UPDATED: Eastern Shipbuilding expanding to Gulf County via agreement with St. Joe Company

That didn’t take long.

Less than a month after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the St. Joe Company and the Port of Port St. Joe Port Authority to develop and market the port, St. Joe announced an agreement to lease a portion of the old paper mill site to Eastern Shipbuilding Group out of Panama City.

St. Joe announced that it had agreed to lease 20 acres on the paper mill site that Eastern Shipbuilding will use to expand its existing shipbuilding, vessel construction and repair and industrial steel fabrication operations, according to a press release.

ESG is currently in the process of filling 500 new positions needed to meet its current and future contracts for vessel manufacturing. ESG recently landed a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract.

“It is very overwhelming,” said Johanna White, chairwoman of the Port of Port St. Joe Port Authority. “We finally can see some jobs, good jobs, coming to Port St. Joe. The partnership with the St. Joe Company is amazing and so different. They accomplished in three months what we’ve been trying years to do for years.

“It doesn’t matter whether this is on St. Joe land or Port Authority land, it will help us all build our footprint and bring jobs to Port St. Joe. Our alliance is bearing fruit. It’s a win-win. I am just so overwhelmed.”

The Port St. Joe mill site provides ESG, which will continue its current operations in Panama City and Allanton, access to one of only 14 congressionally-authorized deepwater ports in Florida.

“The hard and diligent work of our current workforce has earned Eastern Shipbuilding Group the manufacturing contracts that necessitate our expansion to Port St. Joe,” said Brian D’Isernia, president of Eastern Shipbuilding Group, in a release.

“Eastern Shipbuilding Group remains committed to manufacturing the highest quality vessels our customers demand in a global market.”

St. Joe has been working with the Port St. Joe Port Authority, long at odds over port development but recently on the same page as evidenced by the MOU signed last month, to reposition the area for port-related industrial and commercial activities.

St. Joe’s former paper mill site is approximately 180 acres and offers approximately 2,000 linear feet of bulkhead, which has the potential to be expanded. The mill site is also adjacent to a federally-authorized turning basin and navigational channel.

St. Joe also owns about 4,700 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to the site, with more than three miles of frontage along the Gulf County Canal, which connects the Gulf of Mexico to Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway.

Additionally, Eastern’s Port St. Joe facility has access to nearly 80 miles of St. Joe Company-owned railway that links Port St. Joe to other railway systems, connecting to Gulf County to cities to the north.

“We are pleased to welcome Eastern Shipbuilding Group to Port St. Joe and Gulf County and see this as a first step to maximizing this region’s potential for port-related industrial and commercial activities,” says Park Brady, Chief Executive Officer for The St. Joe Company.

As White noted, St. Joe, as a partner, provides some of the key pieces of the puzzle to unlocking the potential of the port footprint, which would also include some 100 acres owned by the Port of Port St. Joe, including rail and other infrastructure.

In signing the MOU, St. Joe officials said they hoped to develop and market the entire acreage owned by the Port of Port St. Joe and the St. Joe Company, saying it was the most effective way of bringing development to the port.

Momentum for developing the Port of Port St. Joe began last February when Gov. Rick Scott, speaking at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner, spoke of the potential of the ports in Florida to be job creators and expressed interest in the development of the Port of Port St. Joe during an interview with a reporter.

A contingent of state officials visited the port facilities last fall and spoke at length of the potential and the need for a public/private partnership to grow the port.

Further, the scheduled completion of the widening of the Panama Canal in 2014, enhanced shipping opportunities with that expansion and the fact that geographically Northwest Florida ports among those closest in proximity once the expansion is completed fueled desires to develop the Port of Port St. Joe.

The Port of Port St. Joe also has an MOU with the Port of Panama City, which is nearing capacity, in which the latter supports shipping and marine activities in Gulf County.

“The expansion of Eastern Shipbuilding into Port St. Joe has the potential to provide the opportunity for many people to get back to work,” stated Port St. Joe Mayor Mel Magidson.

“We have weathered some difficult economic storms over time and this gives us a platform to stabilize our economy and begin attracting other businesses.”

A host of state and federal officials lauded the announcement, the vision of ESG and St. Joe and the partnership that figures to produce jobs and growth in a county where unemployment is over 10 percent.

State Sen. Bill Montford (D-Tallahassee) said, “This is wonderful news for the people of Gulf County and all of North Florida. This is a very important step in the rebuilding of the economy, in our area, that will pay dividends for many years to come. It is an excellent example of interested parties coming together for the purpose of doing what is practical and right.”

An earlier version of this story:

The St. Joe Company today announced that it will lease 20 acres of its former paper mill site in Port St. Joe to Eastern Shipbuilding Group (ESG) of Panama City. ESG plans to expand its existing shipbuilding, vessel construction and repair and industrial steel fabrication operations to Port St. Joe, according to a press release.

ESG's Port St. Joe facility is immediately adjacent to one of only 14 state-authorized deep water ports in Florida. The Port St. Joe facility will enable ESG to meet its current and emerging contracts for vessel manufacturing requirements and has the potential to create many new jobs in Port St. Joe. In order to perform these contracts, ESG is already in the process of hiring 500 new employees who will join ESG's current workforce.

Check back for more details or read Thursday's print edition of The Star