Pensacola has secured initial approval for a $76 million grant aimed at transforming the city’s port and creating up to 2,000 jobs in the process.
On Wednesday the Board of Triumph Gulf Coast gave initial approval to Project Maeve, an investment that would establish shipbuilder Birdon America Inc.’s Southeastern headquarters and a Tier 2 advanced ship manufacturing facility — an industry term for plants that push out complex ship and submarine components — at the Port of Pensacola.
The project would create 2,000 jobs, including 1,437 positions with an average annual salary of $68,000 and 563 positions averaging $112,000 annually.
“This project will change the trajectory of our city for generations to come,” said Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves, who is in Washington this week meeting with federal agencies tied to the project funding. “I promised careers for our hardworking taxpayers, and today shows that we are delivering on that promise. We’re focused on building Pensacola’s future, and Triumph’s investment helps us do just that.”
If fully approved, the investment would support construction of a 400,000-square-foot shipbuilding facility at the port, strengthening the local economy and supporting military shipbuilding, including the production of critical modules for ships and submarines.
City officials say the project would represent the largest job-creation initiative in Pensacola’s history and one of the largest grants approved by Triumph Gulf Coast, the nonprofit corporation created to administer settlement funds from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The next step toward approval is negotiating a term sheet outlining the grant’s components, followed by execution and final approval of the grant agreement.
The total project cost is estimated at $275 million, with funding coming from Birdon’s capital investment and additional grant sources, including a pending $14 million request to the Florida Department of Commerce. Triumph funding would be used exclusively for hard construction costs tied to the shipbuilding facilities at the port.
The City will retain ownership of the facilities as public infrastructure and enter into a long-term ground lease with Birdon America Inc. Once operational, the facility would be capable of producing complex Navy ship modules for Tier 1 shipyards, submarine modules, and complete surface vessels up to 400 feet in length.
