Santa Rosa County secures $1.9M Triumph grant to keep I-10 industrial park growing

Triumph Gulf Coast last week voted to award Santa Rosa County $1.9 million to purchase 13 acres that will allow it to expand its Northwest Florida Industrial Park at Interstate 10 and add infrastructure.

The property is located east of 47 acres Buffalo Rock obtained in January with plans to construct a distribution center. Buffalo Rock, the nation's largest family-owned bottler of Pepsi and Dr. Pepper products, is the industrial park's newest and largest tenant. Its presence in East Milton is expected to bring 350 to 400 new jobs to Santa Rosa County.

Construction of the distribution center is expected to begin late this year or early in 2024, according to county documents.

With the addition of Buffalo Rock the county was close to capacity within the Northwest Florida Industrial Park at I-10. Three other distribution centers for Damian's Ice Cream, Hershey's Ice Cream and Lovell Government Services, which supplies unique medical, surgical and pharmaceutical resources to military clients, including the Department of Defense, had also signed on in the last year to build within the confines of the industrial park.

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The additional acreage will allow the county to add more infrastructure inside the industrial park, add an additional tenant or expand the existing footprint of one or more of the existing tenants, according to Santa Rosa County Economic Director Shannon Ogletree.

Ogletree said the most reasonable option is probably adding another tenant to the park "just because of the layout of the buildings for the other companies."

Santa Rosa County brought a documented history of success to the Triumph Gulf Coast Board of Directors on Aug. 17 when Ogletree went before it to ask for the additional $1.9 million. It had made good use of a previous $3.4 million award from Triumph to use in finishing the infrastructure improvements that helped lure companies to the Northwest Florida Industrial Park at I-10.

Triumph Gulf Coast was created following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to distribute the more than $1.5 billion BP and others deemed responsible for the spill were ordered to pay the state of Florida as part of a legal settlement. Seventy five percent of the money was specifically set aside to pay for economic "recovery, diversification and enhancement" in eight Northwest Florida counties deemed disproportionately impacted by the spill.

"Triumph is what's making all of our growth," Ogletree said recently. "Development along the I-10 corridor would not be possible without Triumph."

Northwest Florida Industrial Park at I-10's location on four-lane State Road 87, in close proximity to the I-10 corridor, has companies "literally beating down the door" to find space within the county's industrial footprint, Ogletree said.

"The I-10/87 corridor is gaining attention of logistics companies from across the Southeast. They see this area as having good access to various markets across multiple states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia," Ogletree said. "We need this parcel along with others to continue to grow our targeted industry of distribution trade."

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Just up the road from the Northwest Florida Industrial Park at I-10, the county has begun work to create what will be a much larger Milton Interchange Park. It will occupy just under 200 acres and is also being developed with a big assist from Triumph Gulf Coast, which has provided $15.9 million to put down infrastructure at the location.

Ogletree said companies with distribution and transportation needs have already begun expressing interest in locating within the Milton Interchange Park.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Triumph award allows Santa Rosa to expand its Interstate 10 industrial site