Florida's Governor Backs New Shipyard Proposal in Pensacola

On Wednesday, the Pensacola shipyard proposal known as "Project Maeve" received a meaningful gesture of support from Florida Gov. Ron Desantis' administration: a $9 million city grant for infrastructure improvements related to the creation of the brand-new enterprise.

"We’re [making] a $9 million investment to support the construction of two boatbuilding facilities at the Port of Pensacola. These facilities will produce complex Navy ship modules for submarines and surface ships, and they are projected to create 2,000 jobs for Floridians in shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing," said DeSantis in a statement.

The grant underwrites site development, utilities and construction for two new shipbuilding facilities at Port of Pensacola. The port has also applied for $76 million in funding from the BP Deepwater Horizon settlement to help support the proposed operator, Australian defense shipbuilding firm Birdon. The total project cost is estimated at about $275 million in two phases: first, a panel line and module fabrication facility, followed by an assembly bay and office complex to support ship construction.

The envisioned project would be a significant Tier 2 operation with 400,000 square feet of new manufacturing space to support the U.S. Navy's distributed-shipbuilding enterprise. It would be the biggest single addition of new jobs in Pensacola's history, and would add new hiring demand in a competitive market for skilled welders and shipfitters on the Gulf Coast, drawing from the same labor pool as Ingalls Shipbuilding (80 miles to the west), Austal USA (50 miles to the west) and Eastern Shipbuilding (100 miles to the east).

In addition to modules, the Project Maeve site would be equipped to build vessels of up to 400 feet in length - an appropriate size for the Navy's MUSV unmanned-vessel program, which Birdon has joined in conjunction with Mythos AI. The consortium is one of seven finalists in the recently restructured MUSV competition.

The new shipyard project would be a big economic lift for Pensacola: it would bring in about 1,440 onsite jobs paid at an average of $68,000 a year, plus another 560 professional positions paying about $112,000 a year. In a city with a median household income of about $74,000 per year, that would be a big boost. "This project will change the trajectory of our city for generations to come," said Mayor D.C. Reeves in a statement earlier this year.