Pinellas County issued the building permit in early September for a roughly 3,300-square-foot addition to Plant 6 at 13350 U.S. 19 N., as first reported by St. Pete Catalyst. County records describe a one-story structure that will house testing equipment, including a centrifuge used to test components.

What the permit records show

Permit documents label the project "Honeywell FL 51 Plant 6 Centrifuge." The application carries a $3.5 million construction value, though a separate county fee calculation placed the basic building valuation at about $774,000. The records do not break down how much of the larger figure covers specialized equipment versus construction costs.

The addition will have its own climate-control system, including a 279,000-Btu cooling unit and a supply fan capable of moving 7,200 cubic feet of air per minute.

A major local employer tied to Artemis

Pinellas County Economic Development listed Honeywell with about 2,200 employees in 2025, ranking it seventh among private employers in the county. St. Pete Catalyst reported the Clearwater workforce may be closer to 2,500, citing more recent reporting it did not name.

The site supports Honeywell's space business. The company has said work there includes guidance and navigation systems, vehicle-management computers and cockpit displays for NASA's Orion spacecraft, all part of the Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon.

Honeywell Aerospace completed its spinoff from Honeywell Technologies on June 29 and began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker HONA. The Clearwater facility falls under the new entity.

Two years in county review

The Plant 6 project has been in county review since 2024. A site plan was approved by November of that year. The building permit went through several rounds of revisions before final plans coordination wrapped up in August, and the permit moved into the inspections phase in early September.

St. Pete Catalyst reported that Honeywell did not respond to requests for comment. The permit records do not identify what components will be tested in the centrifuge or whether the project will add jobs.