Port St. Joe: Rebuilding One of Florida’s Coastal Icons

By Beth Braswell

Port St. Joe sits on the site of what was once the largest city in Florida, where Florida’s Constitution was written and where Alfred I. Dupont planned to create "The Model City of the South." It was an industrial boomtown boasting the first railroad in Florida, a location on the "Panama Route" and a port facility that rivaled Charleston, S.C. That was 150 years ago.

Today’s Port St. Joe looks a little less commercial with its sugar-white sand beaches, but it is another water-related asset that has this rural community focused on a bright economic future. Port St. Joe is one of 14 designated deepwater ports in Florida and the development of this location into a thriving deepwater cargo port is well underway.

For 60 years (1938-1998), Port St. Joe was the site of a major paper mill, employing a majority of the region’s work force and occupying a site on the ship channel and turning basin. Where that major facility once stood is today a cleared site. From the site, primary infrastructure to serve the port and surrounding industrial area is in place: electric substation, two natural gas pipelines, multiple heavy rail access lines, a 36 mgd wastewater treatment facility, surface water canal supplying almost unlimited potable water, federal ship channel authorized to 35 feet, Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and roadways with sparse traffic for quick cargo movements. There are only two traffic signals between the Port and Interstate 10.

North of the now-empty 125-acre site where the mill once stood, there are two other parcels of land, approximately 130 vacant acres, which make up the Port St. Joe Port Authority site.One of the great attributes of this location is that nearby are thousands of acres providing space for port-related expansion, a perk of this rural location.

The development of Parcel A on St. Joseph’s Bay, anticipated to be a three-year process, is being aggressively pursued and will provide 35-foot deep water access. The adjacent Parcel B is located on the Gulf County Canal, which is a part of the Intracoastal Waterway. The Port St. Joe Port Authority has received grants from the state of Florida and has partly completed Parcel B’s bulkhead, which is approximately 860 feet long with a 12-foot draft, though it’s designed for 22-foot draft in anticipation of future deepening. Some ocean traffic and offshore support vessels can access the property under the bridge which has 75-foot clearance.

Improvements planned for the sites include diversified rail access, bulkheading, barge berths and ship berths, access roads, and security fencing. Beyond that, infrastructure and amenities constructed will be responsive to the marketplace and may include warehousing or container storage.

This comprehensive port development comes with a big figure price tag, but there are a significant number of supporters and committed partners who believe in the urgency of creating a dynamic seaport that brings diversification and vitality to the region.

Port St. Joe is designated as one of Florida's Rural Areas of Critical Economic Concern (RACEC), and the attention and financial support from the state of Florida for this project already has been substantial, approximately $9.9 million. St. Joe Co., the previous landowner, also has contributed to the redevelopment efforts. "We’ve been in discussions with St. Joe Co. about the comprehensive development of our port for more than five years. It took the collaborative efforts of the Port, the city of Port St. Joe, the Gulf County Commission, the state of Florida, and the Gulf County Economic Development Council to accomplish the agreements that we are about to sign," said Allen Cox, chairman of the Port St. Joe Port Authority.

At the time of its closure, St. Joe Co. paper mill employed almost 1,000 and drew from well beyond the 30-minute normal commute. A similar industrial climate still exists and the work force study by economic development consulting firm Wadley Donovan shows:

• Combined civilian labor force for Gulf and Bay counties is 94,290
• Unemployed –5.8 percent  Underemployed – 67 percent 
• Significant number of employed workers travel outside the counties to find work
• Wage expectations are reasonable and average $29,300
• Well-educated labor pool with a 93.8 percent graduation rate

"We know that a strong employer would be very happy with the quality and quantity of work force to be found in and around Port St. Joe," said Kimberly Bodine, executive director of the Gulf Coast Workforce Board.

Cox is convinced the new port development will be appealing to industry. "One of the advantages we have at our location is a close proximity to South American ports and the Panama Canal. We are in the northwest Florida region and shipping to and from our port greatly reduces travel time to and from the north."    

In fact, the Port St. Joe Port Authority already has a customer scheduled to bring its first ship early in 2009. Tommy Pitts, Port Director for the Port St. Joe Port Authority, is hard at work identifying additional target industries. "We think trans-Gulf roll on, roll off traffic is an opportunity–for example, semi-trailers that need to move to the Southeast and want to bypass the congestion at the land border." Pitts also believes that Port St. Joe can fulfill the needs of a niche market. "As a result of the large mega ships hauling containers that need 50 feet of water, the smaller container ships that call on the large ports are being displaced and will look for smaller ports such as Port St. Joe."

Location and natural resources are the drivers as Pitts lists industries on which he plans to focus. "We have a lot of interest in green energy-related opportunities and we certainly are well positioned for off-shore energy support and energy exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico."

This small northwestern Florida cargo port once handled inbound chemicals, fuel oil, crude oil, and aggregate while handling outbound movements of linerboard, naval products, magnesite, and agricultural and paper products. The port continues to offer attributes that include interchange of cargo from ocean vessels to rail, highway, or continued water movement via barge by the Intracoastal Waterway.

"Our vision five years from now is to have vibrant port activity that maximizes the resources that Port St. Joe has to offer and, in turn, energizes our region," said Pitts. "We have one of the greatest assets industry needs – a community hungry for economic development and supportive of growing port facilities." 

Rural Florida Waterfront Revival

The revival of the old Port St. Joe Port facilities will be a boon for rural Northwest Florida. Other rural waterfronts in Florida are experiencing a revival of their own. Moore Haven, located on the western banks of Lake Okeechobee, is redeveloping its downtown district with an ambitious marina project. In addition, the new River Forest Yachting Center recently opened in nearby Ortona.

The existing Moore Haven marina was severely damaged in 2005 by Hurricane Wilma and has been a dilapidated eyesore in the city center ever since. Officials in Moore Haven have created an outstanding public-private partnership to redevelop the city marina. The effort, partly funded by the City, the Glades County Economic Development Council, Glades Electric Cooperative and others, will result in a new 450-foot floating dock, new dredging, channel marker installation and other upland facilities that will be appreciated not only by the citizens of Moore Haven, but by the 10,000 transient boaters that pass through each year.

Moore Haven's location is very important to recreational boaters. It is located midway between Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast and Stuart, Fla., on the East Coast. Boaters can cross South Florida between Fort Myers and Stuart and each way to Moore Haven is a one day trip.

The two developments in Moore Haven will undoubtedly provide economic benefits to local merchants and service providers and they represent unique economic development practices that take advantage of location and a rural community's inherent advantages. The efforts were noticed by the Boat Owners Association of the United States (BoatU.S.). In December, that organization awarded Moore Haven with a 2008 BoatU.S. Recreational Boating Access Award for the yacht and marina projects.