It's All About Personal Relationships.......

I was honored to bring remarks on behalf of the Board of County Commissioners to Monday's lease signing between the City of Pensacola and the American Magic sailing team.  

Monday's signing ceremony between American Magic's sailing team and the City of Pensacola at the Port of Pensacola was the culmination of years' worth of work by lots of individuals and carried to fruition due to the generosity, hard work and determination by a host of entities.

To much press fanfare and celebration, American Magic's skipper Terry Hutchinson joined current Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves and a raft of elected officials and other dignitaries on a chamber of commerce weather day at the port to formalize a 10-year agreement.

It was a huge day, and the event was covered in multiple press outlets.  The American Magic webpage celebrated the deal as transformational.  It was a massive win-win of epic proportion.

And it all happened due to a long standing friendship between area Icon and surgeon, Dr. James Andrews, and members of the American Magic team, chiefly Terry Hutchinson(skipper) and Doug DeVoss (principal).

Often times in life, when good things happen, there is a story behind the story......And just as ofter--It's all about personal relationships.

This story is no different.

The DeVoss family and Dr. Andrews all enjoy competitive sailing.  Dr. Andrews competed in numerous America's Cup races over the years, and had a boat named Abracadabra.  A number of years back, Dr. Andrews was building a boat in Maui and the DeVoss family lent a helping hand to finish it up.

Years later, as American Magic was sailing in Key West and had run into some bureaucratic hiccups with the local government down there---a call went out from the team up here to Pensacola.  To Dr. Andrews specifically.

"You all need to come up here to Pensacola" was Dr. Andrews' advice to them.

Shortly thereafter, in early 2018, Dr. Andrews spoke with his good friend and then Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward.  The conversation centered around the port.  Could they use space at the port?  was the question.

Ashton enthusiastically supported the idea, the team sent a contingent up to Pensacola, and they began sailing here that year.  And their presence has grown here every year since.  And each successive mayor has carried forward the baton of this project.

A few years later, in 2021, local restaurantier Collier Merrill and Commodore Tom Pace from the Pensacola Yacht Club began to publicly advocate for an expanded presence for American Magic here in Pensacola.  They approached me with the idea after a TDC meeting and I encouraged them to come the very next day to the regular Board of County Commissioners meeting to gain additional support.  Which they did and which support they did gain.  Then the Tourist Development Council, a board upon which I sat and still remain a member of  supported the project, then Triumph Gulf Coast, then the Governor's Job Growth fund and Escambia County and the City of Pensacola.

Everyone got on board, and this lease happened Monday.  It will be an enormous win for our area and will make Pensacola, Florida, the sailing epicenter of the United States.

But it didn't happen in a vacuum, and it wasn't a one man show.

Lots of folks carried the water, pushed and made it happen.

And none of it would have happened had it not been for a personal relationship that was nurtured and maintained over decades of time--interspliced with other overlapping personal relationships.

Because it's all about personal relationships. Life, governance, sailing, and team building, too!

A Stallion Becomes a Titan Thursday!

An artist's rendering of what project Titan will look like, on the ground at the Pensacola Airport, in 2024.

A few years back we celebrated the completion of project Stallion and we looked forward with eager anticipation to the funding and commencement of project Titan.

These names, Stallion and Titan,  are the economic development code words for the quarter of a Billion Dollar build out of hangars and administrative facilities for the Pensacola Airport by ST Engineering Aerospace that bagan with the $46 Million project Stallion, completed in 2017-2018.

That event was amazing, and I was honored to speak at the grand opening of hangar 1 (4:10 of this video) along with Mayor Ashton Hayward, Governor Rick Scott, and dignitaries from ST Engineering--the world's leader in aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul.

Between then and now, a lot of hard work has been put in, lots of money has been raised, and this week--the $210 Million Dollar project Titan officially begins with a groundbreaking on Thursday.

a staggering $66Million for this local project came from Triumph Gulf Coast (BP) funds---the largest such award in the panhandle of Florida to date!

Once again I have been invited to speak at this ceremony on behalf of the county-which I am very happy to do.  I know the value of economic development in general--and to our community specifically.  

While some feel we should not expend ANY taxpayer funds to pursue ANY opportunities like this and other large employers such as Navy Federal Credit Union, Ascend Performance Materials and/or ST Engineering--I completely disagree.  In fact, I believe to go after such opportunities is an essential function of good governance! 

Fortunately for the majority of rational, intelligent citizens that understand basic tenets of economic theory and economic development-- the very small and insignificant  voices of dissent on such opportunities by naysayer policymakers locally get quashed by the majority that are rational and understand such things.  Narrow minds never win the prize--and to listen to them on this project would result in this, what will be one of the largest MRO campuses in the world, going somewhere else like Austin, Seattle, San Diego, or Pittsburgh.  But because those voices of dissent were not, are not, and will never be given any creedence on important topics like this--Such an opportunity and the concomitant $210,000,000 is being spent here, in Pensacola.  With this project, once completed, Escambia County, Pensacola, and our region will achieve the following: (projected from a HAAS center study conducted in 2017)

--1,325 new, high paying jobs (in addition to the 400 new jobs from Project Stallion)

--a regional Center of Excellence for the MRO industry

--a new Aerospace industry sector, adding resiliency to the economic base, in addition to tourism and military

--a regional magnet to attract talent and supply chain businesses

--Enhanced and expanded regional educational programming- George Stone, Pensacola State College, B.T. Washington and others.

--a pathway to the middle class for many

--1,725 new jobs in the targeted Aviation/Aerospace industry sector for a fully developed MRO aviation campus (Project Stallion and Project Titan combined). New jobs will be added as each hangar element is completed.

--Average guaranteed wages >$45,000 per employee (actual amount is greater)

--3,400 new indirect jobs*

--$400 Million annual personal income increase

--$600 Million Florida GDP annual increase

--Annual rental income of > $1.0 million per year  to Pensacola International Airport from ST Engineering

--Annual ad valorem income of > $3.5 million to City and County from ST Engineering

The groundbreaking ceremony will take place this Thursday morning at 10:30AM.  See the "run of the show" below.

What is Project Titan?

No, it's not that science fiction movie on Netflix.. It is not a scientific mission to Planet Saturn's moon Titan.

It is a massive project to bring more good-quality, high-paying jobs to Escambia County that will be presented by Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward our next upcoming meeting of the Board of County Commissioners.  It will be added onto the written communication portion of our September 6th meeting.

Elected Officials (l to r Senator Doug Broxson, Escambia Commission Chairman Jeff Bergosh, and Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward  Celebrated the Opening of the first ST Engineering Aerospace MRO Hangar in Pensacola on June 8, 2018

Project Titan has been approved by Triumph Gulf Coast to the tune of $56 Million over the next 4 years, and there are multiple entities that may contribute to this project which will more than quadruple ST Engineering Aerospace's operations and employment here in Escambia County!

ST Engineering Aerospace opened their first hangar in Pensacola this past June (that opening was a fantastic day for our community), and they are ramping up toward 400 jobs in that current facility. 

As the worldwide leader in the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Industry--ST Engineering Aerospace has facilities worldwide--but they want to massively expand their footprint here in Pensacola to keep pace with their growing business.  Although their current project here in Pensacola is fantastic....it is about to get much better with Project Titan.

I was honored to speak at the ST Engineering Aerospace grand opening last June

This project, if the city and the county are intelligent and go forward, will add three additional hangars at the Pensacola International Airport, as well as a brand new ST Engineering Aerospace administration facility.

The collective impacts---an additional 1,325 new direct jobs, 3400 indirect jobs, and upon full implementation, an influx of over $2 Million yearly in new ad-valorem revenue for the county as well as nearly $1 Million more in sales tax expenditures locally to support the operation which will flow back to the Board of County Commissioners.

The tentative financing of the $210 Million deal deal breaks down as follows:

Triumph Funds                                   $56 Million
ST Engineering                                  $35 Million
FDOT Funds                                      $50 Million
Governor's Job fund (year 1)             $4 Million
Legislative appropriation 2019          $3 Million
Governor's Job fund (year 2)             $20 Million
City of Pensacola funds                     $8 Million
Escambia County funds                     $12 Million
EDA (Federal funds)                         $17 Million
Additional funding to be identified   $5 Million

The massive positive benefits of this project will be a tremendous economic infusion into our community along with a further diversification of our jobs base.  The most compelling attribute:  we will get all of this financial activity and long term revenue for a very small commitment of local taxpayer funds.  $91 Million, representing 43% of total project budget, is derived from non-taxpayer funding sources!  When we look at just the county's portion of the deal, in order to leverage this $ 210 Million dollar initiative, our investment is a mere 5.7%.

This is a tremendous opportunity for our area, and I hope we will be able to move this forward despite the naysayers that do not believe in economic development.  Economic development is vitally important role of government, no matter who says otherwise.

I'm bullish on the future of Pensacola and Escambia County--Kudos to Mayor Hayward, Governor Scott,  Senator Broxson, and Florida West for helping to put this together!

Read Mayor Hayward's letter here.

This is What Leadership Looks Like

As I toured the amazing ST Engineering Aerospace hangar today at the Pensacola International Airport as a part of the opening ceremonies – I was struck by a thought…..This is what leadership looks like.

More than just the sheer size of this hangar—173,000 square feet—capable of holding four (4) Boing 757 Jets at the same time—was the reality of what it took to get this project accomplished for the citizens of Escambia County and Pensacola.

It took leadership. 

Leadership to push forward with an intelligent plan to partner with the largest Maintenance, Renovation, and Overhaul (MRO) company in the world to bring this amazing hangar and 400 good paying jobs to our community.

Leadership to put together a public/private financing package and incentive deal.

And leadership to push through the critics.

Because along the way there were naysayers.  There were those that scoffed and the total price of $46 Million.  There were naysayers that excoriated the BCC for fronting the $8Million for the County and City share of the deal.  There were armchair quarterbacks that criticized the Governor, the Mayor and everyone else associated with this project.

“This isn’t the job of the government!” some would say loudly

“This is a scam!”

“This won’t work, there won’t be any jobs!”

Some people are just content with the status quo.  Some people are not leaders.

But without leaders, we don’t get deals like this one done.  So to all the leaders that worked to make this deal a reality, my hat’s off to you.

And somewhere in our community, we will now have families that are currently working 2 or 3 part-time jobs to make ends meet have the opportunity to work one job that pays well and offers a path upward with a worldwide leader in the industry.

So as I was fortunate and humbled to be able to speak today at this opening ceremony—I felt compelled to say it to everyone there.  For every deal like this one that crosses the finish line, dozens like it never happen—because of a lack of leadership!

So I told them today “Look around you at this facility and these people—This is what Leadership Looks Like!”