PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — If you’re riding down 49th Street and 62nd Avenue in Pinellas County, there’s a chance you’ve spotted the distinctive white building for a local plumbing company. What stands out most is the company’s phone number in big, bold letters: 727-800-POOP.

The business has been sitting vacant for nearly six years, leaving many wondering if they’re even open.

The owners said not only are they open for business, they’re hoping to one day work from this office. They say they had every intention of opening their doors at the location, but the process is clogged with issue after issue.

They have to figure out an impossible parking situation because of an easement along 62nd Avenue, and then there’s water and sewage problems — all things, the owners say, they’re trying to resolve, but it’s draining their bank account.  

If Daniel Ritchie stands in front of the business long enough, in front of their eye-catching business and phone number, he can almost hear their money going down the drain. He detailed how much they’ve invested in the property so far.

“It’s roughly around $740,000. But we still pay property tax on it,” Ritchie said.

Taxes, fixes and permits were all part of their plan when Ritchie, his father Wayne Ritchie and their business partner, Brian Higueros, first purchased the abandoned building almost six years ago. They renovated every inch inside and did as much as they could outside. It’s process, they say, they thoroughly researched. They even reached out to the county before buying the place to verify they could open their growing plumbing business at that location.

“Six years ago tomorrow is when we wrote to the county. We saw the building, we wrote to them saying, ‘Hey, we would like to buy the place, but before we do, we’d like to know if there’s any issues of us moving into this place,’ and they wrote back saying no,” Wayne Ritchie said. “We were told that we had no issues until after we bought the building. And once we own it, we own it and we’re like up poop’s creek without a paddle, you could say.”

Wayne Ritchie said he’s tried to keep a positive attitude when considering what’s blocking them from opening their doors here.

“Once we began the process and they even gave us a permit to put a septic system in, then all of a sudden, they found out there was a right of way along this side of the road that took away the opportunity to install a septic system,” he said.

He said the county pointed to some old records for the property from 1927 that detail the easement on the property. Wayne Ritchie said they also found some old pictures inside the property showing how it used to be a propane gas company, the layout of the business and the parking options. But now, they say the county is asking for costly updates.

“We had to bring the whole site up to code. The building’s been sitting for 25 years, so bringing it up to code from 25 years ago to now, because of the size of the property, is just not feasible for us,” he said.

Spectrum Bay News 9 reached out to county officials to go over the permits, requirements and options for the property, but were told no one was available to go on camera. County officials did send over this statement:

“Staff is working with the applicant’s engineer to address the outstanding site engineering issues to facilitate the issuance of a building permit and the ability to operate a business on this property.”

The owners say they just want to flush out other options that will either save their business here or allow them to sell it to the county.

Higueros said that there has been some good that comes from the building. People do call the number, so it has acted as a really expensive billboard. But the owners are still holding out hope — even with this backup in permits and requirements.

The company has a Clearwater location where they offer more than plumbing, like HVAC and gas line repairs.