A regional economic development board will decide Wednesday whether to spend $76 million to bring thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs to the Port of Pensacola. The decision could significantly shape how much funding remains for other projects across the Florida Panhandle.
The board, known as Triumph Gulf Coast, is scheduled to vote on whether to authorize negotiations for Project Maeve, a proposed shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing campus at the city-owned port. The action would not finalize the grant. Instead, it would allow staff and attorneys to negotiate a term sheet — a draft agreement that sets conditions, performance targets and financial safeguards before any money is awarded.
According to the city’s application, Project Maeve is expected to create about 2,000 jobs over five years, with average wages projected to exceed $80,000 — well above state and national averages. Triumph staff estimates the project would generate $33.60 in additional household income for every dollar invested over a 10-year period.
Those economic promises are central to why the proposal is drawing attention.
What the project would build
Project Maeve proposes a large-scale shipbuilding operation at the Port of Pensacola, built in two phases and totaling roughly 400,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space.
The first phase would construct a facility designed to cut, shape and weld steel panels and fabricate large ship sections, known in the industry as "modules." A second phase would add a larger assembly building capable of handling even bigger components and, potentially, complete surface vessels up to about 400 feet long.
The city’s application estimates total project costs at $275 million, including $105 million for building construction, $25 million for site preparation and port utility upgrades, and $145 million for equipment.
The use of Triumph funds would be limited to building construction. The city would own the buildings as public infrastructure and lease them long-term to the company.
Not all of the construction funding is secured. The application identifies a pending $14 million request to Florida Commerce and $15 million described as company contribution or future grant funding to complete the construction budget. The remaining portions of the project — including equipment purchases and site work — are described as company capital investment.
What is known about the company
The company behind Project Maeve has not been publicly named, a common practice during competitive recruitment efforts. According to the application, the firm operates in the defense and maritime manufacturing sector and supplies large ship components to major U.S. shipyards.
The proposal describes the Pensacola site as the company’s planned Southeastern headquarters and a production facility focused on complex naval work, including submarine and surface-vessel components. City officials say the scale of the proposed investment and the type of work involved place the project among the most ambitious industrial recruitment efforts Pensacola has ever pursued.
A port strategy already underway
Project Maeve builds on a broader effort by the city to refocus the Port of Pensacola on specialized maritime uses rather than low-margin cargo storage.
That shift is already visible at the port. Earlier this month, the city and American Magic opened a high-performance sailing and manufacturing center that supports the U.S. America’s Cup team and SailGP, an international professional racing league that stages short, televised races using identical, foiling catamarans. The Pensacola facility includes composite manufacturing, vessel repair, research and testing, alongside training operations.
Nearby, the University of West Florida is expanding its Watercraft and Vessel Engineering (WAVE) program at the port. The program is designed to support vessel engineering research while training workers for marine manufacturing and related trades.
Public investment has underwritten much of that buildout. Triumph approved $8.5 million for the city to renovate Warehouse 10 to house American Magic’s headquarters and boatbuilding operations. It later approved up to $3.3 million for UWF to launch WAVE. State funding has also supported the American Magic project.
City officials say those projects reflect a deliberate effort to assemble a maritime cluster that combines research, manufacturing and water-based transportation. Triumph’s own planning documents list water transportation among the industries it targets for economic development funding.
Mayor D.C. Reeves has framed the approach as a balance between industrial use and redevelopment.
“It’s not condos or cargo,” Reeves said at the American Magic opening. “We can have both.”
Why the Triumph vote matters
Triumph Gulf Coast was created by the Florida Legislature to invest settlement funds from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in eight Panhandle counties disproportionately affected by the disaster. Lawmakers directed the organization to use the money to support long-term economic recovery, with an emphasis on job creation, higher wages and durable industries.
Triumph still holds a large amount of money. As of the end of 2025, it reported roughly $639 million in cash and investments, most of it held in an interest-bearing state investment fund. Under recent changes in state law, Triumph is allowed to retain the interest those funds earn.
But the balance on hand is not the same as money available for new awards. Over the past several years, Triumph has approved hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and contracts, many paid out over long periods. Much of the cash still on the books is already committed to projects the board has approved and must be reserved for future payments.
To plan around those obligations, Triumph maintains a cash-flow schedule projecting how funds will be disbursed over time. Under that schedule, Triumph projects less than $100 million remaining in later years that it can commit to new projects statewide, based on current assumptions.
That figure is a program-wide total. It is not broken out by county. Separate board schedules track statutory county minimums, which require Triumph to ensure each of the eight counties receives a minimum share of funding. As of the most recent update, Franklin County and Gulf County remain below those thresholds, meaning future awards must continue addressing those gaps — further limiting how much of the remaining pool can go to other counties.
Viewed in that context, the $76 million request for Project Maeve is unusually consequential. It would not exhaust Triumph’s funds, but it would absorb a large share of what the board projects it can still commit to new projects, shaping what remains for other priorities across the region.
The Triumph Gulf Coast board is scheduled to meet at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the Tallahassee State College Wakulla Environmental Institute in Crawfordville. The meeting is open to the public.
