Industrial developer buys former Carroll's Nursery property in Largo
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Dec 15, 2021

Foundry Commercial has closed on its first acquisition in Pinellas County — the 8-acre former Carroll’s Nursery site in Largo, for which it paid $1.9 million.

The developer plans to build a 125,000-square-foot dock-high warehouse on the site along with surface parking and storage space. Carroll’s Nursery has been vacant for years.

Site work has commenced at the former nursery, and construction is slated to be completed in early 2023. David Kern, Foundry’s market leader for the Tampa Bay region, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal that the developer anticipates having four tenants at the warehouse, but if one larger tenant wanted to lease the entirety of the space, it is designed to accommodate that.

“I want to praise the foresight from the city of Largo to annex the land to encourage utilization of the property,” Kern said. “This was the site of an old nursery, so there were greenhouses and an old maintenance building, but it has been vacant for years.”

The plans for the Carroll’s Nursery site mark Foundry’s 14th industrial development and its eighth new development in 2021. Kern said the company has completed more than $500 million in transaction volume this year alone.

Foundry has made substantial investments in Tampa Bay, including the 4 million-square-foot Lakeside Logistics industrial development in Plant City. Kern said the developer is “actively seeking new opportunities throughout the Bay area, including Pinellas.”

Pinellas County is largely built out, and unlike the large-scale Lakeside Logistics site in Plant City, the key is to locate available “pockets” of land to answer the demand for industrial development. He said Foundry has seen “tremendous growth in the area,” which has fueled the need for industrial and warehouse development in the region.

“Pinellas County has long been considered one of the tightest industrial markets in Tampa Bay, so the opportunity to develop a new Class-A warehouse was certainly attractive as we explored locations for our next development project,” Kern said.