Santa Rosa County Economic Director Shannon Ogletree has shared the secret weapon he deployed to concoct what may have be his most creative job creation idea yet.
Tequila.
He said he was sipping on the devil's brew when the idea came to him of purchasing a parcel of land, making it marketable to businesses looking to locate in the county and leasing it. Now, with the help of the Triumph Gulf Coast Board of Directors, and the go-ahead from the County Commission, the concept is nearing reality.
And, as Ogletree told the governing board Monday, the Triumph Board liked the idea so much "they're looking at this as maybe something other counties may follow."
At its Aug. 22 meeting, the Triumph Board is slated to vote to finalize a $7 million contract by which it will provide Santa Rosa County the wherewithal to spend $4.3 million to purchase 40 acres on Garcon Point Road to build a warehouse that it will lease to a private company. The additional funding will go toward installing infrastructure on the site.
The building will be constructed next to a Stuckey's establishment close to Interstate 10. Ogletree told commissioners the intent of the development deal was to "bring in more jobs and more opportunities. A conservative estimate put the number of jobs that could be created by a potential new business that would fit that size location at 175.
The construction-ready land, suitable to build a warehouse of 400,000 square feet, will be leased to the highest bidder, and Ogletree believes the property can be rented for between $400,000 and $500,000 annually. The lease payments will be put back into economic development to be used for purposes such as matching funds for grants or as incentives for new businesses looking for a place to settle.
"This opens up more possibilities of what we can do to be more competitive with other states," he said.
Ogletree said he also believes the leased land, with a large business on it, will generate up to another half-million dollars in ad valorem taxes.
Ogletree said he is preparing a request for qualifications to businesses interested in making the land purchase. The RFQ will go out after Triumph finalizes the grant and the county signs off on it.
Triumph Gulf Coast is a nonprofit created by Florida to distribute $1.5 billion in BP oil spill settlement funds to economic development projects in the eight Northwest Florida counties adversely impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. As of January the agency had received 134 applications totaling over $1,271,900,000 in requests.
Ogletree said he believes the concept for the land lease project is unique to Florida and, as far as he knew, anywhere else. County Commissioner Kerry Smith, into whose district the new building will be constructed, called the idea "a great model for future planning."
When Ogletree conceived the idea for the land purchase and lease project he called the proposal project Cruise Control. He has been working on it with former state Rep. Jayer Williamson. Williamson is employed with a couple other former state legislators by a company called Oak Strategies, a lobbying and consulting firm.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Tequila-inspired economic development proposal gets Triumph Board thumbs up
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