Laundry Plus moving north, buys larger industrial building

BUYER: Southwest Florida Franchises Inc. (principals: Richard Rone and Ariel Recchioni), Sarasota
SELLER: U.S. Tank and Cryogenic Equipment Inc.
PROPERTY: 6007 and 6011 E. 31st St., Bradenton,
PRICE: $1.1 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $2 million, May 2005
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Greene Hamrick Quinlan Schermer & Esposito PA, Bradenton

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: The owners of commercial laundry firm Laundry Plus purchased a 36,066-square-foot industrial building in Henson Industrial Park for $1.1 million.

The price equated to $30 per square foot. That figure is lower than the two-year average price per square foot for warehouse space ($46) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

The ground floor of the building is roughly 30,000 square feet with the remaining space coming from a large mezzanine. The buyer will be renovating the building, which sits on a 2.74-acre site, and relocating from two 5,000-square-foot buildings in Sarasota.

“What was really driving this was the phenomenal growth of the company,” Rick Rone, Laundry Plus president, says. “We've seen 20% annual growth every year for the last five years.”

Along with steady growth, its business jumped considerably when Laundry Plus landed a long-term contract with Disney to handle a portion of the multinational's hospitality laundering needs. The space was also needed to allow the company to expand from strictly hospitality into the food and beverage industry as well, so it could start renting linen.

The company plans to install new water and natural-gas service in the building, make plumbing and electrical changes and construct a truck well for unloading tractor trailers.

Laundry Plus will start installing equipment in the building in March and plans to be fully operation a month after that.

“We did review looking at possibly moving out of the Manatee-Sarasota counties area and virtually 100% of what kept us was the workforce and the quality of people we have here,” Rone says. “We were not willing to risk losing them and additional workforce we will be needing.”

Carl Wise of Preferred Commercial Inc. represented the seller and Ken D'Agostino of D'Agostino Real Estate Group Inc. represented the buyer.

The purchase entity, Southwest Florida Franchises Inc., mortgaged the property to Branch Banking and Trust Co. for $1.24 million.