MetLife's redone Tampa office aims to create a better workspace

The company's updated space is geared toward creating a more collaborative experience for workers and a place for the company to hawk its wares.

By Louis Llovio
| 5:00 a.m. February 4, 2025

Ashley Gurges and Lisa Daniell sitting at a desk in MetLife's new, revamped space.

Tampa Bay-Lakeland

Late last year, MetLife’s Tampa office unveiled a redesign of its space designed to brings employees together and enable what the company says is a modern way of working.

The project included more open spaces and areas to huddle, quiet and wellness rooms, more natural light and clearer views of an adjacent lake and nature preserves.

There are also a number of spaces with heightened technology, as well as additional common areas and a new multi-purpose room.

Nice. Right?

Jamie Granese, a senior vice president for investments and finance and MetLife’s Tampa Site Lead, says the goal is to create an “employee-centered workplace experience” that enables employees to work together.

The insurance company employs about 2,000 people in the area. Its office is at 18219 Crane Nest Drive.

Jamie Granese is a senior vice president for investments and finance and MetLife’s Tampa Site Lead.

“Through these first several months, we’re already seeing the impact of the new space in more effective employee collaboration and elevating the office culture,” Granese says.

But the new space is not all about employees.

The upgraded space includes a first-of-its-kind Customer Experience Center offering what the company calls an immersive experience that shows the impact MetLife has on the community.

It showcases the company’s history, products and services through artifacts, digital screens and an immersive presentation space, MetLife says.

Granese offers some advice for any company that may be thinking about redoing its office space.

“When reimagining a space,” he says, “consider how best to incorporate all dimensions of the workplace experience to create an inclusive, healthy and purposeful space that prioritizes the well-being of your employees.”

MetLife employees Patricia Spychala, Danielle Southard, Monika Dau and Michael Bravo meet in the new Customer Experience Center, an immersive experience highlighting the impact MetLife through the company’s history, products and services through artifacts, digital screens, and an immersive presentation space.

LaVonna Webb and Jen Fantauzzo in a collaboration area, where employees can gather, collaborate and work on ideas away from their desks in the various open collaboration areas. The idea is to allow employees to come together in a more relaxed setting that can stimulate discussion, new ways of thinking, and build stronger connections, MetLife says.

The library, a space was designed to encourage quiet reflection or a chance for small groups to find a quiet space to work together. The design helps bring about a more community-oriented work culture, MetLife says.

Employee Desean Lewis in a focus room which give employees a private space, enabling them to work on a time sensitive tasks, take virtual meetings or have a confidential discussions with a customer or colleague. The rooms also offer space when employees need time to generate ideas in a quieter setting.

MEtLife's new Customer Experience Center.

Ellen Linky, MetLife employee, works in a focus room which give employees a private space, enabling them to work on a time sensitive tasks, take virtual meetings or have a confidential discussions with a customer or colleague.

MetLife's Anna Bourtman and Christina Saccomanno in a collaboration area, where employees can gather, collaborate and work on ideas away from their desks.

author

Louis Llovio

Louis Llovio is the deputy managing editor at the Business Observer. Before going to work at the Observer, the longtime business writer worked at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Maryland Daily Record and for the Baltimore Sun Media Group. He lives in Tampa.