Studer Community Institute

Bay County site earns Florida First Sites designation

December 8, 2014
/ Shannon Nickinson
/ government

VentureCrossings, located in Bay County and owned by The St. Joe Company, is the first industrial site to complete Gulf Power’s Florida First Sites program in Northwest Florida. Fourteen sites were submitted from public and private landowners in 2013 as part of Gulf Power’s program aimed at helping communities prepare locations to attract new industries and new jobs to the region. Of those 14 sites, nine still are working toward their certification. Most are expected to be certified by the end of February. Three of those are in Santa Rosa County — a 160-acre industrial park on Jeff Ates Road in East Milton; an 88-acre industrial park near Interstate 10; and a 200-acre site known as Vic’s of Navarre at I-10 and State Road 87. There are also three sites in Jackson County and one site each in Bay, Walton and Okaloosa counties. “This is the first program of this type in the state of Florida and it has been extremely successful so far,” said Stan Connally, Gulf Power president and CEO. “Northwest Florida has quickly gone from having zero certified sites to having potentially 10 project-ready sites. “Having these sites...gives our region a vital competitive edge when working to attract new businesses to the area and encouraging local businesses to grow.” VentureCrossings Enterprise Centre is adjacent to the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City. The site has proper zoning, service to utilities and met numerous other qualifications that make it ready for development. St. Joe, Gulf Power and local, regional and state economic development agencies will now work to market the site to prospective companies to bring new jobs to Northwest Florida. “VentureCrossings is a keystone project for The St. Joe Company in our community’s vision to create growth and opportunity in the region,” says Jorge Gonzalez, Senior Vice President of Development for The St. Joe Company. “Attaining the certification is a critical milestone to attract technology, industry and commercial jobs to the area.” Gulf Power hired McCallum Sweeney, a nationally recognized site consultant firm, to offer an objective third-party analysis of the submitted sites. Landowners had one year to complete the identified improvements — everything from obtaining permits, improving topography and producing engineering reports to making sure adequate utilities are available to the site. Gulf Power is paying half the consultant charges for publicly owned sites with private landowners paying the full amount.

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Bay County site earns Florida First Sites designation

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