Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Port Director Lance Scott on SailGP, Birdon and the Inland Port
Transcript
- Rick Outzen: Welcome back. I'm Rick Altson. This is Rick's Blog Live. The Port of Pensacola is a hot commodity. People are talking about it not only here, but all over the world for a lot of different reasons. We've got with us Admiral Lance Scott, director of the port. Lance, thank you for speaker-1: Yeah, thanks for having me, Rick. Rick Outzen: big event on Monday at Sale GP, the professional sailing league. has officially launched their training base here as part of American Magic. this is, the mayor today at his press conference just talked about that this is a golden opportunity for our community. speaker-1: Correct. Correct. I mean the the chance to showcase Pensacola, not only as a world class sailing area with the bay, but just the hospitality and the opportunity here. And then I think as the mayor described, you know, as you bring in those teams, which this is gonna run through February with different camps in like seven to ten day blocks depending on two teams at a pop. but those folks are gonna experience Pensacola and then go back. and talk about what a great time they had here. Rick Outzen: What has American Magic been like as a tenant? they've opened up their their performance center, which is part of this training. what what are they like to work with? speaker-1: with. Fantastic. They are cooperative and that's the beauty I think of the Port of Pensacola. All the tenants understand the symbiotic relationship and we all work together in a hybrid model, right? Where we're doing cargo, we're doing maintenance repair overall and and we're doing sailing and soon to be shipbuilding. and so Tyson and his team really understand that and everyone leans in to everybody else's benefit as needed. And they they get that from a space perspective and everything else. Rick Outzen: Well you look at gosh, twenty years ago, you know, you know, when d the port was considered a drain on the city's economy. There were those that argued that. There were tons of different studies going back to the nineteen nineties of well, do we convert this to condos? Do we you know, do we give up yeah, we're never gonna be able to do containers and that's what all the shipping was done, we we'll never be able to compete. and It even was studied as late as the twenty tens when Mayor Ashton Hayward. This has evolved though now where I believe people admire the type of port that we're speaker-1: Yeah, I would hope so. I I'm certainly proud of what we are and where we're going. and I think really back to twenty nineteen, the Moffat Nickel study that was done with the port vision plan, which we're operating on now. And so that term hybrid port, first and foremost we're one of sixteen Florida deep water seaports, which is just a crucial you know, economic driver. But each port has its own different constraints, geography, you name it. And and so you've gotta find that niche that makes the sense that will work. And I and as I talk about I'm a downtown resident of District Six as the port of Pensacola, right? And so we view that with a responsibility to ensure that we're nested correctly, you know, to the benefit. Our mission is to definitely grow economic and long term social benefit for the city of Pensacola and the region. And I think we're really marching on that on all avenues. So we do the public facing, Portside Pickle, the ferry system. Right. And then we've got advanced manufacturing with American Magic and Soon to Be Bird On. And we do traditional cargo with CMEX and and G Vernova running their wind energy components through and then we've got maintenance repair and overhaul. So it just you know, I I joke that ship has sailed in terms of, hey, do we get the port out and do that? we're here to stay. Rick Outzen: it it's the bird on is is something that's developed over this past year, is could create as many as two thousand jobs. Right. the how do you see that fitting into the ecosystem of the port? speaker-1: Yeah, I think the key has been what we call the northeast quadrant discussed this morning, right? Some environmental stuff that was really remnants of Halcor the Rick Outzen: And for our for our for our viewers we're talking about between where you see the the buildings where American Magic and the fish house. speaker-1: There's sixteen acres there that has been looking for a new tenant, right? And so bird on I I was introduced to them last summer in July of twenty five and this really ties back to the whole national maritime strategy, right? Re restoring America's maritime dominance and part of that is this shipbuilding aspect in increasing our industrial base as a nation, right? Focused on Navy but also commercial, but really for us and Verdon it's that Navy shipbuilding capacity that they can bring to really all four coasts as we like to call it, the Gulf, the East, the West and and the the Great Lakes. And so they to me are gonna fit in fine. w I'm I recognize normally I get asked, well, what about noise? What about parking? What about track? Right, right. And so I you know, I think the the key for the public is Number one, we acknowledge that. Number two, we're certainly focused on it, and there are there are things in motion. Birdon's already done a nose noise study, excuse me, which has really driven kind of the facility layout plan on how how do we mitigate noise. Because there is some, but based on the data they've got, which we're now independently reviewing, right, just to just to ensure that's on that it makes sense for us as well and that we can talk about it to the public on what this really means. There there seems to be no really negligible increase in the activity there, right? So that's one. Parking has been a discussion and a strategy plan of do we go vertical with a parking garage eventually in Commendencia, or it'll be a hybrid model with commuters, that kind of thing. Right. And then we talk about two thousand jobs. Not all of them will be at the port and then they will be in shift work with facilities. There's discussion about traffic study. It's already ongoing from the F dot side of it, right? So I I just I always wanna reassure people that we're not waving fairy dust over things that I view as those are challenges, but those are planning factors that you gotta take into account. Rick Outzen: Well and and what I think what's what is I think are a big asset in this is is the state and federal government are partners in this deal. Yes. They want to see this happen. And as you mentioned before, we are part of a series of shipbuilding facilities along the Gulf Coast from from Panama City, you know, all the way to Pascagoula. Right. And and so it's there's the state has a stake in what we're doing and the federal government does, which I think makes a difference. Let's talk about we're and we're coming down the i this it always goes by way too fast, Lance, but we're looking at the mayor's has been talking talking about the the importance of an inland port. You and I walked the p the property on Monday and just seeing all the G E Vernova sales that go part of the windmills is taking up a lot of property. To me it seems like the inland port's a must have now. speaker-1: Well, I I view it as a must have for the growth spectrum. Right. So as Birdon comes in, and really you know, Birdon brings that industry American Magic's doing it to a smaller scale with a couple of their their clients, but the inland port allows us to move cargo, including traffic, right? Right up up the road, so to speak, the railroad. 'Cause it's all about the gateway and intermodal system and that's why we bring water, highway, rail, and then the airport. Right. that's how we would manage that. And you can actually put other facilities on the inland port too. So it's storage, which increases flexibility on our port. More Rick Outzen: More jobs. speaker-1: jobs at the end of the port for sure. Right. and then, you know, it allows me to potentially diversify with different cargo or different uses on a port without, you know, cutting into a revenue that's that is as is now but For me personally, and really for us as a business model, we need to grow that. We need to grow that volume and back to being responsible on how we move that cargo. That GE cargo doesn't have to sit at the port, right? The components come in on the ships about every four to five weeks and then they're they're trucked up to Scenic to the to the plant. Right. And then they're put together and then they're stored until they go out to the Midwest or southwest wherever the the wind farms are at. And so that doesn't have to sit at the port, it doesn't need the water access, right? So Rick Outzen: I got one question before you leave. You should you're supposed to be retired. how how's this retirement working for you? speaker-1: You well my wife keeps telling me I failed at miserably. but it it has been truly a joy. you know, I view it what what better opportunity than to be a resident. I'm a colour resident, and have the chance to shape the future. and so I enjoy that. It's a great staff, it's a great team. I'm a US Merchant Marine Academy graduate, so I'm back to my maritime roofs. This was my goal post Navy. and I just didn't realize it was gonna happen this fast, but you know, I believe it's happened for a reason and I am having fun. Rick Outzen: Great. Lance, thank you so much for coming. We're gonna speaker-1: Appreciate the time. Rick Outzen: go ahead take a break. We'll pay a few bills. We'll be right back. We're Rick's Blogged Live and I'm Rick Altson.