Unlocking the port's potential

Last week was significant for those who see the Port of Port St. Joe as a regional economic engine.

A visit by the Secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation, Ananth Prasad, to Gulf County for a look at the port and the landscape, and joined by several state officials, in particular state Rep. Marti Coley (R-Marianna), could be a change-maker.

Having state officials on the ground examining potential is a major step for a port that has languished while folks talk endlessly about the potential, like a dog in search of its tail.

The Apalachee Regional Planning Council, a regional economic development agency, has identified the Port of Port St. Joe has one of the most significant, if not the most significant, keys to job creation and economic development not just in Gulf County but Northwest Florida.

That makes it perfect for the governor’s mantra of seeking job creation.

When he visited for the annual Lincoln Day dinner earlier this year, Gov. Rick Scott became animated and passionate about the potential of the ports in Florida, including Gulf County, a view reflected in the recent announcement of his economic plan which put considerable emphasis on ports.

Further, that district FDOT staff are members of the port advisory team currently crafting a marketing plan and identifying potential customer bases and financial needs is crucial to the effort of raising the port’s profile.

However, they say talk is cheap and it is past time that all the talk is transformed into action on several levels.

This seems particularly true if, in fact, the Port of Port St. Joe is be a player when the expansion of the Panama Canal is finished sometime in 2014, as projected.

There is little time to waste in getting federal approval for the U.S. Army Corps to dredge the existing and federally-certified shipping channel off the coast.

Local and state officials should be pushing the state’s Congressional delegation in Washington, D.C. to spur the Army Corps to action on the dredging.

There is also little time to dally on bulkhead or uplands improvements needed to market as navigable destinations for people and goods the old mill site and the parcel to the north leased to the port.

There is scant time to expend on the final improvements to be made to bring customers and traffic over the barge terminal already in place along the Intracoastal Waterway.

The state may not have much money to pony up for the effort – in truth the port has garnered millions in state and federal funds to craft a master plan, create the barge terminal and make other improvements – but the county’s legislative delegation could take a cue from Coley and ensure that the development of the Port of Port St. Joe be a priority in the state’s grand plan to create jobs.

But Prasad also commented about private partners and for this the St. Joe Company is essential.

As visioning exercises during much of the previous decade demonstrated, the port is likely not developing without more hands on deck as partners and the partner poised in the best position is St. Joe.

The company owns the old mill site – and its existing bulkhead – that offers a toehold to coastal land that is a key to port expansion by allowing larger-draft ships access to the port facilities.

The old mill site is also critical to the development of the parcel to the north.

Being accessible to the larger ships, in addition to barge traffic that would benefit from the rail and inland waterway access the port currently provides, is critical if the port is ever to create the kind of customer base and in turn jobs that so many envision as its full potential.

But one thing the governor makes clear is that government can not create jobs, only the environment for creation, and Prasad was echoing that position when he noted that port development hinges on private partners, in particular The St. Joe Company.

And there is a link between community and St. Joe that should make the case for a focus on the port stronger.

This is where the company made riches as paper makers for over 60 years. The company took its name from the community from which it grew and while Port St. Joe was a mill town, its heartbeat was the mill whistle telling all when it was time to work, eat or play.

Post-mill, St. Joe has both put in to the community – donations for parks, school programs, hospitals, to name a few – and taken out – the move of a three-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 98 to accommodate a development.

But as changes on the board and in the company headquarters in Jacksonville, as job cuts have impacted even Florida’s largest landowner, focus and strategies changed.

One central reason for the upheaval within the company was its value and how much all those acres of land across Northwest Florida and southern Georgia were really worth.

So a public/private partnership to develop the port could create several winners.

While assisting in that development by providing land and marketing expertise, St. Joe can attach a value to its holdings while increasing the value by putting people back to work and creating for the wide swath of acreage St. Joe owns consumers.

The Port of Port St. Joe, meanwhile, can turns years of talk into plans to develop the kind of facility capable to handling a wide variety of goods and creating a slew of jobs for locals who badly need them.

And, just maybe, a community desperate for positive economic news will finally have the economic engine over which so much talk has been expended.