Mayor D.C. Reeves has asked the Pensacola City Council to approve a one-year exclusivity agreement for Project Maeve at the Port of Pensacola.
Details: As we reported last month, Project Maeve is a U.S. advanced manufacturing company interested in establishing operations at the Port of Pensacola. The City of Pensacola has submitted an application to Triumph Gulf Coast seeking $86 million to help finance the construction of a major shipbuilding facility at the Port of Pensacola. The $250 million project, designated “Project Maeve” in the pre-application, would create approximately 2,000 high-wage manufacturing jobs.
“I’m very excited for the possibility of the potential of this project. I know our state partners are, we tend to get nothing but positive comments about the potential of creating 2000 jobs and to create potentially the second largest employer inside the city,” said Mayor Reeves at his weekly presser on Tuesday. “I’m very excited about the possibility and the type of work it is, the type of high-paying jobs that these are. So very excited about that part of it.”
Mayor Reeves hasn’t disclosed the shipbuilder’s name. The Triumph Gulf Coast grant application gave these facts about the company:
- Established in 1977,
- Global operations, U.S. headquarters in Denver,
- Four main business divisions, and
- Has a trusted partnership with the United States Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.
Why Exclusivity?
The shipbuilder has requested an exclusivity agreement with the City of Pensacola for two ground surface areas at the Port to ensure project feasibility and financing.
According to the agenda item, the exclusivity agreement “provides assurance to Project Maeve as they expend their own capital funds for geo-technology, environmental, and project design studies, that the City will not enter into any other prospective agreement with another company for the areas identified until such time that Project Maeve and the City make a decision to move forward, Project Maeve determines their proposed project is not viable, or the terms of the exclusivity agreement have expired.”
- “This is a significant nine-figure investment, all told more than a couple $100 million potential investment that we’re talking about here,” said the mayor. “So if you’re a company looking at that, you’re going to want to have some assurance that when you do all this legwork that the city is committed to this happening.”
The city has officially notified Port tenant Martin Marietta that the city will terminate its lease in a year, as required by its agreement, to make room for Project Maeve.