Gov. Ron DeSantis is awarding about $23 million in state grants to beef up the state’s defense and skilled labor workforce.
“You’re talking about expanding job training, infrastructure, space port development, and helping our military installations all across the state of Florida,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Jacksonville. “Part of this is economic. Part of this is doing our part to help with national security. But part of it is also just cultural.”
Florida State College at Jacksonville will receive $7 million to buy and renovate a vacant building at Cecil Center North to expand the school’s HVAC and welding programs. The building will be the home of the new Cecil Training Institute, which is projected to train about 324 workers over the next decade.
The city of Palm Bay in Brevard County will get $3.5 million for infrastructure at the Phoenix Business Park that’s being developed. DeSantis’ Office said the money will provide wastewater transmission to the business park that officials said will be used for “industrial and commercial space that will target the aerospace, defense, semiconductor and electronic component manufacturing, technology and engineering services, logistics and distribution, and energy industries.”
Northwest Florida State College will receive $3 million to build a 4,000-square-foot, two-bay facility to create the Maritime Fabrication Training Center at its Niceville campus. “The facility will expand an existing building to provide specialized training in Composite Fabrication and Industrial Pipefitter programs to address the rapidly expanding maritime and shipbuilding industries,” DeSantis’ Office said in a press release.
Polk State College — where DeSantis ally Anastasios Kamoutsas was recently named the sole finalist for the presidency — will receive $1.7 million to create a Commercial Vehicle Driving Program that will help aerospace and defense and other industries.
The grants given out Monday include about $15.3 million from the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund, $5 million from the Florida Department of Transportation’s Spaceport Improvement Program in partnership with Space Florida, and about $3.1 million from Florida’s Defense Reinvestment Grant Program and Florida Defense Support Commission Grant Program, according to a news release from DeSantis’ office.
“Under Governor DeSantis’ leadership, Florida has strategically invested in Defense and Aerospace communities, along with the industry partners in those communities that create such incredible jobs, defend our nation, and advance our state’s innovation-driven economy,” Secretary of Commerce J. Alex Kelly said.
“Today’s awards elevate and leverage Florida’s 21 major military base communities, the nearly 900,000 Floridians who work in defense and Florida’s spaceports to bolster our industrial base for those industries like Defense, Aerospace and Aviation, and even Maritime, that truly help accentuate many of Florida’s unique value-adds to our nation.”
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