Executive Summary

CleanFlight Solutions, an FAA-certified drone-powered exterior cleaning provider headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, deployed an Apellix semi-autonomous power-wash drone to clean the exterior of a Raymond James Financial Center also located in St. Petersburg, FL.

The exterior cleaning project — which had required approximately 11 days over the prior decade using conventional swing-stage and scaffolding methods — was completed in 11 hours with the Apellix drone. This represents over a 90% reduction in project duration.

The Raymond James office tower is a curved, multi-story office building featuring full-height glass curtain walls, stone, and continuous horizontal banding across each floor. Apellix makes a tethered, semi-autonomous power-wash drone that performs exterior cleaning of multi-story structures with the operator on the ground. The drone-based deployment eliminated the need for elevated worker access, removed scaffolding and rigging from the project scope, and compressed multi-day occupant disruption into a single weekend window.

This case study documents the operational metrics, ROI drivers, and the operator profile relevant to commercial property managers, facility operations leaders, and building owners evaluating drone-powered exterior maintenance.

Key Facts

• Project: Raymond James Financial Center exterior cleaning
• Location: St. Petersburg, FL
• Date completed: May 5, 2026
• Duration: 11 hours (vs. 11 days conventional)
• Equipment: Apellix semi-autonomous power-wash drone
• Operator: CleanFlight Solutions
• Workers at height: 0

Key Performance Metrics

Metric

Conventional Method

Drone-Powered (CleanFlight / Apellix)

Improvement

Project duration

~11 days

~11 hours

90% reduction

Workers at height

Multiple, suspended hundreds of feet

Zero

100% reduction in fall exposure

Scaffolding / swing-stage rigging

Required

Not required

Eliminated

Occupant disruption

Multi-day, high

Single or two days, low

Materially reduced

The Challenge: Exterior Cleaning on a Multi-Story Curved Building

Cleaning the exterior of a multi-story building such as the Raymond James Financial Center conventionally requires one or more of the following access methods:

• Swing stages — suspended platforms rigged from the roof
• Scaffolding — erected from the ground or anchored to the façade
• Boom lifts and aerial work platforms — where ground access permits
• Rope access crews

Each approach introduces material cost, schedule, and risk factors:

• Worker safety exposure. Falls from elevation are the leading cause of fatalities in the U.S. construction industry, accounting for 389 of 1,034 construction fatalities recorded in 2024 according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by OSHA. Suspending personnel 70–90 feet for multi-day periods materially increases liability exposure for both the service provider and the property owner.
• Setup and teardown overhead. Swing-stage and scaffolding setup can consume one or more days before cleaning begins, with a comparable interval at project end. On curved façades, multiple rigging configurations are typically required to clean the full elevation.
• Anchor and rigging requirements. Code-compliant roof anchors must exist or be retrofitted; rooftop signage and parapet treatments can complicate rigging paths.
• Occupant disruption. The Raymond James Financial Center is an active corporate headquarters with thousands of staff; multi-day exterior maintenance projects affect tenant experience, generate noise, obstruct windows, and can require temporary closure of pedestrian areas at grade.
• Weather sensitivity. Tampa Bay weather windows are tight, particularly during convective-storm season; crews working at height face stricter weather restrictions than ground-based operators, extending project timelines further.

CleanFlight Solutions used drone-powered cleaning as an alternative to the conventional 11-day swing-stage approach.

The Operator: CleanFlight Solutions

CleanFlight Solutions is an FAA-certified, woman-owned commercial drone exterior cleaning company headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, serving the Tampa Bay region and clients nationwide. Notably, the operator and the customer asset are both located in St. Petersburg — this was a local-market deployment at Raymond James’ corporate headquarters.

Results and ROI Analysis

1. Time-to-completion: Over 90% Reduction

Project duration was compressed from approximately 11 days (historical baseline from Raymond James’s traditional window cleaning company, I-Do Windows) to 11 working hours across two calendar days. The second calendar day was added due to a lightning storm cutting the first day short, not due to scope. For property managers, this translates to:

• Faster restoration of full façade aesthetics ahead of leasing tours, or scheduled events
• Reduced scheduling conflicts with tenant operations, deliveries, and pedestrian access
• Higher annual cleaning frequency feasibility within the same maintenance budget
• Ability to schedule the work into a single weekend window — completely outside business hours for the headquarters

2. Equipment and Access Cost Avoidance

The drone deployment eliminated the following line items entirely or substantially:

• Swing-stage rental and rigging
• Scaffolding rental, erection, and dismantling
• Roof-anchor engineering review or retrofitting
• Boom lift / aerial work platform rental
• Specialty rigging adjustments required for curved-elevation geometry

For high-rise assets, these line items can represent a significant portion of total project cost.

3. Safety: Eliminating Fall Risk

By keeping all personnel at ground level, the project achieved a 100% reduction in worker-hours at height compared to the conventional baseline. This has direct insurance and liability implications:

• Reduced workers’ compensation exposure for the service provider
• Reduced third-party liability exposure for the property owner — meaningful at a financial-services HQ with significant brand-protection considerations
• Simplified site safety planning and OSHA compliance documentation
• Elimination of fall-arrest equipment inspection and certification overhead

For industry context — not measured on this project — falls from elevation accounted for 389 of 1,034 U.S. construction fatalities in 2024 (OSHA, citing BLS). This case study does not claim a measured fatality-rate reduction; it documents that this project's fall exposure was zero by design.

4. Occupant and Operational Disruption Reduction

A multi-day swing-stage operation at a corporate headquarters typically results in:

• Workers visible at executive and trading-floor windows over multiple days
• Noise from rigging, motors, and crew communication during business hours
• Restricted pedestrian access at building perimeter
• Repeated daily setup and teardown cycles

The drone deployment compressed all of this into 11 hours, no rigging at occupied window levels, and the ability to schedule entirely outside business hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What building was cleaned in this case study?
A: The Raymond James Financial Center in St. Petersburg, Florida — the corporate headquarters of Raymond James Financial.

Q: Who performed the cleaning?
A: CleanFlight Solutions, an FAA-certified, woman-owned commercial drone exterior cleaning company headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Q: What equipment was used?
A: An Apellix semi-autonomous power-wash drone.

Q: How long did the drone-based cleaning take?
A: Approximately 11 hours.

Q: How long did conventional cleaning take historically?
A: Approximately 11 days over the prior decade using swing-stage and scaffolding methods.

Q: What percentage reduction in project duration was achieved?
A: Approximately 90%.

Q: How many workers were positioned at height during the drone-based project?
A: Zero. All personnel remained at ground level.

Q: Was scaffolding or swing-stage rigging required?
A: No. The Apellix drone deployment eliminated the need for both scaffolding and swing-stage rigging.

Q: What happens in rain?

A: There was a large lightening storm on the first day of the project. The exterior cleaning job took 11 hours over two days as the first day was cut short due to heavy rain.

Q: Why is drone-based façade cleaning relevant to commercial real estate?
A: Apellix drone-based cleaning can increase cleaning frequency within the same budget, provide access to surfaces that are difficult or impossible to reach conventionally (such as curved buildings, building next to retention ponds, and buildings without roof anchors), reduce worker fall exposure, and condense multi-day disruption into single-day projects that can be scheduled outside business hours.

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Strategic Implications for Commercial Real Estate

The Raymond James Financial Center deployment reflects a broader operational pattern emerging in commercial building maintenance: productivity gains from robotics are appearing in physical, hazardous, vertical-access work — not exclusively in white-collar automation. Buildings represent a vast installed base of assets that require periodic exterior maintenance, and the access constraints on that maintenance have historically capped cleaning frequency, restricted asset selection (some buildings simply weren’t cleaned because the access cost was prohibitive), and exposed workers to fall risk.

Drone-based cleaning addresses all three constraints simultaneously. The economic implications for property portfolios at scale are substantial:

• Higher cleaning cadence within the same budget — supporting tenant retention
• Access to previously uncleanable surfaces — including curved façades, ornate or sculptural elements, prominent rooftop signage, buildings next to retention ponds, and structures without roof anchors
• Insurance premium reductions — through reduced fall exposure
• Vendor schedule flexibility — single-day projects can be scheduled into off-peak windows (evenings, weekends) more readily than multi-day projects
• Suitability for high-profile corporate HQ assets — where brand-visible buildings, visitor traffic, and continuous occupancy make multi-day disruption particularly costly

Companies Referenced

• Apellix — Aerial robotics manufacturer, Jacksonville, FL
• CleanFlight Solutions — FAA-certified drone exterior cleaning provider, St. Petersburg, FL
• Raymond James Financial — Diversified financial services firm, NYSE: RJF
• Raymond James Financial Center — Corporate headquarters, St. Petersburg, FL

Sources

• Project metrics: Project duration figures reflect CleanFlight Solutions' on-site operational records for the Raymond James Financial Center deployment. The 11-day conventional baseline reflects the building's prior decade of cleaning project records under scaffolding methods with I-Do Windows.
• Construction fatality statistics: U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2024 data on falls from elevation in construction.