Add another $6.4M: Money keeps pouring in for Santa Rosa's Whiting Aviation Park

Santa Rosa County has received a $6.4 million Defense Community Infrastructure Partnership grant from the federal government to assist in the completion of a taxiway and apron at its Whiting Field Aviation Park.

The county was one of 17 entities in the country, and three in Florida, to receive a slice of the $100 million awarded by the Department of Defense as part of a Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot Program.

"I didn't think we had a snowball's chance of winning this," Shannon Ogletree, the county's economic development director, told county commissioners earlier this week when he publicly revealed the grant award.

A news release described the DCIP as a competitive grant program for states and communities to use for infrastructure enhancements to support military value, the training of cadets at independent cover educational institutions, installation resiliency, and/or family quality of life that benefits their local installations.

"DCIP has leveraged partnerships at the local level to build a ‘one community’ approach to delivering infrastructure," Brendan Owens, the assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment, said in the release.

More: 'This is lift off': Leonardo Helicopters breaks ground on $65M Santa Rosa County project

The $6.4 million will be pooled with a $1.5 million state appropriation announced in June and used to construct the apron and taxiway that will serve to connect the Aviation Park to neighboring NAS Whiting Field in Milton, a base where 100% of all initial helicopter training for the Navy, Coast Guard and Marines takes place.

The county has begun the initial grading work required at the Aviation Park to construct the taxiway and apron, Ogletree said. The park's first tenant, Leonardo Helicopters, broke ground on the property in July.

Leonardo is under contract to build the TH-73 "Alpha Thrasher" helicopters presently in use at Whiting Field. Plans call for the company, through a unique private public partnership involving the county, the military and the state's Space Florida, to invest over $65 million in the construction of a 113,000-square-foot helicopter maintenance facility.

The taxiway will link the company and other aviation park tenants to Whiting Field and its 6,000-foot runway and air traffic control center.

In a press release, William LaPlante, the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said the grants it has provided are meant to encourage the type of relationship Santa Rosa County enjoys with Whiting Field.

The city of Pensacola also received a grant of just under $5 million from the program to use in constructing a parking apron at Pensacola International Airport in support of Naval Air Station Pensacola and Whiting Field.

"The Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot Program continues to be a critical program that demonstrates the importance of the relationship between installations and their surrounding communities in delivering critical infrastructure needs to support military service members, their families, and their communities," LaPlante said.

Though the $6.4 million grant brings the county within approximately $1 million of the initial estimate of $9 million to cover the cost of the taxiway and accompanying apron, Ogletree said he continues to seek funds for the project.

"It will allow us to do more," he said.

He said the county has applied for a $4.2 million from the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund and another $3.5 million federal grant from the Economic Development Administration.

The county is also continuing to work to lure tenants to the Whiting Field Aviation Park, and Ogletree said the more that can be done to entice aviation-related business to the area the better.

"Success breeds success," he said. "Were chatting with other companies. People are asking why does Leonardo want to be here. This is a true aviation industrial park now."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Santa Rosa receives $6.4 million grant for Whiting Field Aviation Park