PNJ business reporter Carlton Proctor reports on his blog that a “board member tried to drag Cohen’s name from Avalex CEO Tad Ihns whose decision to build an $18 million headquarters in Gulf Breeze set off a wave of recriminations within the Pensacola business community.”
The Chamber board members that pressed Ihns for answers as to why Avalex is not in the City’s Technology Park were PNJ Publisher Kevin Doyle and me. We both wanted to know what went wrong and why Gulf Breeze could move so quickly.
The answer was the city staff and Thaddeus Cohen in particular. Proctor and others might not like the answer, but Kevin and I weren’t wrong to ask the question. No one was “begging” Ihns, especially not Kevin. However, at some point we have to deal with the fact that the City muffed this one.
Avalex didn’t move because the Gulf Breeze Chamber is better than the Pensacola Chamber. They moved because the City of Gulf Breeze was more responsive than the City of Pensacola. Attacking Kevin Doyle for asking the tough questions is ridiculous.
Read Proctor post.