From Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce:
# $2,000,000 – We received confirmation late last night from the US Economic Development Administration that we have been awarded $2 million toward the construction of infrastructure improvements on the technology campus in downtown Pensacola. Many thanks to all those who helped us through the application process including Al Coby and Bob McLaughlin, Cynthia Williams with the West Florida Regional Planning Council and our staff at the Chamber. All told, almost every department in the chamber has played a role in this process.
# Unemployment Drops – The unemployment rate dropped again in both Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties and the unemployment rate for the Pensacola MSA went down to 8.7 from 9.2%. This represents about 1,100 people that have gone back to work in the last month. There are still 24 counties across the state with unemployment rates of 10% or more with the highest still being felt in Flagler County at 14.4% (which is an increase from last month) and the State’s seasonally adjusted rate is at 9.6%.
# Project Activity – We sent out another proposal this week. The prospect is in the renewable energy sector and would have the potential to grow to about 100 employees with wages above $50,000 annually.
Additionally, I was in Washington DC last week with the Northwest Florida Defense Coalition and met with two defense contractors to discuss opportunities in Pensacola. For those of you that are unaware, the NWFL Defense Coalition is a 5 county regional effort developed through a lot of hard work by Craig Dalton in our Armed Services Department as well as many others and includes each of the economic development organizations from Pensacola to Panama City.
# Did you know? – The Chamber operates under a strategic plan called “Embracing a New Economy†which was developed by Austin-based TIP Strategies. The plan was adopted in 2006 and has three core focus areas: Attracting and Retaining Talent; Embracing Innovation and Industry; and Building Quality of Place. Several projects have been implemented as part of our economic development program of work (which tracks back to the strategic plan) include the creation of iTen Talent, the CIE (our technology incubator), a web-based real estate database, and launching the downtown tech campus. For more information on the plan check out the following link: http://www.pensacolachamber.com/pdfs/2008/TIP_StrategiesPlan.pdf.