Space Florida project creeps along at Tech Park


  • July 31, 2015
  • /   Carlton Proctor
  • /   economy

Space Florida is moving forward with plans to building an anchor building in the Pensacola Technology Campus. Shannon Nickinson/Studer Community Institute

Four years ago this week the much ballyhooed Pensacola Technology Campus opened for business at the corner of Ninth Avenue and Gregory Street.

Financed with a $2 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the original goal for the park was — and still is — to bring hundreds of high-paying IT jobs to the downtown campus.

But since the August 2011 opening the site has remained entirely vacant, and not a single job has been created.

But, finally, after several false starts, and some legal leeway granted by the EDA, the Tech Park finally found a benefactor: Space Florida.

The state-funded agency, tasked with creating jobs in the aerospace industry, announced last year it would fund a $9 million, 70,000 square foot, multiuse building on a site within the park's 9-acre campus.

In February Space Florida signed a memorandum of understanding with the Pensacola-Escambia Development Commission which holds the title to the Tech Park property. In the MOU Space Florida commits to financing construction of the building and leasing a portion of its floor space.

Moreover, Space Florida’s board announced it had secured an anchor tenant it describes as a “major aerospace industry supplier” that has an existing presence in the Sunshine State. Space Florida also will be the owner and developer of the proposed building.

Earlier this year Space Florida's board of directors approved a contract with the Pensacola architectural firm Caldwell & Associates as the lead design team for the building.

But since the selection of Caldwell, there has been little, if any, news about the park itself, or the progress of the design specifications.

The lack of updates on the Tech Park project has caused some to wonder if the project is stalled or facing significant delays.

Not so, says Space Florida spokesperson Emma Newsham.

She said the project is moving forward, and that two senior Space Florida officials were in Pensacola this week meeting with the design team and other local officials.

"This project most certainly is moving forward, and not going away. That's not the case at all," Newsham said. "The architectural and other design work is under way."

In addition to the Tech Park project Newsham said Space Florida has been, and continues to be, very active in seeking out projects the Pensacola area and the Panhandle.

Scott Luth, CEO of FloridaWest, the Pensacola community's newly branded lead economic development agency, said last fall he had hoped the construction contract could be put out for bid by the first quarter of this year.

As it now appears the most optimistic schedule would have a ground-breaking late this year. So far, there has been no announcement of who the general contractor will be.

Aside from the PEDC and FloridaWest’s involvement, another major player in the Tech Park’s future is the University of West Florida’s Office of Economic Development and Engagement.

The OEDE’s assistant director, Brice Harris, said Space Florida’s as-yet unnamed anchor tenant is the recipient of a significant grant from the Oil Spill Recovery Act fund.

The $30 million fund was created by the 2011 Florida Legislature to help those eight Panhandle counties most affected economically by the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

While not naming the anchor tenant, Harris said the OEDE and UWF’s Small Business Development Center have been mentioned as possible tenants in the proposed Tech Park building.

Harris most recently has cautioned that there are some issues with the proposed design and building site that remain to be resolved.

They include where to place parking facilities, the height of the building and the height of the ceilings on each floor.

“There are challenges with this project,” Harris said. “But I’m cautiously optimistic that it will ultimately come through and be built.”

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