Tampa is the second-largest manufacturing employment base in Florida. More than 2,800 manufacturing firms operate across the region, employing roughly 62,000 people. Pharmaceutical, medical device, food processing, and defense production all have established operations here, with companies including Bristol Myers Squibb, Amgen, and Pfizer holding facilities in Hillsborough County. That demand base is growing, and available manufacturing-grade space is not keeping pace.
TAMBAY Commercial represents buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants in Tampa’s manufacturing space market. Whether you own a manufacturing facility and need to sell or lease it at full market value, or you are acquiring a building and want a certified appraisal perspective before you commit, Tom Brubaker brings 35 years of industrial market experience to your transaction.
Selling Manufacturing Space:
Pricing a manufacturing facility without accounting for its functional infrastructure leaves money on the table. Tom’s appraisal background means your asking price reflects actual comparable transactions and the specific value drivers in your building, including power capacity, floor load ratings, and process-grade ventilation, not just square footage and location.
Acquiring Manufacturing Space:
Manufacturing facilities that look equivalent on a listing sheet can vary substantially in what they cost to occupy. Tom evaluates three-phase power adequacy, slab thickness, column spacing, ventilation infrastructure, and environmental history before any offer is prepared. That analysis tells you what the facility is actually worth before you are committed.
Leasing Your Manufacturing Facility:
Tampa’s tight industrial market gives manufacturing landlords real leverage on lease terms, but only when the space is priced accurately and marketed to the right tenant pool. TAMBAY Commercial helps you identify qualified tenants, structure NNN lease terms that protect your asset, and avoid the occupancy gaps that come from mismatched tenant-use requirements.
Finding Manufacturing Space to Lease:
Manufacturing tenants who search without representation routinely sign leases with inadequate power provisions, unfavorable CAM structures, or restrictions that conflict with their production process. TAMBAY Commercial represents manufacturing tenants across Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco County, negotiating lease terms that match your operational requirements, not just your square footage need.
Standard industrial brokerage treats manufacturing space like warehouse space with a different label. Tom’s approach starts with the building’s functional adequacy for the intended use. Power capacity and three-phase service, floor slab load rating, column bay spacing, ceiling-mounted HVAC or process ventilation, and environmental compliance history are all assessed before a price is set or an offer is made. These factors drive value in manufacturing transactions in ways that standard comp analysis alone does not capture. For background on Tampa’s manufacturing sector and the city’s business environment for industrial users, refer to the manufacturing resources published by the City of Tampa.
Tampa’s position at the convergence of I-4, I-75, and Port Tampa Bay makes it one of the Southeast’s most practical locations for manufacturers that rely on raw material imports or finished goods distribution. The University of South Florida and Hillsborough Community College supply a skilled workforce across production, engineering, and logistics roles. Those infrastructure and workforce advantages are why global manufacturers like Jabil maintain their headquarters here and why pharmaceutical operators relocating from North Carolina’s Research Triangle have consistently looked at Hillsborough County first. For more on how Tom’s advisory work applies to industrial acquisitions, see our industrial real estate coverage in Tampa Bay.
Most industrial brokers evaluate manufacturing space by square footage, dock count, and clear height. Tom Brubaker starts with the building's functional adequacy for the production use in question. As a state-certified appraiser, he assesses power capacity, floor load ratings, ventilation infrastructure, column spacing, and environmental compliance status before arriving at a price or recommending an offer. That analysis produces a defensible valuation and a transaction strategy built around what the facility is actually worth to a qualified buyer or tenant, not what similar-sized buildings traded for last quarter.Tom has 35 years of experience representing buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants across Tampa Bay's industrial market. Whether you are pricing a manufacturing facility to sell, setting lease terms, or evaluating an acquisition, you get certified market intelligence before any decision is made.Tampa’s manufacturing inventory ranges from light assembly and food processing facilities to pharmaceutical production and heavy industrial buildings. Most available space in Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco County falls between 10,000 and 100,000 square feet. Specialized facilities with high power capacity, reinforced slab, and process-grade ventilation are the most sought-after and the least available.
Manufacturing facilities carry valuation factors that standard warehouse appraisals do not fully account for. Power capacity, floor load ratings, column spacing, ventilation and exhaust infrastructure, hazardous materials handling capability, and environmental compliance history all affect market value. Tom Brubaker’s certified appraisal background means these functional factors are assessed before any pricing recommendation is made.
Beyond the standard industrial checklist of clear height and dock configuration, manufacturing buyers should confirm adequate three-phase power, floor slab thickness and load capacity, ceiling-mounted HVAC or process ventilation, and proximity to port and highway access for raw material and finished goods movement. Any existing environmental phase reports should be reviewed before an offer is submitted. Skipping these assessments in a fast-moving market is how buyers end up overpaying for a facility that requires expensive capital improvements before operations can begin.
Most manufacturing leases in Tampa are structured as NNN, meaning the tenant covers property taxes, insurance, and maintenance on top of base rent. Industrial lease rates across the market currently average $9.06 to $12.50 per square foot NNN depending on submarket and building class. Specialized manufacturing facilities with significant power infrastructure or clean-room buildouts may carry higher base rent to reflect the landlord’s capital investment in those systems.
East Tampa and the I-4 corridor running toward Plant City are the primary manufacturing submarkets, driven by land availability, I-75 access, and proximity to Port Tampa Bay. Drew Park and the Northwest Tampa industrial corridor support food processing, packaging, and light manufacturing users. Pasco County along the US-19 and SR-54 corridors is seeing growing demand from medical device and pharmaceutical-related manufacturers as the region’s population and life sciences presence expand.