I'm trying to familiarize myself with St Pete as an investment area, and some feedback from locals would be massively helpful. 

One problem I see is that your building is going to be massively plumbed and wired on to get a functional brewery running.

Warren Buffet's #1 rule to investing:  NEVER LOSE MONEY.  

@Ryan Mullin Haughville is also in an area with massive growth because of IUPUI expansions..

You can win with both and lose in both massively.

I do not have the money to put down on a home plus make massive improvements.  

Warren Buffet.

It is very hard to get these deals though as the elite contractors have built their name as the people to call when individuals want to sell their house in areas where massive rehab/upgrades can be done or that house can be razed to build a new one.

They flip and/or wholesale a few houses, get a show, shamelessly self promote themselves, then pimp their name out, sit back and collect massive fees.

I am in CA I am priced out I am going to look to a place I can buy something anything hopefully it will cash flow.. when in fact if you buy a rental and the tenant simply pays it off that's a great thing any positive cash flow over the years is icing on the cake.IN our area ( I was raised in Cupertino) this is defiantly how it works.. and even a little negative cash flow is OK because you will off set that over time with massive appreciation... and or worse case scenario the tenant paid off your 600k rental and now you have a 600k asset paid for.