EML Realty Partners is expanding again in St. Petersburg.
The Florida industrial investment firm announced March 30 that it acquired a 68,400-square-foot warehouse at 3200 Tyrone Blvd for $7.2 million. The building is fully leased to medical-surgical distributor First Nation Group, which serves federal government customers.
The deal adds another industrial asset to EML’s growing Florida portfolio and deepens its presence on the Gulf Coast. The company, based in Jupiter, says it focuses on acquisitions where rents are below current market levels or where operations can be improved over time. On its website, EML Realty Partners says it has acquired 47 properties and manages more than 1 million square feet statewide.
This St. Petersburg property fits that formula.
According to the company, the warehouse sits in South Pinellas County, one of the region’s most supply-constrained industrial submarkets. The property includes six dock-high doors and roughly two acres of industrial outdoor storage, a feature that has become more valuable as available industrial land has grown scarcer.
In announcing the purchase, founder Eric M. Levitt said EML targeted the building because it could benefit from future rent growth. The property has about three years remaining on its lease and current rents are below market, creating an opportunity for the owner to raise income when the space turns over or is renewed.
New industrial development is limited by land constraints, neighborhood compatibility issues and replacement costs that are far higher than the price EML paid here. Marketing materials tied to the property listed the site at $112 per square foot, while EML said it closed closer to $105 per square foot. Either way, the basis appears well below the cost of building comparable space from the ground up in Tampa Bay.
The location also matters. Tyrone Boulevard offers access to major east-west routes across St. Petersburg and links tenants to U.S. 19, Interstate 275 and regional freight corridors. For users moving medical products, supplies and other commercial goods, that kind of central location can be as important as the building itself.
First Nation Group describes itself as a veteran-owned and women-owned distributor of medical-surgical equipment, pharmaceutical products and related services for government customers. A single-tenant building with an operating business already in place can provide predictable cash flow for a buyer, especially when there is also room for rent growth.
For St. Petersburg, the transaction is another sign that industrial real estate remains one of the area’s most active commercial property sectors, even as office and some other asset classes face a murkier outlook. Investors still see value in functional warehouse space close to population centers, ports and transportation infrastructure.