PANAMA CITY — The Panama City Port Authority has moved to accept a $200,000 settlement proposal from its bond company for unfinished site work at the Port’s Intermodal Distribution Center (IDC) on U.S. 231.
In late August, the Port Authority awarded a $1.8 million bid to local contractor Gulf Group Inc. for site preparation work on a 54-acre parcel at the IDC. However, work halted about five months ago when the company requested a change order that was subsequently rejected by board members.
“They completed about 85 percent of the job, but informed us in late August … that they could not complete the job without additional funds, without a change order,” said Port Director Wayne Stubbs, who added the settlement also will waive all future claims between the two parties. “Our preferred solution to finishing the job was to get some compensation from the bond company and get it back into our hands, because they do not seem to have a good path forward without continuing … with the Gulf Group.”
Gulf Group owner Mike Hobbs agreed that the settlement was the best move for everyone.
“It came down to a difference of opinion out there as far as design was concerned,” Hobbs said. “The lawyers came up with this, and we participated in the negotiation with the lawyers and the bonding company.”
Along with the $200,000 cash settlement, the port has an additional $256,000 left from the original contract to complete the job.
The site recently received an industrial site certification through Gulf Power’s Florida First Sites program, which is aimed to attract new industry to the area.
The site certification is subject to the project being completed as designed, which officials hope to accomplish within the next 90 days.
The parcel is the second to be certified in Bay County, along with the St. Joe Co.’s Venture Crossings development at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. Before receiving certification, the site was thoroughly analyzed by international site selection firm McCallum Sweeney Consulting.
Overall, the port has about 250 acres of developable land at the Intermodal Distribution Site, which officials hope will attract new industry and manufacturers.
The port, in conjunction with the Bay County Economic Development Alliance, is targeting port-related manufacturers for a 54-acre site, which has the potential to expand to 100 acres.
The IDC has two distribution facilities, a 60,000-square-foot center used by FedEx Ground and a 150,000-square-foot warehouse, half of which has been leased by Panama City logistics company Aadvantage northAmerican.
The port has plans to construct a rail transfer facility and expand its warehousing facility by about 100,000 square feet, a $4.5 million project that likely will kick off this summer with the help of a $1 million grant from the Florida Seaport Transportation and Economic Development Program.
“We’re trying to provide two things out there that are important to the port: infrastructure in terms of distribution warehouses and rail transfer facilities to support importers and exporters using the port,” said Stubbs, who cited past issues with companies that weren’t able to find large warehouses to store cargo. “We lose an opportunity to tie those customers closer to our port."