Leap Partners buys Air Hawk Heating & Cooling of Odessa, its second Tampa Bay deal

A Nashville platform that did not operate in Tampa Bay two years ago now owns two of its residential air conditioning companies.

On May 5, 2026, Leap Partners announced it had acquired Air Hawk Heating & Cooling of Odessa, in Pasco County. Air Hawk was built over eleven years by Joseph Massa, who continued to lead the business with his team under the existing brand name. Terms were not disclosed (Source: PR Newswire / Leap Partners, 2026).

Leap CEO John Cerasuolo said Air Hawk had earned the trust of its community and that Leap intended to support that foundation. In the same release, Leap said it had acquired 32 companies in four years across eight states.

The second Tampa Bay deal in nine months

Leap entered the market on July 29, 2025 with Cool Wizard Air Conditioning Services, a Tampa residential HVAC company founded in 2008 by Pino and Barbara Mastrota. Cerasuolo said then that “the Cool Wizard focus on superior customer service is exactly what we look for in a partner,” and Pino Mastrota cited Leap’s “experience, support, and vision for the future.” Leap described that deal as its 28th acquisition in three and a half years (Source: PR Newswire / Leap Partners, 2025).

Between the two announcements, Leap’s own numbers moved from 28 acquisitions to 32 — four more companies in about nine months, two of them in Tampa Bay.

The platform was formed in March 2022 by Concentric Equity Partners, which announced Leap’s creation alongside the recapitalization of Conditioned Air Solutions (Source: PR Newswire / Concentric Equity Partners, 2022). Concentric is the same sponsor that previously backed Tampa-based Environmental Pest Service before its 2021 sale to Rentokil.

The pattern this fits

Two acquisitions do not make a cluster, but they make a direction. The sequence — enter a metro with one well-reviewed independent, then add a second nearby operator within a year — is the standard geographic build in this sector. It is how Strikepoint Group Holdings assembled six Tampa Bay brands and how Pool Troopers assembled seven local pool companies before being sold itself.

Both Leap brands retained their names. Neither website is required to say who owns it.

What it means for homeowners

Air Hawk’s founder is still running Air Hawk, and nothing in this announcement says otherwise. What changes under any platform model is what sits behind the founder.

• Reporting lines change before service does. Platform ownership typically brings shared pricing software, call-center scripting, financing partners and revenue targets. Those arrive on a schedule that has nothing to do with your service call.
• The buyer is buying reviews. Brand retention exists because the local reputation and review history are the asset. A five-star history earned under one owner keeps ranking under the next.
• Roll-ups compound locally. When one platform owns two nearby companies, “getting a second opinion” can mean calling the same parent twice without knowing it.

The defense is simple and cheap: before you accept a system-replacement quote, get a bid from a company with a different owner. Use the company database to check who owns which brand, and the independents directory for locally owned alternatives in Pasco and Hillsborough.

See the deal record for sources and dates.