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Development
Recovery Effort
Pensacola drums up support for waterfront development centered around a maritime museum.
"Not all will be Spanish galleons," Fetterman says of the sunken vessels. But with an almost 450-year history dating from a hurricane-battered Spanish exploration in 1559, there's little doubt of the potential. Besides: "We've had the logging industry, the fishing industry -- so many unique things for a curator," Fetterman says.
Until recently, Fetterman, president of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, had been occupied with organizing a recently launched expansion of that museum. But last year, he discovered two other community leaders with similar visions.
By this spring, the ideas of Fetterman, healthcare consultant and baseball team owner Quint Studer and University of West Florida President John Cavanaugh had meshed -- and sparked citizen enthusiasm through some 50 public meetings. The Pensacola City Council recently approved plans for the Community Maritime Park, to be located on 27.5 acres of unused, city-owned downtown waterfront and with $30 million of the $70.4-million cost already committed from the private sector. First-phase completion is expected in 2007.
Studer's contributions to the park idea include a 3,500-seat multiuse stadium for his Central League Pensacola Pelicans baseball team. He'll also donate $2.25 million and build a $9-million office building for his 86-employee business. His motivation: What he sees as the community's need for revitalization.
"This is an opportunity to be part of the solution," says the Studer Group CEO, recently named among the "Top 100 Most Powerful People" by Modern Healthcare magazine. Citing Escambia County's rank as poorest among Florida counties of 250,000-plus population, he emphasizes the project's potential for boosting education and creating jobs. A UWF study estimates the park could create more than 700 jobs.
To Cavanaugh, the project is a way for UWF to further expand its presence downtown, add depth to its marine biology programs and showcase the work of its already recognized Archeology Institute. UWF will manage and, through education grants, help fund the maritime museum, which will include an aquarium and research center. It also will bring history and marine biology classes downtown.
Numerous groups already are signaling interest in developing the $8-million private-retail portion of the park's master plan, says Mort O'Sullivan, managing partner of O'Sullivan Creel CPA and consulting firm, who's assisting with fund raising.
