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Open a Laundromat in St. Petersburg, FL

St. Petersburg-specific guide to opening a laundromat. Older apartment stock and renter densification.

Updated: 2026-04-28
Summarize article with AI

What I'd Tell You Over Coffee on Central Avenue

If you have never opened a laundromat on the St. Pete peninsula, here is what nobody at the franchise convention will tell you. Three things sit underneath every margin number: Helene's 6.3 feet of storm surge on September 26-27, 2024, the City's water rate trajectory through 2030, and the specific corridor demographics that decide whether you do $24K or $48K a month. Get any of those wrong and the spreadsheet does not survive month 30. Get them right and St. Pete is structurally one of the better laundromat markets in the southeast — better than Miami on labor and water, far better than Houston on water, and structurally better than any Texas city on margin because of one specific Florida tax rule I will get to in a minute.

The water trajectory is not a one-off. The October 1, 2025 adjustment hit St. Pete utility customers with potable water +7.25%, wastewater +7.25%, stormwater +17.5%, and sanitation +7%, for a combined bill impact of roughly +8.78% in a single year. The City has formally committed to $6.8 billion of capital improvements over 30 years, 73% of which is water/wastewater/stormwater, and Council staff have publicly modeled a stormwater rate up to +75% in FY 2027 under their 50-50 financing scenario. If you underwrite at 2024 rates and assume flat 3% escalation, water+sewer eats your margin by month 36. Underwrite at FY 2026 rates plus 6-7% annual through 2030 — that is the honest pro-forma.

The Florida sales-tax rule is the operator gift that nobody from Texas knows about until their CPA tells them. Per Florida Statute 212.05 and FAC Rule 12A-1.042, both self-service AND wash-and-fold drop-off laundry are exempt from sales tax in Florida. Combined St. Pete sales tax (6% state plus 1% Pinellas Penny surtax) on a wash-and-fold pound is 0%, vs 8.25% in San Antonio or Houston. Build wash-and-fold into your model from day one. A St. Pete operator processing 6,000 lbs/month of wash-and-fold at $1.95-$2.25/lb captures roughly $11,400-$13,500/month in revenue with zero sales-tax leakage to the state — that is the structural advantage no Texas operator gets.

The fourth thing — and this is the one most first-timers miss — is corridor selection. St. Pete is only 9.6% Hispanic citywide and 37-41% renter overall, so the Miami bilingual playbook does not transplant cleanly. But the renter density is concentrated, not spread. Lealman CDP runs 14.4% Hispanic and climbing, with median household income of $45,949 and 50-60% renter share. The 22nd Street South corridor through Midtown is 55-65% renter with median household income $35K-$48K. Pinellas Park is the fastest-growing Hispanic corridor in the county. Those three submarkets — Lealman, 22nd Street South, Pinellas Park — are the highest-ROI entry points for a first laundromat in St. Pete. Tyrone, Disston Heights, and the Edge District look prettier in photographs and will lose you money.

The Hurricane Underwriting Trap That Killed 1,100 St. Pete Businesses

Helene reset every assumption — and most of the operators who failed underbudgeted the same three line items Hurricane Helene on September 26-27, 2024 produced 6.3 feet of storm surge at the St. Pete tide gauge — the highest reading in modern instrumented record. Hurricane Milton followed three weeks later. Combined Pinellas County damage estimate exceeded $2.43 billion. Roughly 1,100 area businesses sustained $136 million in damage from the two storms, and many never reopened. Every laundromat that failed in that cycle made some combination of three mistakes. First trap — leasing in Zone AE or VE to chase rent. Shore Acres, Snell Isle, Venetian Isles, Coquina Key eastern blocks, parts of Old Northeast east of 4th Street — all flooded with bay water. A Zone AE laundromat faces 3-5x flood insurance premiums, lender reluctance from SBA preferred lenders, and repeated business-interruption events. Pull the FEMA flood map at msc.fema.gov for any candidate site BEFORE you sign the LOI. Zone X only. Second trap — skipping equipment anchoring to save $400-$800 on engineering. Florida Building Code Mechanical M1307.2 requires fixed equipment to be anchored at upper-third and lower-third strapping. A 2,800-sf shop off 38th Avenue North lost three stack-washer/dryer columns in 2017 Irma because the original installer used wedge anchors only into a thin 4-inch slab. Deductible: $14,000. Closure: 7 weeks. Get an engineer-stamped anchoring detail. It costs less than one weekend of revenue and may save $80,000. Third trap — the 60-day storm-abatement clause. Several Pinellas County strip-mall leases written in 2025-2026 contain language reading rent shall abate proportionally only if casualty damage prevents tenant operation for more than 60 consecutive days. Helene closed many shops for 56 days — four days short. Negotiate that abatement window down to 14 or 21 days before signing, not after. Same lease audit: strip the hurricane reconstruction clause that shifts the rebuild obligation to tenant — the landlord's property insurance covers structure, your insurance covers improvements and equipment.

Five Mistakes I Watched St. Pete Laundromat Operators Make Through Helene And After

Mistake: Underwriting water and sewer at 2024 rates instead of the FY 2026 plus 6-7% trajectory
Solution: St. Pete Water Resources passes through Tampa Bay Water wholesale increases every October 1. The October 2025 adjustment was potable +7.25%, wastewater +7.25%, stormwater +17.5%, sanitation +7%, combined bill impact roughly 8.78%. Council has formally modeled stormwater up to +75% in FY 2027 under the 50-50 financing scenario, plus +7.5% in FY 2028. A 2,400-sf Lealman operator who underwrote water+sewer at $2,800/month based on the prior-tenant salon bill is now paying $3,950/month on the same volume — $14,000/year of unplanned cost that erased most of his second-year profit. Pull 12 months of utility bills during due diligence, assume the next tenant uses 4-8x as much water, and model FY 2026 plus 6.5%/year through 2030.
Mistake: Inheriting a 1-inch meter from a salon and trying to run 30 washers off it
Solution: Most existing St. Pete commercial sites are metered for the prior tenant — usually a 5/8-inch or 1-inch service for a salon, restaurant, or retail. A laundromat needs 1.5-inch for 18-24 machines, 2-inch for typical 30-machine, 3-inch for 50+ or large wash-and-fold. Under-sized means insufficient pressure during peak hours, machines running 30-50% slower, and a non-compliance letter from Water Resources forcing a mid-operation upgrade for $5,000-$15,000 plus capacity fee. The FY 2026 sewer capacity fee jumped from $600 to $1,000 per fixture-unit equivalent — a 2-inch meter capacity fee now runs $16,000-$24,000. Get the meter sizing in writing from St. Pete Water Resources at (727) 893-7341 BEFORE you sign the lease, and lock in the capacity reservation in writing before you order equipment.
Mistake: Adding dry cleaning as a small ancillary service without registering for the 2% gross receipts tax
Solution: This is the most common FDOR audit finding for Florida laundromats. Self-service and wash-and-fold are fully exempt under FAC Rule 12A-1.042. Dry cleaning is taxed at 7% sales tax PLUS a 2% gross receipts tax under F.S. 376.70. Operators add dry cleaning casually, fail to register the gross receipts tax, and FDOR auditors find it through payment-system records or customer ticket stubs. Back-tax plus interest plus penalty typically totals 25%+ of the assessed liability. Stick to self-service and wash-and-fold for the first 18-24 months, both fully exempt, then register with FDOR before adding dry cleaning.
Mistake: Skipping the water softener to save $8,000 on the equipment line
Solution: St. Pete municipal water comes from the Floridan and intermediate aquifers via Tampa Bay Water — limestone and dolomite formations, hardness 140-180 ppm (8-10 grains per gallon), classified moderate-to-hard. Without a whole-shop water softener, you cut equipment lifespan from 15-20 years to 7-10, produce dingy whites and faded colors that drive customer attrition, and burn through detergent at 8-15% above necessary. The softener costs $5,000-$11,000 installed plus $50-$120/month for salt. Payback is 18-24 months on detergent savings alone before you count the equipment-life extension. The softener is non-negotiable in St. Pete — every operator who skipped it regretted it inside three years.
Mistake: Running 24-hour unattended cash-heavy on the 22nd Street South corridor to save labor cost
Solution: The unattended 24-hour model works on Tyrone, parts of Gateway, and stable suburban-edge corridors. It does not work on 22nd Street South or deep south side without an exceptional security stack. A laundromat near 22nd Avenue South changed ownership in 2022 — previous operator was unattended 24-hour and had been robbed twice in 14 months. New owner switched to attended 7am-10pm, hired two long-time neighborhood residents at $16-$18/hr, installed bullet-resistant glass at the attendant booth, and moved to 80% card/app and 20% coin. Three years later: zero robberies, monthly revenue up 55%, attendant retention 100%. The previous owner's unattended saving of roughly $40K/year cost him $75K in theft and downtime. Match the operating model to the corridor risk profile, not to a generic playbook.

Operator Deep-Dives — Water, Equipment, Labor, And The Storm Stack

St. Pete combined commercial water+sewer in FY 2026 runs roughly $12.00-$14.50 per 1,000 gallons. A 30-machine shop using 250,000 gallons/month pays $3,000-$3,625. That is competitive with Tampa, materially cheaper than Miami ($4,500-$5,500), and roughly twice San Antonio ($1,500-$2,000). The Pinellas County unincorporated rate runs $0.50-$1.00 per 1,000 gallons cheaper than the City rate — one quiet reason a Lealman site outperforms an in-City site on margin.

The mitigation stack ranked by ROI: high-spin front-load washers (400+ G-force vs 80-200 top-load) cut water 30-40% and dryer time 15-25% — built into modern baseline equipment cost, mandatory. Ozone laundry systems run $7,000-$22,000 installed, save 15-25% water plus lower hot-water gas, payback 18-30 months — strong yes if water bill exceeds $3,000/month. Smart sub-metering by machine ($3,000-$7,500) catches leaks early, payback 12-24 months. Greywater recycling at $25,000-$70,000 saves 30-50% but only pencils out for 40+ machine operations.

The Texas comparison: a wash-and-fold load priced at $1.95/lb in San Antonio collects 8.25% sales tax ($0.16/lb). In St. Pete that same load collects $0 in sales tax. At 1,800 lbs/month of wash-and-fold, that is roughly $3,650/year of pure margin you do not get in Texas — recouping about 17-20% of the higher water-cost delta vs a Texas market. The rest you make up through high-spin equipment, ozone, and soft water.

Two distributors matter for St. Pete operators. Statewide Laundry Equipment (5005 W Linebaugh Ave, Tampa) sells Speed Queen and UniMac with in-house financing — Tampa office is the closest service depot, parts arrive in 24-48 hours. Fowler Companies (Tampa office) is the largest LG Commercial and Continental Girbau distributor in the US, plus managed-laundry-services and equipment leasing.

Speed Queen wins for first-time St. Pete operators — Statewide service network depth, Quantum Touch controls integrate cleanly with PayRange/SpyderWash/CCI, durability is class-leading at 18-22 years, and resale value is highest at exit. Continental Girbau wins where water cost matters most — ProSeries 400+ G-force extraction cuts dryer time 15-25%, multiple Energy Star models qualify for FPL/Duke rebates. Dexter wins for second/third-time operators on tight capital — 15-25% lower upfront cost on equivalent capacity through Florida distributors.

Recommended mix for a 30-machine 2,000-sf shop: 6x 20-lb washers, 6x 30-lb, 4x 40-lb, 3x 60-lb, 1x 80-lb plus 10x stack dryers — total equipment installed roughly $245K-$285K. Speed Queen 70-80% of mix plus Continental Girbau on the 60+ lb high-spin extractors. Avoid mixing Dexter into a primarily Speed Queen shop — inventory and service complications outweigh the savings.

Florida voters approved an annual minimum-wage ramp in 2020. The floor was $13.00 effective Sept 30, 2024, $14.00 effective Sept 30, 2025, and jumps to $15.00 effective Sept 30, 2026, with CPI escalation thereafter. Real-world St. Pete laundromat attendant wages April 2026 already run $14.50-$17.00/hr, with experienced bilingual or long-tenured attendants in Tier 1 corridors at $18-$20. Add roughly 12% for FICA/Medicare/FUTA/SUTA plus workers' comp at NCCI class 2585 ($2.50-$4.00 per $100 of payroll).

Three operating models fit different corridors. Model A — fully attended 7am-10pm — runs $11,000-$15,000/month in labor (post Sept 2026 wage), but captures wash-and-fold revenue and carries no insurance surcharge. Best for 22nd Street South and parts of Lealman where wash-and-fold demand is real. Model B — hybrid attended 7am-9pm plus unattended overnight with remote camera monitoring — runs $7,000-$11,000/month and carries a roughly 10% insurance surcharge. Best for Pinellas Park, Disston Heights edge. Model C — fully unattended 24-hour — saves the labor line but adds about 25% insurance surcharge and elevates theft risk. Acceptable on Tyrone or Gateway, never recommended on 22nd Street South or deep south side.

Demographic match matters more than the spreadsheet. For 22nd Street South and Childs Park, hire long-tenured Black women in their 40s-60s who know customers by name and pay above market ($16-$18/hr). For Lealman and Pinellas Park, bilingual Spanish unlocks 20-30% of the addressable market that English-only competitors cannot reach. Florida E-Verify enforcement on private employers with 25+ employees is in full effect as of April 2026 — most laundromats run 3-6 attendants, below the threshold, but I-9 verification is still required and is good practice.

Annual insurance for a typical 2,000-sf St. Pete laundromat (April 2026 market): commercial property $4,000-$8,500, general liability $1,100-$2,200, business interruption $1,800-$4,000, NFIP flood $1,200-$5,500 in Zone X (jumps to $4,500-$15,000 in Zone AE), wind/hurricane named-peril $2,500-$8,500, workers comp $4,500-$8,500. Total annual: $15,100-$37,200. Named-storm deductibles in Pinellas County are typically 2-5% of building/contents value — on $400K property that is $8K-$20K per named storm, structural and not negotiable.

Storefront protection options for a 30-LF storefront: impact-rated glass and frame at $14,000-$24,000 (set-and-forget, premium), accordion shutters at $8,000-$14,000 (deploy in 15-20 minutes, lockable, the practical choice), roll-down shutters at $9,000-$16,000, removable hurricane panels at $4,500-$8,500 (lowest cost but storage problem and 60-90 minute deployment). Most St. Pete operators land on accordion shutters — two months of marginal margin, deployable by an attendant before evacuation.

Equipment anchoring per FBC Mechanical M1307.2: washers bolted with minimum 4 wedge anchors per machine, stack dryers with 4-6 anchors plus upper-third wall strapping, water heaters with dual seismic-style straps and gas-line shut-off flex connectors, makeup-air units and boilers tied down per manufacturer engineered detail. A natural gas standby generator (40-80 kW) at $28,000-$55,000 installed pays back in 18-30 months on a typical hurricane season — generator-equipped shops reopened 4-7 days faster than competitors after Helene and captured 200-300% normal volume in the first ten days.

The 14-Step St. Pete Laundromat Permit And Launch Checklist

  • Form the Florida LLC with the FL Division of Corporations ($125, 1-3 days online) and obtain an EIN from the IRS (free, same-day online) before signing any LOI
  • Register for Florida sales tax (DR-1) with FDOR even though laundry service is exempt — required if you sell detergent, snacks, or vending (free, 1-3 weeks)
  • Pull the FEMA flood map at msc.fema.gov for every candidate site and reject any address in Zone AE or VE — Helene proved Zone AE designations are real, and SBA preferred lenders will not underwrite Zone AE laundromats reliably
  • Submit a zoning verification request to St. Pete Development Review Services (727-892-5395) or Pinellas County Building if unincorporated (727-464-3888) — confirms CCT, CCS, CRT, or CRS zoning supports laundry use ($100-$300, 1-2 weeks)
  • Schedule a pre-application meeting with St. Pete DRS for laundromats over 2,000 sf — free or nominal, surfaces water capacity issues and design-review triggers before you spend on permit drawings
  • Confirm meter sizing in writing with St. Pete Water Resources (727-893-7341) — typical 30-machine shop needs 2-inch meter with $16,000-$24,000 capacity fee at FY 2026 rates
  • Submit Commercial Building Permit through St. Pete Construction Services & Permitting (One 4th Street North, 727-893-7231) — bundle plumbing, electrical, mechanical permits ($2,400-$14,800 total project-scoped, 4-10 weeks first review)
  • Order equipment from Statewide Laundry Equipment (Speed Queen) or Fowler Companies (Continental Girbau) 12 weeks before opening — Tampa offices are the closest service depots
  • Install a whole-shop water softener for 140-180 ppm aquifer hardness ($5,000-$11,000 installed) and a reduced-pressure-zone (RPZ) backflow preventer with annual recertification ($200-$400/yr)
  • Install accordion shutters or impact-rated glass on the storefront ($8,000-$24,000) and engineer-stamped equipment anchoring per FBC Mechanical M1307.2 — both code-required, both insurance-priced
  • Schedule plumbing, electrical, mechanical, and St. Pete Fire Rescue final inspections (727-893-7700) — fire inspection runs $100-$400 and is the gating item for Certificate of Occupancy
  • Obtain Certificate of Occupancy from St. Pete Construction Services after all final inspections pass — without it, opening day is illegal
  • Apply for City of St. Petersburg Business Tax Receipt (727-893-7241, $50-$300/yr) AND Pinellas County Business Tax Receipt (pinellastaxcollector.gov, $35-$200/yr) — both required, 1-2 weeks each after CO
  • Set up bilingual Google Business Profile, Yelp, and WhatsApp Business contact for Lealman and Pinellas Park corridors — train attendants on hurricane-prep playbook (top off detergent, photograph equipment, deploy shutters at watch, shut off gas/water at warning) BEFORE the first June 1 hurricane season opens

Where These Numbers Come From

City of St. Petersburg Water Resources St. Pete Construction Services & Permitting Florida Department of Revenue Pinellas County Building & Development Review Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Tampa Bay Water FY 2026 Filings Pinellas County Hurricane Recovery Reports

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes — and it is the single biggest structural advantage of operating a laundromat in St. Pete vs Austin, Houston, or Dallas. Per FAC Rule 12A-1.042 and Florida Statute 212.05, both self-service coin/card laundry AND wash-and-fold drop-off (including the laundry portion of pickup-and-delivery) are exempt from the 6% state sales tax AND the 1% Pinellas County surtax. Combined St. Pete rate on a wash-and-fold pound: 0%. A San Antonio or Houston operator collects 8.25% on the same pound. At 6,000 lbs/month wash-and-fold volume priced at $1.95-$2.25/lb, the Florida operator captures roughly $11,400-$13,500/month in revenue with no leakage to the state, which is roughly $950/month of margin a Texas operator cannot keep. Note that alterations, dyeing, ironing, dry cleaning, detergent vending, and snack vending are still taxable at the full 7%, and dry cleaning carries an additional 2% gross receipts tax under F.S. 376.70 — which is the most common FDOR audit finding when operators add dry cleaning casually.
Hurricane Helene on September 26-27, 2024 produced 6.3 feet of storm surge at the St. Pete tide gauge, the highest in modern instrumented record. Hurricane Milton followed three weeks later. Combined Pinellas County damage exceeded $2.43 billion, and roughly 1,100 area businesses sustained $136 million in damage. Shore Acres, Snell Isle, Venetian Isles, Coquina Key eastern blocks, Weedon Island, parts of Old Northeast east of 4th Street, and the bayfront south side flooded with bay water. For laundromat operators the practical rule is Zone X only — Zone AE shops face 3-5x flood insurance premiums, lender reluctance from SBA preferred lenders, repeated business-interruption events, and unsalable equipment to the next operator. Pull the FEMA flood map for any candidate address before you sign the LOI and avoid the east-side coastal submarkets entirely. Lealman, 22nd Street South, Childs Park, Disston Heights, Tyrone, and most of Pinellas Park are predominantly Zone X and viable.
For a 2,000-sf vanilla-box conversion: $480,000 on the low end, $650,000 mid, $880,000 high (if you need a new electrical service upgrade to 400-600 amp, gas service for water heaters and dryers, full flat-roof penetration for dryer exhaust and makeup air, and impact glass storefront). Equipment is $245K-$285K installed, build-out is $160-$280/sf or $320K-$560K, plus $25K-$45K in water service upgrade including capacity fee. Acquiring an existing operating shop and refreshing it cuts the project to $250K-$480K and 12-16 weeks instead of 6-9 months. April 2026 BizBuySell asking prices for Pinellas County laundromats run $85K-$485K with cash flows $25K-$120K/year. First-time operator template: SBA 7(a) for primary debt at Prime + 2.25-3.25%, 25-30% personal equity, plus a small distributor equipment line for working capital — Live Oak Bank, Suncoast Credit Union, Seacoast Bank, and Bank of America are the active Florida SBA preferred lenders for laundromats.
Lealman, the 22nd Street South corridor through Midtown, or Pinellas Park — in that order for first-laundromat ROI. Lealman is unincorporated Pinellas County (not City of St. Pete), runs along 54th Avenue North between 4th Street North and 66th Street North, with median household income $45,949, 50-60% renter share, 14.4% Hispanic and climbing. Retail rents run $18-$24/sf NNN vs $25-$35 for similar product in-City, water+sewer is $0.50-$1.00 per 1,000 gallons cheaper through Pinellas County Utilities, property tax millage is lower without the City levy, and most of Lealman is Zone X. The 22nd Street South corridor through Midtown is 55-65% renter, median household income $35K-$48K, with City Midtown redevelopment dollars flowing — an $18-$26/sf NNN entry on a historically Black corridor with deep neighborhood roots and active wash-and-fold demand. Pinellas Park is the fastest-growing Hispanic corridor in the county at 12-20% Hispanic and climbing, $20-$28/sf NNN on Park Boulevard. Avoid Old Northeast, Snell Isle, Shore Acres (wrong demographic plus flood zone), Edge District and Grand Central (too expensive at $30-$55/sf NNN with the wrong renter mix), and the Tyrone Square Mall area as a first-shop greenfield.
About 35-50 active laundromats operate in St. Petersburg as of April 2026. The branded competitors include Soapy's Laundry (3435 15th Avenue South and 2020 16th Street N — 24-hour, premier branding, strong bilingual on the south side), Suncoast Laundromats (5012 Central Avenue in Grand Central plus other Tampa Bay locations — modern equipment, app payment), WaveMAX St. Petersburg (franchise touchless payment, wash-dry-fold positioning), Dirty Laundry on 1742 Central Avenue (Edge District boutique, higher-income base), St. Pete Laundry (mid-tier 7am-10pm self-service), Wash and Roll on 943 72nd Street North, Ocean Breeze Laundromat (north St. Pete coin model), Clean Fold Laundry (pickup-and-delivery focus), and The Laundry Magician (Yelp top-rated smaller operator). The 22nd Street South corridor and Lealman also have multiple unbranded owner-operator shops with 10-30 year neighborhood tenure that do not show up strongly on Google or Yelp but are real competition. The patterns of the highest-grossing operators: wash-and-fold integrated from day one, card and app first with coin as backup, bilingual signage in target corridors, modern Speed Queen Quantum or Continental ProSeries equipment with high-spin extraction, sealed-loop community engagement (church partnerships, school sponsorships, free-wash days).
Florida voters approved a constitutional minimum wage ramp in 2020 — $14.00 effective Sept 30, 2025 and $15.00 effective Sept 30, 2026, with CPI escalation thereafter. Real-world St. Pete laundromat attendant wages are already running $14.50-$17.00/hr in April 2026, with experienced bilingual or long-tenured attendants in Tier 1 corridors at $18-$20. A full-time attendant at the floor wage costs you an extra $2,080/year per dollar of wage increase ($1.00/hr times 2,080 hours). Two attendants at the floor: $4,160/year of additional wage cost starting October 2026 — but most operators will end up paying $15.50-$17.00 to retain quality staff because the market wage runs above the floor. Add roughly 12% for FICA, Medicare, FUTA, SUTA, plus workers' comp at NCCI class 2585 ($2.50-$4.00 per $100 of payroll), plus general liability allocation. For a fully attended 7am-10pm Model A shop, monthly labor lands at $11,000-$15,000 post-Sept 2026 — the spreadsheet either survives that or it does not, and operators who were marginal at the $14.00 floor will not survive at $15.00.
For most first-time operators, yes — and the math is not subtle. Building a new vanilla-box conversion runs $480K-$880K and 6-9 months from lease to revenue. Buying an existing operating shop in Lealman, Pinellas Park, or 22nd Street South runs $250K-$480K and 12-16 weeks from purchase to refreshed reopen. April 2026 BizBuySell asking prices for Pinellas County listings range $85K-$485K with cash flows $25K-$120K/year, and seller financing for 10-25% of price is common. A second-time owner I work with bought a 2,200-sf operating laundromat off 54th Avenue North in Lealman for $185,000 (asset only) at 1.5x trailing seller's discretionary earnings, refreshed 60% of equipment for $165K from Statewide Laundry on a 7-year note, kept the existing Hispanic attendant, and was at $32K/month gross by month 9. A new build at Tyrone Square would have cost $480K-$525K all-in for similar revenue runway. The acquisition-and-refresh path also gives you 12 months of historical utility bills, which is the best possible due-diligence input for the FY 2026 plus 6.5%/year water-cost trajectory.

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