Collateral Evaluation Associates, Inc. (CEA) has provided machinery and equipment appraisals in the Tampa, Florida area since 1990. Our expertise as machinery and equipment appraisers includes medical equipment, construction equipment, manufacturing equipment, industrial equipment, and transportation equipment.

CEA provides machinery and equipment appraisals for the following purposes: asset based loans or refinancing; ad valorem tax purposes; allocation of purchase price; condemnation or eminent domain; FAS141/FAS142 reporting; insurance purposes; leasing; corporate conversions, dissolutions, mergers, purchases, sales, etc.

Early in the twentieth century, Tampa was unquestionably a one-industry town. From the late 1880s through the 1930s, cigar manufacturing and related activities—primarily box construction and lithography—dominated the economy. Several hundred competing firms annually turned out well over 100 million hand-rolled examples of the city’s best known product.

The current story of Tampa, however, is quite different. Though still known for its cigars (now made with tobacco from sources other than Cuba), Tampa branched out to become the industrial, commercial, and financial hub of Florida’s west coast; a third of the state’s entire population, in fact, lives within a two-hour drive of the city.

Part of what has made Tampa’s future so promising is its diversified economic base. The push to diversify first came after World War II, when the emphasis was on fostering the growth of heavy industry. But in the late 1970s, as the traditional stability and profitability of heavy industry seemed threatened, a movement began to make Tampa appealing to a wide variety of businesses, especially those that were more service-related and office-oriented. Since then, the city has been touted as an ideal location for companies in search of regional headquarters, for banking and other financial firms, and for various high-technology industries. The business world has responded with enthusiasm. Looking toward the future, city developers are aggressively seeking to expand into aerospace and medical technology and international trade and to attract additional electronics and financial firms. Today, Tampa is a center not only for cigars and tourism, but also for agriculture, food processing, electronics and other high-technology fields, health care and related industries, and finance.

To those who know Tampa only as a vacation spot, it may come as a surprise to learn that the city is a thriving agribusiness center. Hillsborough County markets an abundance of citrus fruit, beef cattle, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, ornamental plants and flowers, and tropical fish. As a result, many agriculture-related industries have been attracted to the area, including food processing firms; feed, fertilizer, and insecticide companies; and paper and metal container manufacturers. Two breweries, Anheuser-Busch and Pabst, also have facilities in Tampa.

Tampa has attained the status of a foreign trade zone, an area where goods can be unloaded for repacking, storage, or transshipment without being subject to import duties.

Items and goods produced: cigars, electronic equipment, medical equipment, beer, paint, cigars, fabricated steel, fertilizers, citrus products, livestock, processed shrimp, decorative plants, and flowers.