Okaloosa County BOCC — May 15, 2013 — Site Certification Memo to BCC — reading text

MEMO Date: May 14, 2013 To: Ernie Padgett, Okaloosa County Administrator From: Kay Rasmussen, Interim President and Caroline McCoy, Director of Business Expansion Subject: Gulf Power Site Certification Program – Request for placement on May 21, 2013 BCC Agenda Gulf Power is launching Florida’s first site certification program. The intent of this initiative is to help publicly-owned sites become certified, reducing the time and expense for businesses to locate here. The site certification program is designed to provide prospective businesses with comprehensive data on a site, assist communities with marketing them, and certify that the locations are ready for industrial development – it expedites the development process thereby saving time and money. Gulf Power is paying for the program design, for retaining McCallum Sweeney as the Site Consultant firm and paying 50% of the consultant fees (for Phase II and Phase III) for processing publicly-owned sites; the public entity property owner submits the remaining 50%. It is the Board of County Commissioners’ discretion on whether or not to partner with Gulf Power on this opportunity. Some of Florida’s biggest competitors in economic development – Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi – already have successful site certification programs and properties. History On April 10, 2013, Gulf Power hosted a Site Certification kick-off meeting in Fort Walton Beach. The county was invited and Dino Villani sent Tracy Stage, Deputy Director – Okaloosa County Airports, to attend on behalf of the airports. At that meeting, information packets regarding the process were provided to each participant. Attached you will find the essential materials for review (Appendix A – Program Overview, Appendix B – Phase II Applicant Acknowledgment & Appendix C – Phase III Site Certification). At this kick off, Mark Sweeney, Senior Principal at McCallum Sweeney Consulting, provided some background information on their capabilities and what is important to their clients. You will find background information on McCallum Sweeney and recent Northwest Florida Daily News articles in your packets. On May 3, 2013, the EDC was requested to submit a Letter of Intent on behalf of Okaloosa County. (Appendix D) Why are we here? The EDC is coming before the Board of County Commissioners on behalf of Dino Villani and the airport staff. Today’s request is for the board to provide official direction on participation in the program. The Letter of Intent submitted May 3, 2013 was non-binding. The Phase II Applicant Acknowledgement – Site Evaluation is also non-binding but must be signed by the property owner applicant before McCallum Sweeney will provide the Phase II deliverables. The EDC is unable to be the applicant as the sites belong to the county. Process The intent of the Phase II Applicant Acknowledgement is for the county to formally acknowledge that if the county decides to participate in this program they will submit responses to the Site and Community Questionnaire, and understands that they will receive a bill from Gulf Power for $2,750 which is 50% of the $5,500 Phase II evaluation fee. At this stage, McCallum Sweeney will provide the county with an assessment and recommendations on entering the Phase III Site Certification process. P.O. Box 4097, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32549 - (850)362-6467 Page 1 of 2 If the county qualifies and decides to move on to the third and final phase, there will be an additional participation cost. Again, Gulf Power is committed to paying 50% of costs for publicly owned sites. Phase III fee is $15,500 per site and the county’s cost will be $7,750. A breakdown of phases, due dates, and costs are found below. Cost to Cost to Phases Required Documents Status or Due Date County Gulf Power Phase I: Letter of Intent Completed – 5/3/2013 --- --- Applicant Acknowledgement Board consideration 5/21/13 --- --- Phase II: Site & Community Questionnaire Due June 28, 2013 $2,750 $2,750 Site Visit Week of July 28, 2013 --- --- Phase III: Selection Status/Invitation Week of September 8, 2013 --- --- Deadline - Phase III Application September 2014 $7,750 $7,750 th Notification of Certification Decision 4 Quarter 2014 --- --- Total Cost to Entities $10,500 $10,500 For Consideration o One of the fastest growing trends in economic development is the demand for project-ready industrial site locations. Companies looking to build new facilities want sites that are ready to go and relatively “risk free.” Competitive communities who are seeking to recruit projects need to be prepared to market their sites with a wealth of site-related information and data. o Companies are not willing to wait for a community to identify an appropriate site and determine its suitability for development. By doing it ahead of time, it puts the prepared community steps ahead of other communities. In reality, if the site was being submitted for a project, the community would have to go through this process before the company would commit. It could take months or even years. o Participation in the program does not guarantee success, it guarantees you will receive priority consideration and be more competitive. o In the real world, all projects are profit driven, deadline driven, competitive, comprehensive and risk adverse. The majority of projects/clients are driven by speed-to-market pressure. o After the certification process is completed, the sites would be added to a national registry of properties identified as ready for development. Thank you for your consideration to this request and future development! P.O. Box 4097, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32549 - (850)362-6467 Page 2 of 2