The deal that Mayor Ashton Hayward announced yesterday is what the cash strapped Port of Pensacola needed. Since taking office, the Port has lost several tenants. Offshore Inland is the first major tenant that the mayor has signed up, and it could be a game changer – 200 new jobs with hourly wages above $20/hour. It commits the port to industrial use, but the city had no takers on any mixed use options.
According to the May financial statements for the enterprise fund, the Port has seen its unrestricted cash reserves lose $459,766. At the end of 2012-13 fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2013, the Port had $858,647 in unrestricted cash reserves. As of May 31, 2014, those reserves were only $398,881.
Had the city not signed Offshore Inland, those reserves could have been exhausted by the end of the year.