Buying a gas station or convenience store in Panhandle and North Florida

• Strong inside sales compared with fuel, including food or coffee that brings people in on its own.
• A corner with easy access on a road people use every day, near homes, work sites or a highway exit.
• Tanks, lines and pumps in good condition, with clean inspection records from DEP and FDACS.
• A supply agreement you can live with: a reasonable remaining term, volume minimums you can hit, and no big payback if it ends.
• Register records that split sales by category and match supplier invoices and tax returns.
• A manager and core staff who have stayed for years and can run the store when you're not there.
• Pumps with current card readers and the required anti-skimming protection.

• Environmental condition. Get a Phase I environmental site assessment (a review of the site's records and history), with testing if it flags risk, plus DEP inspection reports, tank ages, leak detection records and any spill reports.
• The supply agreement. Can you take it over, what volumes does it require, and what would leaving early cost?
• Security rules. Stores selling alcohol or tobacco that open any time from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. generally need cameras, a drop safe, a silent alarm, a lit lot and clear windows (sections 812.171 and 812.173).
• Generator wiring. Stations built or substantially renovated since July 2006, and larger ones near an interstate or evacuation route, must be prewired for a generator (section 526.143).
• The seller's unpaid taxes. Buying more than half of a business or its assets can make you liable for the seller's unpaid state taxes, up to the greater of the price or the business's value (section 213.758). Get a Department of Revenue certificate of compliance before closing, and ask your attorney about also holding back part of the price.

• How much of your profit comes from fuel, and how much from inside the store?
• How old are the tanks and lines, and has the site ever had a reported leak or cleanup?
• What does your fuel supply agreement require, and how long does it have left?
• What's selling more inside, and what's selling less?
• How did the store do in the last hurricane, and does it have a generator hookup?
• Who works overnight, and how long have your main people been with you?
• Have you had any problems with skimmers, robberies or sales to minors?

This is our largest region by area. It runs from Pensacola east through Milton, Fort Walton Beach, Destin, Panama City and Tallahassee, and down into North Central Florida around Gainesville, Lake City and Live Oak, with many rural counties along the way. We also include Hardee County, around Wauchula.

The economy has several anchors. The military is a big one, with Naval Air Station Pensacola, Eglin Air Force Base, Hurlburt Field and Tyndall Air Force Base. Tallahassee is the state capital and home to Florida State University and Florida A&M University, and Gainesville has the University of Florida. The beaches from Pensacola to Panama City Beach, including Walton County's coast, draw summer visitors. Inland, timber, farming and small manufacturing matter, and towns like Apalachicola and Cedar Key make their living on the water. Contractors, defense and government service firms, restaurants, lodging and farm businesses all have markets here.

Plan for distance first. Pensacola is closer to New Orleans than to Gainesville, so most companies serve one local area, and you should know exactly where the customers are. Most of the Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River runs on Central time, an hour behind Tallahassee.

The beach season peaks in summer, the opposite of South Florida, while Gainesville and Tallahassee slow down when students leave. Hurricanes have hit hard: Michael came ashore near Mexico Beach as a Category 5 in 2018, and Idalia in 2023 and Helene in 2024 struck the Big Bend coast. Military base budgets and state government spending matter to many companies. Near the Alabama and Georgia lines, ask how much revenue comes from across the border, where other states' licenses may apply. Rural counties have small labor pools, so a company's key employees matter even more here.