Former Pinellas Expo Center sells for $3.5M

BUYER: 10601 U.S. Highway 19 North Florida Land Trust

SELLER: Prospect 49th Street LLC

PROPERTY: 10601 U.S. 19 N., Pinellas Park

PRICE: $3.5 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $750,000, December 1994

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Modern Silicone Technologies purchased the 12.91-acre site housing the 123,000-square-foot former Pinellas Expo Center for $3.5 million.

The price equated to $28 per square foot.

Frito Lay also previously owned the tilt-wall manufacturing facility.

Modern Silicone Technologies plans to consolidate the operations from its facilities in Clearwater, West Virginia and Chicago into the Pinellas Park building, which it will convert into an injection molding and design plant.

Scott Clendening of Commercial Partners Realty represented the buyer, and is also marketing Modern Silicone's existing 52,000-square-foot Clearwater facility at 5777 Myerlake Circle for sale.

Gary Bauler of CBRE represented the seller.

“They were attracted by the size of the building and with what they can eventually do with the property,” Clendening says. “They will likely be putting another $2 million into it.”

Founded in 1994, Modern Silicone Technologies provides liquid-silicone rubber injection molding and rubber over-molding.