MULBERRY
"Crossroads to the Future of Central Florida"
STRATEGICALLY SITUATED at the crossroads of Tampa's dynamic eastward expansion and Lakeland's fast paced southern growth, is the town of Mulberry, Florida.
Mulberry is the sort of friendly small town where everyone knows your name, someone always remembers your birthday and, and as yet no one has to pay the inflated prices of Florida's inner-city real estate to start or relocate a business.
And what a place to do business…Mulberry is right in the heart of one of the fastest growing areas of the country. A scant 30 miles to the west on State Road 60 is Tampa, a city which boasts one of the finest airports in the country; major league football; performing arts center; symphony; the largest museum of science and industry south of Chicago and west of Washington,D.C.; two universities; the seventh largest port in the nation, and a phenomenal projected growth rate, to name just a few of its assets.
Bordering Mulberry to the north on State Road 37 is Lakeland, with the world's largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture at Florida Southern College; the winter playing fields of the Detroit Tigers; the headquarters of Publix, Florida's largest supermarket chain, and the Watson Clinic, one of the best multi-specialty medical facilities in the nation.
And, within an easy drive for the day's outing, are the beaches and the attractions-Walt Disney World, Bok Tower, Cypress Gardens, Busch Gardens, Sea World, the Florida Aquarium, and Silver Springs.
Industry is no stranger here and we welcome more. Phosphate mining and processing is the state's third largest industry, and Mulberry is the official Phosphate Capital of the World. The mines around Mulberry supply 80% of the nations and a third of the world's demand for the essential fertilizer ingredient. International Minerals & Chemical (IMC Phosphates), the largest phosphate producer in the world, as well as Cargill Fertilizer, Inc., the largest privately held, family owned company worldwide are among corporate phosphate neighbors. Master Containers, Inc., the largest foam cup and container plant headquartered in Florida, is another corporation that proudly calls Mulberry home.
Mulberry is also the home town of the giant Badcock Home Furniture & more; headquarters for 356 stores located throughout the South. The Company's, W. Frank Lunsford Distribution Center, is located at 201 Kid Ellis Road, Mulberry, Florida 33860.
A Word About Our History…
In the early 1880's, the area that is now Mulberry was sparsely settled territory forested with longleaf yellow pine. Logging was the principal industry, and the area was only a sawmill site. The district had no name and train crews put off passengers and mail at a Mulberry tree beside the railroad tracks. Accounts differ as to the date the discovery of phosphate in Florida triggered the "boom years," but by the early 1890's the state was clearly in the grip of "phosphate fever." So many shipments of prospectors' supplies were marked "Put off at the mulberry tree" that a depot was built next to the tree and named, of course, Mulberry.
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