The Space Florida board approved yesterday the Memorandum of Understanding between Space Florida, the Pensacola Industrial Development Corporation as landowner/land lessor, and prospective tenant organizations, all under the code name Project Expanse. The MOU is intended to outline the intentions and obligations of each party in moving forward with the project.
According the board’s agenda packet:
Project Expanse is a multi-tenant office building to be built at the Pensacola Technology Campus development in Pensacola, FL. Space Florida management has been in active discussions with potential tenants over the past several months and has secured letters of intent from potential tenants to be locate in the building. Taken together, these tenants will require approximately 65,000 – 75,000 square feet of space, with the proposed anchor tenant being a leading aerospace company from the Pensacola region. Other tenants would be a mixture of institutions of higher education, and economic development service providers, thereby helping Space Florida to fulfill its statutory duties of partnering higher education and economic development entities to grow cooperatively in support the state’s aerospace industry.
The Pensacola Technology Campus is a nine acre site located just outside downtown Pensacola; the land is owned by the Pensacola Industrial Development Corporation, which has installed roadway and utility infrastructure. It is located in very close proximity to restaurants, hotels and business services needed to help companies grow in the area. Additionally, the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) is located two blocks south of the Technology Campus, allowing tenant companies opportunities to partner with a growing research institution with world-class capabilities in several technology areas. By constructing and owning the first building in the Technology Campus, Space Florida will support the growth of the Pensacola area’s up-and-coming technology sector.