USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C om mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia / S a n ta Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Se r v i ng t he Fi r st Jud icial Ci rcu it
Section A, Page 1
Vol. 18, No. 18
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
May 2, 2018
1 Section, 8 Pages
Shipping News:
I
Blend of business and research could be by Will Isern future for port
t’s been a tough few years for the Port of Pensacola, but a new shipping business and the potential for a multimillion dollar research facility could hold promise for a brighter future. The port has struggled since the collapse of the global oil market, to which an advisory committee had anchored the port’s fate near the start of the decade. Conditions had fallen to the point in recent years that city councilman Brian Spencer, a potential mayoral candidate, had proposed exploring alternative uses for the roughly 50 acres of waterfront property the port occupies. Good news for the port came in January with the announcement that World Direct Shipping, based in Tampa, would begin shipping cargo between Pensacola and Mexico. With the port’s main tenant, Offshore Inland, nearly $1 million behind on payment of dockage fees and port expenses outpacing revenue, securing new business is a major win for the port, particularly as it faces stiff competition from elsewhere in the state and in Mobile. Because of its relatively small size, Pensacola’s port had been largely left out of the container shipping market. But port director Amy Miller said that in World Direct the port found a ideal partner. “World Direct Shipping is a big win for the Port because it gets us into the container business with a service that is a size and frequency that we
can be successful with,” said Miller. “Port of Pensacola is never going to be a major container port. We’re just too small in terms of land area to handle hundreds of thousands of shipping containers. However, we’ve long believed that there are small, niche container services that would be a good fit for us. World Direct fits that bill perfectly.” Miller said that discussions with World Direct lasted for nearly a year and required beating out several other ports as the company looked to expand. “At the end of the day, it came down to a combination of factors,” said Miller. “Price, of course, was one of those factors. We had to beat or at least match the prices offered by a last remaining competitor and, I don’t mean strictly port fees; I mean the total all-in average cost of a container move. That meant working with Pate Stevedores, our harbor pilot and other service providers to provide a total pricing package that worked. But it wasn’t just about price. Customer service was a factor, too. Working with a smaller port and a local, family owned stevedore allowed World Direct the opportunity to get the level of attention and personalized service that larger ports and larger firms reserve for only their top customers and that was important to them.” It’s unclear so far what impact World Direct might have on port revenues, but Miller said it could be worth several hundred thousand dollars if the service can be marketed effectively.
Long term, however, the port’s future may lie in more than just commercial operations. A $23 million proposal for a new research facility at the port has been submitted to Triumph Gulf Coast, the organization responsible for doling out BP oil spill money. The Center for Dynamic Ocean Technologies
That kind of a hybrid model, with a mix of research and commercial interests at the port, could point the way back to prosperity for a port that predates the founding of the nation. Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward’s spokesman, Vernon Stewart said that
We expect to unveil our port action plan later this year that will establish a new context for the port that brings together public infrastructure, private industry, the research and development community and public and private funding sources. Vernon Stewart, Public Information Officer, City of Pensacola
would be a partnership between the city, county, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition and a handful of private business interests, among others. The group is seeking $15 million from Triumph, with the additional $8 million planned to come from the group itself. If approved and funded, the facility would be housed in the port’s Warehouse 4 and could foster innovation in ocean technology, creating spinoff business that would allow Pensacola to grow its own industry.
Hayward plans to unveil an action plan for the port later this year, and that the CDOT is part of that “new context.” “When it comes to the future of the port it’s important to remember that being a port city
doesn’t mean always being the same kind of a port,” said Stewart. “In order to continue to generate positive economic benefit to their owners (in our case the taxpayers), ports all over the world evolve and reinvent themselves over time. Oftentimes traditional port operational zones and facilities morph into active, community-loved spaces that continue to support waterdependent uses and harbor activities. We expect to unveil our port action plan later this year that will establish a new context for the port that brings together public infrastructure, private industry, the research and development community and public and private funding sources. Certainly the proposed Center for Dynamic Ocean Technologies can be part of that context.” Whatever the plan, it will be up to a new administration to steer the port into the future. Hayward announced in March that he would not seek reelection for a third term as mayor.