Tampa Hospitality for Sale - South Tampa
PRIME SOUTH TAMPA COMMERCIAL — HARD CORNER OF S DALE MABRY & INNERBAY
6409 S Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33611 — ±7,044 SF | 0.41-Acre Corner | CG Zoning | 14-Room Motel + Managers Apartment
Own an irreplaceable hard corner in the heart of South Tampa. Positioned on the signalized corner of S Dale Mabry Highway and Interbay Boulevard — one of South Tampa's busiest commercial arteries, carrying 50,000 vehicles every day, with over 338' of frontage on S Dale Mabry Hwy — 6409 S Dale Mabry Hwy is a rare income-producing and redevelopment-ready commercial property in a supply-constrained, high-barrier-to-entry submarket. Operating today as the Base Motel by OYO, the property delivers an in-place hospitality foundation while offering significant upside for an investor, owner-user, or developer to reposition or redevelop one of the last value-priced corners on the corridor. It sits a stone's throw from MacDill Air Force Base, Picnic Island, Gadsden Park, Bayshore Boulevard, and the Gandy connector to St. Petersburg.
The property comprises a ±7,044 SF concrete block building (±5,688 SF heated/conditioned) situated on a ±0.41-acre (±18,064 SF) corner parcel, zoned CG — Commercial General, City of Tampa. Originally built in 1969 and renovated in 2000, the building is configured as a single-story, 14-room limited-service motel with exterior corridors, high-speed internet, and an asphalt-paved parking field with 24 spaces, plus a built-in on-site residential apartment with Central AC. The CG zoning, corner exposure, generous frontage, and flexible footprint make the site adaptable to a wide range of commercial uses well beyond its current hospitality operation — such as live/work professional offices and studios or retail suites — with no Airbnb or short-term-rental restrictions.
For a developer or owner-user, the real story is the dirt and the zoning. The surrounding stretch of Dale Mabry is dominated by strong-performing retail and strip-center real estate, and recent qualified strip-center sales on the corridor have traded at roughly $245 to $346 per building square foot — with premium Dale Mabry and Kennedy corridor products reaching well above that. Against the subject's modest in-place basis as an older motel, that spread represents a clear path to value creation through repositioning, renovation, or ground-up redevelopment into higher-and-better commercial use such as retail, restaurant, office, or mixed commercial.
Location is the enduring advantage. South Tampa is one of the Tampa Bay region's most affluent and desirable submarkets, anchored by MacDill Air Force Base — a major regional employer roughly five minutes south — and surrounded by established, high-income residential neighborhoods including Ballast Point, Bayshore Beautiful, Gandy, and Port Tampa. The immediate West Interbay trade area combines dense rooftops, strong household incomes, and steady daytime traffic, while Dale Mabry itself functions as the spine of South Tampa retail. Demand for well-located commercial real estate in this corridor has remained durable through cycles, and infill opportunities on a true hard corner rarely come to market.
SOUTH TAMPA
A Market Narrative — One of Florida's Most Affluent, Supply-Constrained, and Enduring Submarkets
South Tampa is the peninsula that defines the city's identity — a roughly oak-canopied wedge of land bounded by Tampa Bay, Hillsborough Bay, and Old Tampa Bay, stretching south from Kennedy Boulevard to the tip of Interbay and the gates of MacDill Air Force Base. Within those few square miles sits a remarkable concentration of wealth, history, and demand: brick-lined historic districts, waterfront estate neighborhoods, the iconic Bayshore Boulevard, walkable village centers like Hyde Park and Palma Ceia, and the commercial spine of South Dale Mabry Highway. It is, by almost any measure, the most desirable and supply-constrained residential and commercial submarket in the Tampa Bay region — a place where land is finite, demand is structural, and values have proven durable across multiple economic cycles.
MacDill Air Force Base — The Economic Anchor
No account of South Tampa is complete without MacDill Air Force Base, which occupies the southern tip of the Interbay peninsula and functions as the area's single largest economic engine. MacDill is not an ordinary installation: it is home to two of the most important unified combatant commands in the United States military — U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) — making South Tampa a hub of national-security activity, defense contracting, and high-skill federal employment. The base generates an estimated annual economic impact of roughly $3.9 billion on the Greater Tampa Bay region, rising to approximately $5 billion when the surrounding military-retiree population is included.
In raw employment terms, MacDill supports on the order of 11,000 active-duty military and civilian workers, more than 6,000 reserve and National Guard members, and anchors a community of nearly 40,000 military retirees living within a 50-mile radius. That base of stable, well-compensated, recession-resistant federal and defense employment underpins housing demand, drives steady daytime traffic, and supports a deep ecosystem of service, retail, hospitality, and contractor businesses throughout South Tampa — a tailwind few other submarkets in Florida can claim.
Demographics & Affluence
While the City of Tampa as a whole posts a median household income near $75,000 and a median home value around $420,000, those citywide figures dramatically understate South Tampa. The peninsula is home to the densest cluster of high-income neighborhoods in the metro. Culbreath Isles ranks as the city's wealthiest enclave, with average home values near $2.94 million and a median household income above $215,000, while Sunset Park reports a median income around $219,000. They are joined by a roster of nationally recognized neighborhoods — Davis Islands, Beach Park, Parkland Estates, Bayshore Beautiful, Palma Ceia, and historic Hyde Park — where home values commonly range from roughly $1 million to nearly $3 million and household incomes run far above the citywide average.
