Paying Off

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. has begun constructing the final office building in its 32-acre MetWest International corporate park in the Westshore area of Tampa, bringing full circle an investment the giant insurer made three decades ago.

The 10-story building, which will be anchored by consulting and accounting firm PwC, represents one of the first new office buildings to be built in the Tampa area since 2012.

Even more significantly, the building will be the first in the wake of last decade's economic recession to contain any substantive speculative, uncommitted office space — an inclusion that will test the market's strength amid robust absorption and a dearth of new construction.