residents. We called it “Beyond the Front Door”, and the report gave us clearer insight into what residents and employers are experiencing, and what challenges are most acute.

Third is a first-of-its-kind housing needs assessment for the region. It identifies gaps in housing stock by county and product type and connects that to what different jobs and wage levels can realistically afford. It also looks at what is in the development pipeline and what would be needed to close any funding gaps to achieve those developments. We have completed that work and plan to share the findings early in the first quarter, with the goal of building a regional action plan that local leaders can actually use.

We also continue to focus on opportunity youth, young people ages 16 to 24 who are not working and not enrolled in school. We have been convening partners across the region to better understand where these young people are, what barriers they face, and what it will take to reconnect them to education, credentials, and livable-wage jobs. The Tampa Bay Partnership has also secured support to study county-led approaches and national best practices, so we can bring back recommendations that are realistic for Tampa Bay’s scale and geography.

How is the Tampa Bay Partnership supporting workforce development and talent attraction, and what makes Tampa Bay an ideal place for this talent?

Talent is essential for our region, and we track it through an annual comparison with peer markets. The good news is, as of the 2025 Regional Competitiveness Report,we are No. 1 in net migration for the second year in a row, and we are continuing to  see strong net in-migration for 24- to 34-year-olds.
With that, we have to keep strengthening the conditions that help people stay and build a life here. Affordability is a major part of that. The Partnership has been working with public leaders on policies that help reduce barriers to work, including approaches that encourage employers to support child care needs, from on-site options to vouchers or flexibility. 

We also watch affordability indicators closely. On average, for every dollar Tampa Bay residents earned, they were spending about 57 cents on transportation and housing; that has eased slightly to 55 cents, but it’s still significant and reinforces why housing and mobility remain top priorities for the region.

The long-term talent pipeline is also an area of focus. We have seen improvement in early learning indicators, including kindergarten readiness, enrollment for 3- and 4-year-olds, and third-grade reading levels. Those measures matter because they connect to future workforce outcomes, including high school graduation rates, and long-term economic success. In other words, if we want a stronger workforce five and 10 years from now, support needs to start much earlier than most people assume.

What key economic or business trends are you seeing across Tampa Bay right now?

Tampa Bay is still a magnet for people and for business investment. We have seen average wages grow by about $2,500 annually over the last three years, which is encouraging.

At the same time, growth increases complexity. The Partnership is working on the practical pieces that shape day-to-day competitiveness, such as striving to reduce commuting costs by adding more mobility options. Another example would be setting the groundwork to add more housing supply, or to improve economic prosperity by helping employers connect workers to credentials and training resources that move them into higher-wage roles. We spend a lot of time convening leaders so they understand what tools already exist, like state-level education and training resources, and where policy changes could make the biggest difference.

What are the biggest challenges facing the Tampa Bay region?

Two challenges rise to the top: creating additional higher-wage jobs for residents and solving transportation and transit. Growth is pushing people farther from job centers, and cross-county commutes are now a defining feature of the region.

We need options beyond everyone driving alone. One major step would be stronger regional coordination on planning. We have eight counties and seven transportation planning organizations, which makes it difficult to plan for a connected economy when decisions are made through separate county lenses. Evaluating a more unified planning approach could be a game changer and help unlock additional state and federal resources tied to regional-scale planning. We are hopeful that the Tri-County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) comes to fruition to play this role.

How would you describe the Tampa Bay Partnership’s role evolving in the broader regional ecosystem?

We’re a coalition of C-suite leaders across business and the nonprofit community, representing more than 40 investing companies and about 120,000 jobs across the region. Our job is to bring the right people into the same room, keep the focus on the most pressing regional issues, and use data to measure progress.
I played point guard in college, and I think of this role the same way. Organizations are not on the “Tampa team” or the “St. Pete team.” That’s the position you play. In reality, we are allon Team Tampa Bay. 

The Tampa Bay Partnership’s role is to create alignment, reduce silos, and help scale solutions that work in one county across the rest of the region. Progress and well being should not depend on your ZIP code.

What are your top goals and priorities for the next two to three years?

We want to keep driving regional alignment and stay data-driven, with a long-term perspective that supports a regional action plan. We also want organizations to act on our research and move from insight to implementation.

We have seen that happen in tangible ways, including youth-serving organizations reshaping how they reconnect young people to opportunity, employers strengthening internship and training pathways, and public partners expanding programs that lead to livable-wage jobs. The goal is for more of those examples to spread, so the region can scale what works, attract and retain talent, and make measurable progress on the outcomes that matter most.

Want more? Read the Invest: Tampa Bay report.