Marine and food need separate Tampa packets
Write marine, food, metal, or devices before you write St. Petersburg. Marine coatings hide a different Phase I story than food wash-down. They share Florida cells. They do not share slots, hull certificates, or inventory aging.
Buy a manufacturing business is the nationwide pillar. This page is a Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater overlay on the Florida buy page. Florida’s CBP 2023 file — 14,341 shops, 358,707 jobs, 25.0 average — is the only establishment print this page will quote (Source: Census CBP). 79.2% of that file sits under twenty people. 0.56% sits at 500-plus. Do not invent a Pinellas or Hillsborough shop count. BLS CES exists; this site does not print a CES cell.
How it works still puts returns before a Pinellas tour. The sell page is the owner’s voice. Buyers comparing Florida’s other locked overlays can read Miami or Orlando. The city directory keeps the slug honest.
Pinellas occupancy is a 504 fact
SBA 504 for plants and heavy equipment is an occupancy product on a named bay. Combined capacity is $5 million, or $5.5 million on a qualifying small-manufacturer project (Source: SBA). A warehouse you will not occupy dies. A Clearwater lease with three years left is not a St. Petersburg purchase.
| Bay you named | Occupancy sentence that belongs in the LOI | Packet that is not the other bay’s |
|---|---|---|
| Pinellas marine | Own, lease, or haul-out access | Eastern Hillsborough food |
| Eastern Hillsborough | Occupied plant versus cold storage | Marine coatings |
| St. Petersburg | Who holds the dock | A causeway slogan |
| Clearwater | Term and options | Pinellas marine certificates |
HedgeStone will not spend seller goodwill on a Pinellas-to-Hillsborough search without a process line, a size band, a concentration ceiling, and a capital path.
Write the buybox as if marine and food were different letters, because they are. Process, size band, certificates, concentration ceiling, real-estate stance, capital path, and haul-out or sanitation access. “Any Tampa manufacturer” is none of those lines. Pinellas marine and eastern Hillsborough food can share a causeway and still need different QoE scopes. St. Petersburg and Clearwater can share the same causeway and still need named occupancy. HedgeStone will not send a radius dump from Pinellas to Hillsborough. Returns still come before a tour. Serials still come before a walk. The peg still comes before exclusivity.
Can eastern Hillsborough food live in 7(a)?
The plant lives in 7(a) if the numbers fit, not because Florida’s average is 25.0. SBA 7(a) for manufacturing acquisitions still caps at $5 million with a 10% injection. A seller note on full standby can fill only half of that cash hole. Do not treat a Clearwater marine certificate as equity.
Valuation stays on national size bands. BizBuySell printed a 2.75x manufacturing SDE median. Staff QoE and a Phase I against the review’s 223-day median. That number is not a Clearwater close date. IBBA’s Q1 2026 print that 83% of deals over $5 million drew three or more offers explains crowding on rare large files. It is not a Gulf turn.
This research file does not publish a Tampa wage series. Read national BLS OEWS May 2025 medians — machinist $58,750, welder $53,750 — then price the plant’s actual burdened labor (Source: BLS OEWS).
Florida’s table lists mini-WARN N. Federal WARN can still apply at 100 full-time employees and 60 days if you later cut a Pinellas shop. Do not invent a headcount.
Writing the Tampa buybox
Name marine or food first. Write the earnings number and whether you will occupy Pinellas dirt. A 25.0-person average and a 79.2% under-20 share describe a small-shop map. They do not describe every teaser.
A Pinellas marine coating bay and an eastern Hillsborough wash-down still get Phase I under ASTM E1527-21 (Source: EPA / 40 C.F.R. Part 312). Florida’s transfer cell is N. That missing statute is not a skip. Components generally stale after 180 days. They do not share a scope.
Write the peg before anyone counts. Name raw, WIP, finished, consigned, and customer-owned tools. Food hides code dates. Marine hides unfinished jobs and owned tooling. Put the method in the LOI. Serials and the UCC search before anyone walks a St. Petersburg bay. Order FMV, OLV, and FLV as three numbers. Concentration above about 25–30% of sales is still structure.
License cell and the engagement
Florida lists brokerage Y for business enterprises. If the engagement required a license and lacked it, counsel should say so before you rely on the CIM. Jason Taken is a business broker. The deed is a separate card.
MfgEx / Occ and the F successor cell still sit on a Pinellas close. A Florida CPA writes those sentences. Form of deal is counsel’s file.
ISM’s August 2026 PMI of 54.6 and Fed G.17 July 2026 capacity utilization of 76.0% describe the year. They do not underwrite a Pinellas whale.
HedgeStone will not invent listings against the 14,341-shop file. We will not merge marine and food because the teaser used a causeway. We will not send a letter the 7(a) box cannot carry on a 25.0-person backdrop.
A Pinellas marine shop whose haul-out access is a handshake is not a 504 plant. Write the lessor, the remaining term, and what happens if the yard will not novate. Eastern Hillsborough food does not inherit that paragraph because it shares a causeway. Clearwater leases are a different paragraph. Do not merge them into “Tampa Bay industrial.”
Marine coatings and food wash-down need different Phase I scopes. A rec list on a hull-adjacent bay is not a rec list on a sanitation floor. Budget the study before exclusivity. If you will not move, write the drive from St. Petersburg to eastern Hillsborough. If you will, write who programs the first Monday.
ABL dies when the exam kicks food WIP or unfinished marine jobs. Equipment debt dies on a hidden UCC. Seller paper dies when it is standby theater. Occupied Pinellas dirt can use 504; a warehouse you will not occupy cannot. When cleaned working capital plus the iron floor sits next to asking EV, stop paying for a Gulf story. Fourteen thousand three hundred forty-one Florida shops do not hide a whale, and this page will not invent a Tampa subset of that file.
The 90 days after the wire are floor work. Keep the people who quote. Lock the accounts you underwrote. Count inventory again. Confirm haul-out or sanitation leads still run. Put maintenance on a calendar. A 25.0-person average is a Florida backdrop. It is not a city headcount you can assume from a causeway photograph.
Form of deal is counsel’s file. An asset purchase on a Pinellas marine book can drop unknown liabilities and can also force new quality listings. A stock purchase can keep haul-out contracts and keep every liability stapled to them. Florida’s enterprise-license cell sits on the engagement, not on a Gulf slogan. Jason Taken is a business broker. Tampa files still need counsel, a CPA, a lender, and qualified environmental and M&E professionals. Nothing here is a guarantee.
A written capital path still belongs in the same memo as marine versus food. If 7(a) cannot carry enterprise value plus fees plus the peg, say so before a searcher spends a quarter on a Pinellas tour. If 504 cannot attach because you will not occupy eastern Hillsborough dirt, say that too. Handshake haul-out is not 504 collateral.
Haul-out access still decides whether a Pinellas marine letter is honest. Eastern Hillsborough food still decides whether sanitation leads stay. The enterprise license cell still decides whether you may rely on the CIM. Write those three facts before anyone drives the causeway. Marine, food, fabricated metal, and medical devices still need different QoE scopes even when the hotel is in St. Petersburg. Do not merge them because they share a causeway. Florida’s 14,341-shop file is a published state row. It is not a Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater count, and this site will not invent a CES print to fill the gap. A 25.0-person average is a backdrop for the underwrite. It is not the plant. St. Petersburg occupancy is a second price. Clearwater leases are a third. Marine coatings and food wash-down do not share a Phase I rec list. Counsel confirms the enterprise license cell before anyone relies on the CIM. A causeway photograph does not retire AAI. Pinellas marine and eastern Hillsborough food remain different letters on Florida’s 14,341-shop file. St. Petersburg and Clearwater stay seats, not extra overlays. Educational information only. Jason Taken is a business broker. Confirm cells with counsel. Quote Florida, then name marine or food. Confirm cells with counsel.
Write whether you will occupy Pinellas dirt before anyone talks 504. A causeway photograph is not collateral.
Book a confidential intro call when marine or food is already chosen and occupancy is a named bay.