Pensacola's $83.5M ST Engineering Hangar 3 is on course. Hangar 4? Not so much
Pensacola is moving forward with construction on a third hangar for ST Engineering for $83.5 million but the funding for a fourth hangar is now an open question.
The $210 million project code-named "Project Titan" dates back to former Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward's administration, which helped shepherd the completion of the first ST Engineering hangar in 2018. The goal was to build three more hangars with ST Engineering to bring the total number of jobs at the facility to 1,725 when fully operational.
Former Mayor Grover Robinson spent the early months of his administration working to secure the $210 million, mostly from state and federal grants. The second hangar opened at the beginning of 2023 just a few months into Mayor D.C. Reeves' term.
It might be no surprise that six years after the original funding estimate of $210 million was put together, the funding was not enough in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the high inflation levels in 2021 and 2022 that accompanied it.
Figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that $210 million in 2018 is the equivalent of $261 million in January 2024.
The city sought bids for the second phase of Project Titan earlier this year, but when bids came back higher than expected, a new round of bids went out to have Hangar No. 4 as an "additive addition" but not required part of the contract.
The City Council is set to vote next week on an $83.5 million contract with the Gulfport, Mississippi, construction firm the Roy Anderson Corporation to build only Hangar 3.
According to the financing numbers provided to the City Council for the vote next week, the city will have approximately $45.2 million left for the construction of Hangar 4 from the original $210 million.
"We'll continue to work with ST Engineering and the funding that we have to come up with a solution," Reeves said when asked about the shortfall. "We can look at modifying Hangar 4 or we can explore other funding opportunities. I think everything's still on the table of how to get Hangar 4 complete."
Reeves said the city is excited to move forward with construction on Hangar 3 and is happy with the progress made toward the goal of 1,725 jobs at the facility.
"We feel good about where the project is," Reeves said.
Reeves said the city has also been playing an indirect role with ST Engineering and Pensacola State College working together to establish an aircraft mechanic school across the street from the new Hangar 3. The school received funding from Triumph Gulf Coast and is intended to give local workers the opportunity to be hired for the new jobs.
"The most vital aspect of this project right now is getting that school done," Reeves said. "Why did we do this project? We did this project to create jobs and to give Pensacolians a better quality of life or to move people into the area who are having their families here and spending their money here, right? That's the economic development aspect of it, and without that engine of the AMP school, it's going to be difficult to live up to that."
ST Engineer's first two hangars are located off Langley Avenue. Hangar 3 and Hangar 4 will be located off Tippin Avenue in the old Campus Heights subdivision. In the 2000s, the city began buying all the homes in that neighborhood for an airport commerce park, and nearly all of the homes have long been demolished.
ST Engineering is the world's largest aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul company and is based in Singapore. The company operates several U.S. facilities. In 2022, the company announced it had signed a long-term agreement with United Airlines to provide its maintenance, repair and overhaul services at its Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola locations.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola ST Engineering hangar 4 funding in question
