A look at the possible placement of the floating dry dock [ Gulf County ]
After more than eight years of planning, the Triumph Gulf Coast Board on June 22 unanimously approved Gulf County’s largest grant funding to date, $23.5 million earmarked for a floating dry dock project expected to create approximately 400 full-time, competitive to high-paying jobs.
Formally known as the Gulf County Floating Drydock Maintenance, Overhaul and Repair Facility, the project’s application was awarded an “A” rating and is regarded by local officials as a major step forward for economic development in Gulf County.
All five county commissioners attended the Triumph meeting at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City.
“We are super excited. We partnered with Eastern (Shipbuilding Group) years ago, and this project is a game changer for Gulf County,” said Sandy Quinn, chairman of the board of county commissioners. “Every kid is not going to college. Some kids just want to graduate from high school; they want to get a good paying job and live and work right here in Gulf County, and this is a project that will do that for those kids.”
The next steps in the process are to negotiate the term sheet for the project.
“We look forward to negotiating the term agreement for the project and the formal award of funds in the next couple of months, said Jim McKnight, executive director of the Gulf County Economic Development Coalition, who has been instrumental in working with Triumph to tailor the proposal over the years.
A dry dock is a floating platform that lifts ships out of the water for inspection, repair, and maintenance. McKnight said there is currently a 10-month backlog at shipyards in Tampa and Mobile, so the Port St. Joe facility will help meet a growing demand for ship repair services.
A rendering of the proposed floating dry dock [ Gulf County ]
He said the 400 full-time shipbuilding jobs for repairing, maintaining, and outfitting ships will benefit primarily young people of Gulf and Franklin County who will be employed “at a salary level sufficient for them to live in our counties. It will help create career opportunities for local residents and allow young people to build careers without leaving the area.”
These jobs will include opportunities for engineers, welders, electricians, carpenters, mechanics, administrative professionals, and other skilled trades.
The Triumph funds represent nearly 37 percent of the project’s total forecasted cost of about $64 million.
The remaining $40.5 million will come from other sources that include a $6 million Florida Commerce Job Growth Grant award, a $4 million Rural Infrastructure Grant, a pending $10 million grant from the federal Economic Development Administration and $20.5 million in Gulf County bond and Eastern Shipbuilding lease proceeds.
Located within an Opportunity Zone in a rural Florida county, the project’s application scored a return on investment of about $22 of additional household income for every Triumph dollar expended, culminating in $317.5 million in additional household incomes over the 10 years following the job ramp-up period. The cost to Triumph is $58,750 per job.
The most recent updated request “substantially reduces the original Triumph ask and reframes the project as a phased infrastructure initiative intended to support Eastern Shipbuilding Group’s continued presence and expansion in Gulf County.”
The revised budget provides for $40 million in floating drydock and breakwater construction; $14 million for dredging; $8.5 million for mooring “dolphins,” defined as isolated, man-made marine structures built in the water to secure and tie off ships or barges; and $1.5 million for heavy moorings.
Initial infrastructure improvements will include bulkhead improvements at Eastern Shipbuilding Group’s outfitting facilities, dredging along the bulkhead and into the turning basin, construction of mooring and heavy dolphins, breakwater armoring for bulkhead mooring protection, and placement of the floating drydock, measuring 428-feet long by 120-feet wide by 45-feet deep.
The total project includes heavy weather moorings designed to mate with pier side heavy weather mooring infrastructure and mooring dolphins designed to mate with a complementary system mounted to mooring dolphins. This mooring system limits side to side movements of the dock, while allowing for free up and down movement to account for tidal changes and submergence/re-floating operations.
Construction of the floating drydock is expected to take up to 36 months after the public procurement process and the letting of a contract. Necessary dredging activities and construction of mooring structures will be completed concurrently with the construction of the drydock.
The Gulf County Commission will retain ownership of the floating drydock with a lease with Eastern. The company will be responsible for maintenance, upkeep and repair of the drydock pursuant to the terms of a negotiated triple-net lease. Eastern will agree to exclusively operate the drydock at Port St. Joe.
The updated proposal projects the improved facility will enable Eastern to maintain 400 full-time equivalent positions, an increase from the 215 jobs originally proposed, and notes the average shipbuilding salary reported by Florida Commerce is $88,342, compared with an average wage in Gulf County of $55,397.
“In the context of a rural county that has struggled to recruit major employers because of distance from four-lane highway and interstate access, this level of infrastructure support is likely necessary to secure and retain high-wage maritime employment and to establish a long-sought industrial cluster around ship repair and overhaul in Port St. Joe,” reads the application.
In its history of Port St. Joe’s economy, the application notes that in 1994, a Florida Constitutional Amendment banned fishing nets, and five years later, the paper mill closed its doors after nearly 60 years of operation.
“The community began what would become a desperate decades-long campaign to attract jobs and economic stability to Gulf County,” it reads. “Despite sporadic flashes of hope, meaningful and stable employment has been elusive for nearly 30 years. Residents are traveling further and further distances to provide for their families. Eventually, out of necessity, many chose to relocate elsewhere.”
The application notes that fewer than 46% of Gulf County’s population is in the workforce, which is nearly 20% below the state average. The civilian workforce declined to a record low in 2000, and then rose to a record high in 2005 with the real estate boom, but has since experienced an overall general decline.
The application notes that Eastern Shipbuilding Group and Gulf County “have a strong partnership and track record in collaborating to produce shipbuilding excellence.”
Eastern, originally established in 1976 in Bay County, has grown into a mid-sized tier 2 shipyard primarily engaged in new construction and repair of government and commercial vessels in Bay and Gulf Counties.
The partnership in Port St. Joe began in 2012, when Eastern secured an exclusive long-term lease with the St, Joe Company for vessel construction and repair on 20 acres with the option to secure an additional adjacent 20 acres. The property includes approximately 1,000 feet of deepwater bulkhead on St. Joe Bay, adjacent to a congressionally authorized shipping channel and turning basin.
“Gulf County subsequently applied for a state grant for the rehabilitation of the site into a working shipbuilding facility capable of supporting new vessel construction outfitting, test and trials, and final delivery,” reads the application. In the Florida Legislature’s 2017 regular session, it appropriated $6 million for this project, of which $1 million was designated for dredging and $5 million for upland infrastructure and costs associated with construction of a floating drydock.
In May 2018, Eastern, Gulf County and the St. Joe Company executed an economic development agreement whereby the county undertook responsibility for the design, construction and oversight of the legislatively appropriated projects in Port St Joe. Design and construction of the new facility began shortly thereafter with the award for construction management services and the award of a design contract for a floating drydock.
The 2017 agreement between the Florida Department of Transportation and the Gulf County Commission includes $1 million for the engineering design, permitting, mobilization and dredging of a submergence pit to a depth of at least 48 feet at the proposed location of the floating drydock and 35 feet along the remainder of the bulkhead at Port St Joe.
Gulf County intends to place dredged material in the area already designated and permitted for this purpose under the existing ACOE channel and turning basin dredging permit.
A10,000 square feet expandable warehouse and other requisite service structures have been installed across the upland parcel, and Eastern has completed additional infrastructure improvements that were required but not covered by the grant, reads the application.
In early 2021, the rehabilitated facility was officially commissioned and Eastern began using it to perform final vessel outfitting, tests, and sea trials on several new construction vessel contracts.
Letters of support for the project were submitted by the Franklin County Board of County Commissioners, Apalachee Regional Planning Council, Florida’s Great Northwest,
Opportunity Florida, Gulf County School District and the Gulf County Economic Development Coalition.