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Big job news for Pensacola?

February 21, 2014
/ Shannon Nickinson
/ economy

Some job news would be good news right about now. At next week’s Pensacola City Council meeting, there are more than a few to-do items that involve jobs and development. A big one is a lease with Offshore Inland that would provide 100 jobs at the company’s expanded operations at the Port of Pensacola. Those jobs come with an average wage of $43,680 a year. Offshore is making an initial investment of $900,000 with the purchase of machinery and equipment. Mayor Ashton Hayward will ask for authorization to negotiate a lease for warehouse 9 at the Port of Pensacola to the company, which provides engineering support services ships working offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. The proposed 15-year lease (with one 10-year and one five-year renewal option) is at $3.75 per square foot of the 40,000 square foot warehouse space last renovated in 2006, and 15 cents per square foot on 3 ½ acres of unimproved land nearby. Offshore Inland will invest $10 million to $12 million in the construction of a new 150,000 square foot facility, with no funding requested of the city. The lease also requires that Offshore Inland create 100 full time jobs or financial penalties will be incurred. The lease should produce a minimum annual revenue to the port of $150,000 on the base rent; cargo and vessel fees associated with the operations are estimated at another $50,000 annually. Offshore must begin construction within 12 months and complete work in two years or the city can terminate the lease. Also at that Feb. 27 meeting, council will be asked to approve a resolution supporting the award of qualified target industry tax refund for the Offshore Inland project, code named “Project Stork.” The city’s 20 percent local match for the tax refund would come in the form of a land value concession at the port. The lease is a big kudo for new Port Director Amy Miller and the city. ITEM 2: Also up for the Council to approve is a targeted tax refund package for Project Flash, a manufacturing company considering locating in the city. It will create 15 jobs with an average annual wage of $32,000 in a vacant former retail showroom space near 1810 Barrancas Ave. in the Westside Community Redevelopment Area. The company will make an initial investment of $45,000 in machinery and equipment. The 20 percent local match required under the tax refund program is up to $18,000 to be appropriated annually over four years ($4,500 a year). I have not yet confirmed the name of the company associated with Project Flash. ITEM 3: Next week the city will host a public meeting regarding ST Aerospace’s move to Pensacola, which would bring 300 jobs to the airport. That meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 25, at the William J. “Red” Vickrey Resource Center, 2130 Summit Blvd. ST Aerospace was the subject of a bit of political theater locally. Hayward announced on Dec. 17 that the city had a Memorandum of Understanding with the Singapore-based company. ST Aerospace maintains, repairs and overhauls aircraft. Plans include locating a satellite operation on 18.6 acres at the Pensacola International Airport Commerce Park with an estimated price tag of $37 million. Funding would come from federal, state, local and private funds. Initially County Commissioner Gene Valentino issued harsh public words for Hayward because Valentino said the mayor had failed to consult the county appropriately before the announcement. After a flurry of dueling news releases, most ruffled feathers seem to have smoothed down. Valentino spoke favorably about the ST Aerospace project at a Jan. 7 town hall meeting at the Lexington Terrace Community Center. “What’s interesting about, (ST Aerospace), it’s not associated with Airbus,” Valentino said at the meeting. “As a result we’re sending out a separate message to the world, ‘Hey world, we’re not relying on Airbus. And if you come to town, we don’t want Airbus to be 80 percent of your business. If it’s 10, 20 percent of your business, that’s great. We hope you’re as diversified as we the county are trying to be, so that if Airbus was to leave somewhere down the road, the whole house of cards doesn’t fall.’” Officials now are negotiating how the $8 million local match for the project will split between the county and the city. The plan is to have a draft interlocal agreement prepared for the commissioners’ March 6 meeting.

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Big job news for Pensacola?

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