SHARE:
Economic Yearbook 2005 - Northwest Florida
Hammers and Nails
Northwest Florida region is clamoring for construction workers.
2.?Santa Rosa
3. Okaloosa
4. Walton
5. Holmes
6. Washington
7. Jackson
8. Bay
9. Calhoun
10. Liberty
11. Gulf
12. Franklin
Waterfront development, increasing population growth and the Hurricane Ivan recovery are pushing a construction boom across the region. Contractors are clamoring for construction workers, building industries are expanding and materials manufacturers are beginning to scout the region for sites. At Wewahitchka in Gulf County, Taunton Truss is using a grant from the Gulf Coast Workforce Board to train framers both for its own construction business and for others.
"Housing is going to be a real issue for a number of years," says Florida's Great Northwest Executive Director Al Wenstrand. "But we should come out with a stronger housing stock in five years than going into it."
Real estate appreciation is a related trend: In Walton County, the median single-family sales price in December was $273,500, up 36% from a year ago.
NEW COMPANIESFamily Dollar's Southeast regional distribution center at Marianna started shipping in January and is now Jackson County's largest private employer, with more than 400 workers.
Plastics-fastener manufacturer Bay State Cable Ties relocated last year to Crestview from Massachusetts, hiring 48. It plans acquisitions.
New Jersey-based American Water plans to open a 200-employee customer service center in Pensacola.
84 Lumber Co. opened a retail and manufacturing center last year in Milton and plans to eventually employ 150.
Surgeon to the superstars James Andrews, of Birmingham, Ala., is partnering with Baptist Health Care on a $30-million, 126-employee Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in Gulf Breeze. The center is expected to be a sports celebrity draw.
EXPANSIONSEmployment at the Navy Federal Credit Union customer service center in Pensacola has grown from 56 in 2003 to 373 employees. It expects to reach 500 this year.
Silver Bullet Technology in Pensacola is ramping up office space, anticipating a sales boost of up to $10 million from its Ranger check-scanning software.
Demand for CityNet's technology for wireless router networks is prompting the Panama City company to add 100 employees, with help from a $104,763 Workforce Florida training grant.
Crestview Aerospace hired 314 employees last year partially as a result of a new $8.5-million Boeing contract for work on the military's Chinook helicopter. Payroll, now at 850, is expected to total 950 by year-end.
Pensacola healthcare provider Sacred Heart Health System, investing $25 million, has completed the outpatient medical park at Pensacola and launched a medical park at Pace, with new hires expected next year.
PENSACOLA & Escambia County
Rebuild Northwest Florida's effort in leading the Hurricane Ivan recovery is on the front burner in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. "We've got a three-to-five-year marathon; right now we're in the stand-up phase,'' says organization co-Executive Director Garrett Walton...
A proposed $70-million waterfront development to include a baseball stadium, maritime museum and university center is drawing widespread citizen support...
Pensacola's downtown core will see the largest-ever inflow of residential space if blueprints for a half-dozen projects become brick and mortar...
Historic preservationists are looking for ways to save 47 storm-damaged historic structures at Pensacola Naval Air Station that the Navy plans to demolish.
Notable Names: Quint Studer, retired Vice Adm. Jack Fetterman and John Cavanaugh are partners in the proposed downtown waterfront plan. Studer, a healthcare consultant and Pelicans Baseball owner, pledges about $12 million. He will relocate his ball team and business to the site. Fetterman, president of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, has committed $12.8 million for the maritime museum. Cavanaugh, president of the University of West Florida, promises to move programs, including marine biology, into the teaching/conference center.
PANAMA CITY & Bay County
The Federal Aviation Administration could give final clearance this fall for relocating Panama City-Bay County International Airport to 4,000 acres donated by St. Joe Co. at West Bay. The $275-million airport, scheduled for completion in 2008-09, could attract new air service and spur economic development projects. St. Joe plans a related development of 3.9 million square feet of industrial, commercial and retail space, 4,900 residential units, a marina and a hotel...
Honeywell, saying it's losing money on original equipment manufacturing at the site, will close its Lynn Haven plant by year-end, laying off some 220...
Simon Property is planning a 900,000-sq.-ft. development, including a 16-screen Rave Motion Pictures complex, on 93 acres it bought from St. Joe Co. at Pier Park, a catalyst for change at Panama City Beach.
APALACHICOLA & Franklin County
Notable Name: The $53.5-million Franklin Correctional Institution at Carrabelle will become the county's largest employer, with 295 jobs, upon completion in December. The first inmates will arrive in June to fill the first completed dormitory.
FORT WALTON & Okaloosa County
The Economic Development Council of Okaloosa tallied 812 new jobs in the county last year, a majority of them with defense industries, the county's economic driver...
Education and economic development partners want to develop a high-tech industrial park near the University of Florida engineering campus, possibly called the Okaloosa Research Campus...
Okaloosa Schools' alliance with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Crestview Aerospace is among a handful of inaugural partnerships in the county's new career-technical institutes. "The hardest people to get these days are technical people and engineers," says Okaloosa-Walton College Vice President David Goetsch. "We're home-growing."
Notable Names: Innovative Okaloosa County Schools Superintendent Don Gaetz heads the highest-performing school system in Florida. Last year, the district launched the Community High-Okaloosa Institutes for Career Education (CHOICE program), called "the model for all of Florida to follow'' by Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings...
Peter Bos' company, Legendary Inc., has launched HarborWalk Village, a $200-million, festive fishing village that will contain 170,000 square feet of commercial space alongside a 14-story condominium tower.
Holmes/Washington Counties
Notable Name: Jyl Eickmann, director of both the Holmes County Chamber and the Development Commission, is steering several efforts to provide market advantages in jobs creation, including the formation of a Tourist Development Council, passage of a bed tax, development of an economic development business district and the use of Hub Zone and Enterprise Zone programs.
Jackson / Calhoun / Liberty Counties
Notable Name: WestPoint Stevens will hire up to 120 employees at its new distribution/small manufacturing operation at Marianna Industrial Park. The firm, which invested some $750,000 to convert a former Russell plant, is also adding about 100 workers at its 700-employee Chipley manufacturing plant.
Walton County
Notable Name: Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort is expanding guest accommodations this spring by 500 rooms or suites in two condominiums and two Marriott-branded hotels. The 2,400-acre resort is midpoint in a 10-year, $400-million redevelopment plan launched in 1998.
Santa Rosa County
Notable Name: County Commission Chairman Gordon Goodin wants to see development of a south-county technical high school with joint enrollment between Pensacola Junior College and Santa Rosa Schools. He's also pushing to swap alternate county-owned sites for two Navy landing fields, Spencer and Holley, which are both experiencing encroachment by residential development.
Gulf County
Notable Name: Taunton Truss in Wewahitchka is launching its third expansion in four years, adding capacity in truss and wall-panel manufacturing and branching into computerized lock-key construction. Payroll last year doubled to 113, and sales increased by 63%. "If we didn't expand to meet the demand and become the big plant, we saw the danger of having someone else come in and do it, and we'd be forever the little plant,'' says owner Abigail Taunton.
2.4% or
higher1.1% -
2.3%1% or
lessPOPULATION TOTALSCounty???2005Average Annual Growth
????2001-2005??????TrendBay158,4921.44%Calhoun12,8050.12%Escambia303,4740.57%Franklin10,3841.18%Gulf15,1920.90%Holmes19,3320.92%Jackson47,1620.48%Liberty7,0720.12%Okaloosa186,6802.03%Santa Rosa139,9353.54%Walton48,0092.95%Washington22,0650.69%FLORIDA17,612,5841.84%
