BUILD COMMUNITY MARITIME PARK
WHY?
– Create a focal point for the community that connects it with its waterfront in an exciting way.
– Create jobs and stimulate our local economy.
The Community Maritime Park will create 1,500 jobs. The City of Pensacola has been successful at creating jobs at its airport and port, but not on the scale as this public/private project.
Public Commitment – $40 million, paid by Community Redevelopment Agency revenues.
Site work: The land needs extensive work to prepare for any use. Those expenditures would be necessary for the City to make for the public or anyone to enjoy the land. The environmental permits have taken over two years to obtain. The cost for the site preparation and environmental clean-up, including work already done on the project, is $20 million.
Balance: $20 million.
The Pensacola City Council and the Community Maritime Park Associates Board of Trustees will decide what will be built. However, they should not take an “all or nothing” approach to this project as some are advocating. Instead, the city’s leaders need to build what will best meet the original intentions for this park – waterfront access for the citizens and job creation.
The Maritime Museum is the responsibility of the University of West Florida. The land will be prepared for them to build the museum when they have the necessary funds.
The UWF Conference Center and Classrooms may have to wait until the state’s budget crisis subsides. It may be four or five years before UWF has the funds to operate this facility.
We do recommend the funds available be used to build the waterfront park and the multi-use stadium. If the City Council and CMPA Board agrees to do that, the Studer Group will begin construction on its $12 million office building, which will pay $225,000 annually in property taxes once it’s completed. UWF will build the amphitheater.
The remaining $20 million should be sufficient to build the waterfront park components and the multi-use stadium:
Park Trellis $946,055
Gazebos $335,672
Picnic Shelter $170,155
Lighthouse $2,153,320
Stadium $12,871,709
Surface parking $920,000
Fees & Contingencies $2,603,089
We have the money to build this park. If federal grants come in, then we look at the other components.