EnviroFocus Technologies buys more land for $1.16M

BUYER: EnviroFocus Technologies LLC (Gopher Resource LLC), Eagan, Minn.

SELLER: Harsco Corp.

PROPERTY: 6811 E. 14th Ave., Tampa

PRICE: $1.16 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $57,000, December 1986

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen, Tampa

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: EnviroFocus Technologies purchased 7.68 acres of industrial property located south of 14th Avenue and east of 66th Street for $1.16 million.

The price equated to $52 per square foot or $151,172 per acre.

The property features three pre-fabricated metal buildings and an office building with a combined gross area of 22,386 square feet, according to the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser. The site is directly north of EnviroFocus Technologies' existing Tampa recycling facility on 66th Street.

EnviroFocus Technologies is redeveloping the recycling facility to handle automotive-battery recycling. The extensive redevelopment will create a 300,000-square-foot facility capable of processing 50,000 lead-acid batteries a day.

“We bought that property as more of a staging area for expanding the battery recycling area,” says John Tapper, chief operating officer of EnviroFocus Technologies' parent Gopher Resource. “We're probably 75% complete on our plant. This should give us additional breathing room. We will use some of the warehouses on the property to store equipment to support the main facility. Eventually we will probably use it as a backup data center for the computer systems for Tampa and Minneapolis.”

All the redevelopment work on the existing facility is scheduled to be completed in October.