{"id":312519,"date":"2026-06-19T01:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T01:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/312519\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T01:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T01:21:11","slug":"south-tampa-chamber-announces-2026-business-award-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/312519\/","title":{"rendered":"South Tampa Chamber announces 2026 Business Award winners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/category\/south-tampa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"26\" title=\"South Tampa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Tampa<\/a> Chamber honored businesses, nonprofits and professionals from across the Tampa Bay region during its annual <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/category\/business-news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"16\" title=\"business\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Business<\/a> of the Year <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/category\/events\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"14\" title=\"awards\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Awards<\/a> on Thursday, recognizing organizations and individuals for achievements in business growth, innovation, <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/category\/leadership\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"19\" title=\"leadership\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">leadership<\/a> and community impact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The awards ceremony, held at The Westshore Grand during the Chamber\u2019s centennial year, drew a record 96 nominations and applications. An independent panel of judges selected 38 finalists across 13 categories before naming this year\u2019s recipients.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe Business of the Year Awards recognize the organizations and individuals who are driving our economy, strengthening our community and helping make South Tampa the best place to live, work and play,\u201d said Kelly Flannery, president and chief executive officer of the South Tampa Chamber. \u201cDuring our 100th anniversary year, it is especially meaningful to celebrate the businesses and leaders whose commitment to excellence continues to shape our community\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Chamber also presented its COMPASS Award to Feeding Tampa Bay in recognition of the organization\u2019s leadership and impact across the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The 2026 award recipients included:<\/p>\n<p>Small Business of the Year: For the Bay Clothing Co.<\/p>\n<p>Medium Business of the Year: Florida Firearms Academy<\/p>\n<p>Large Business of the Year: Bubble Down Car Wash<\/p>\n<p>Franchise Business of the Year: Paul Davis Restoration of Tampa<\/p>\n<p>Solo Entrepreneur of the Year: The <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/restaurants\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"27\" title=\"Restaurants\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Food<\/a> Whisperer<\/p>\n<p>Emerging Business of the Year: Cheeseology<\/p>\n<p>Innovation Award: TomCo Solutions<\/p>\n<p>Community Impact Award: Socially Funded<\/p>\n<p>Minority-Owned Business of the Year: Pia Esthetics and Day Spa<\/p>\n<p>Small Non-Profit of the Year: HeartDance Foundation<\/p>\n<p>Large Non-Profit of the Year: Girl Scouts of West Central Florida<\/p>\n<p>Young Professional of the Year: Shay Romine<\/p>\n<p>Business Leader of the Year: Jason Baker, <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"21\" title=\"TBBW\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Bay Business &amp; Wealth<\/a><\/p>\n<p>  Read More Tampa Bay Business News<\/p>\n<p>\n    Explore the latest Tampa Bay business news, <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/real-estate\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Real Estate\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">real estate<\/a> deals, development projects, executive moves and company updates shaping the region.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The South Tampa Chamber honored businesses, nonprofits and professionals from across the Tampa Bay region during its annual&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-312519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}