Mako Marine, a fishing-boat manufacturer founded 37 years ago in South Florida, is leaving for North Carolina.

The factory in Opa-locka, which once employed about 400 workers and now has 80, is for sale. Boats will be made, instead, at an old textile plant in Rutherford County, which came up with a $3.1 million incentive package.

''This is a significant loss to our local marine industry, as well as the community, in terms of jobs and economic impact,'' said Frank Herhold, executive director of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida.

Mako established a market niche in center-console fishing boats, Herhold said.

''Some would call it an icon,'' he added.

The Tracker Marine Group, Mako's parent, has been gradually shifting production out of state for several years. Tracker decided to consolidate the manufacturing of both Mako and Seacraft boats where it could get at least 40 acres, 200,000 square feet of space and ''acceptable economics,'' the Springfield, Mo.-based company said Friday in a statement.

Tracker said it would offer severance and transfer opportunities to some employees. No further details were available.

''Mako regrets having to leave its South Florida roots,'' read the statement by Tracker, the huge manufacturer founded by John L. Morris. He also is chairman of the multimillion-dollar Bass Pro Shop empire.

The sale of Mako's factory at 4355 N.W. 128th St. is being handled by Ted Konigsberg, a broker with Colliers International in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The asking price is $5.8 million, for nearly 202,000 square feet of space in four buildings on 10.23 acres. The property also is available for lease. Mako founder Robert Schwebke owns the building through H&J Properties.

''They had an option and decided not to extend the lease,'' which is up July 31, said Konigsberg, who's marketing the plant to boat builders and others.

Jim Lancaster, executive director of the Rutherford County Economic Development Commission, said the North Carolina county provided $3.1 million in incentives. About $2 million was to buy a 337,000-square-foot building in Forest City that once housed Burlington Industries and lease it back to Tracker for $1 per year for 20 years.

Projected employment calls for 300 workers within three years, Lancaster said. About 35 have been hired so far.

The factory will be a boost for a county of 60,000 that has lost 4,000 jobs in the past 3 ½ years. The unemployment rate is 8.8 percent. Miami-Dade County's jobless rate is 7.1 percent; Broward County's is 5.6 percent.

The Beacon Council, Miami-Dade's economic development agency, found out that Mako was leaving through an e-mail it recently got from the property's broker. The agency first talked to Mako in 2001, because the company was concerned about some environmental and zoning issues. The agency wanted to see if there were another possible location, said Carlos Leonard, senior vice president for business development.

But ''they really were not planning to make any capital investment or create new jobs,'' Leonard said, so they couldn't qualify for assistance. At the time, Mako had 150 to 175 workers, he estimated.

The agency, which made several subsequent attempts to reach the company but never heard back, said it would try to find another tenant for the facility, which is in a special zone that qualifies for tax breaks and incentives.

Schwebke built the Opa-locka facility in the early 1970s and made 3,000 to 5,000 boats a year. He moved there from the original factory in Hialeah.

A fishing aficionado, he launched the company in 1966 because, he said, friends ``were tired of listening to me bellyache about not finding a light-tackle fishing boat.''

Mako boats range from 17 to 31 feet in length and from $18,000 to $30,000 in cost.

''It was a product whose time had come,'' said Schwebke, a Miami native who splits his time between Florida and North Carolina.

In 1994, a New York investment company acquired Mako's debt and took control of the company. Schwebke left at the end of the year. Mako went public in 1995 and, a year later, sold an 81 percent interest to Tracker.