In 2020, the Pensacola City Council approved a lease with Streamline Boats of Northwest Florida to build a sport fishing boat factory and create at least 45 jobs at the Port of Pensacola.
This week, the PNJ reported its sister company, Streamline Boat, was facing eviction in Hialeah and asserted that the Pensacola factory was in doubt after an owner change.
Port Director Clark Merritt assured me that he isn’t concerned and the work on the factory’s warehouse is moving along.
“The Journal article makes it seem a little bit more complex than it really is,” said Merritt. “The way we are looking at it is it’s basically a restructuring of the company. We had the city attorney’s office do an in-depth look at it, as well as myself and the mayor’s office. And as far as we can find, not more than 50% of the equity has changed hands.”
He continued, “There’s nothing really earth-shattering here. I mean, businesses go through restructuring or issues all the time. So we’re optimistic that they’re going to continue to build out their facility and make this their primary location.”
The port director shared the leased warehouse suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Sally. “We, the city, received some insurance proceeds to get the building back to pre-Hurricane Sally conditions. And those repairs have been ongoing for quite some time. We have an agreement with Streamline Boats of Northwest Florida where, on a reimbursement basis, they perform the work on the building with our oversight, our engineering oversight, and then we reimburse them for work done.”
He added, “In discussions with the contractor that they’re using, they mentioned that the building could be finished out in less than three to five months.”
