Office space in Darryl Shaw's Collaborative Werx will be tailored to defense industry
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Mar 30, 2022

When the CEO of Tampa-based Iron EagleX Inc. needs to respond to a sensitive email, he has no choice but to board a plane to Washington, D.C., where his office space has specialized, secure technology infrastructure.

That's why Michael Grochol is a partner in the office portion of Collaborative Werx, a mixed-use project that Ybor City developer Darryl Shaw has proposed next to Coppertail Brewing Co. Collaborative Werx is not part of Gas Worx, the Ybor City district that Shaw is developing in partnership with D.C.-based Kettler.

Hensel Phelps and Gensler are the design-build team on the project; Ginger Gelsheimer, director of office services at Colliers Tampa Bay, is overseeing the leasing. Grochol said the team hopes to open the building by early 2024.

The 120,000 square feet of office space in Collaborative Werx will cater to Tampa's defense industry, with options ranging from as small as individual workstations to full office suites and coworking and collaboration space.

In addition to Grochol's financial backing, Iron EagleX will be a tenant in the building. He's leasing enough space for 20 to 30 people.

"I was the guinea pig and the first official tenant to go through the process," Grochol said, "so we've really collaborated to streamline that process as much as possible."

Collaborative Werx, Grochol said, is a "game-changer" for Tampa Bay's burgeoning defense sector — for both MacDill Air Force Base and the defense contractors who work with the base. But it's also a major economic development play that Grochol is betting will bring more high-earning jobs to the Tampa Bay area.

"A lot more small- to medium-sized businesses could move more employees to Tampa," he said. "It would allow us to move more than a dozen jobs to Tampa, and there are lots of companies like us, so that's obviously a huge benefit to the economy."