County Approves $24.5K For Century Market Analysis

October 23, 2018

The Escambia County Commission has approved $24,500 in county funds for a market study in Century, cutting back on a $95,000 proposal from the University of West Florida Haas Center.

The marketing analysis will assess the feasibility of mixed use commercial and residential development in reference to various parcels and buildings within the town, according to the proposal.

The funds will come from a $95,000 funding pool that includes $55,000 from last fiscal year that was never spent, plus $50,000 from the current fiscal year. The Haas Center had proposed four additional projects that would have used the full $95,000 balance.

The market analysis was ranked by the Century Town Council as the most important of the projects after Escambia County Commissioner Steven asked for a priority ranking, saying that it was not his intent to exhaust all of the available funding at this time.

“Until this is completed and we get some feedback on how that would go, I don’t want to just ancillary spend through economic development dollars that can be spent in different ways,” Barry said, adding the he wanted to see the monies used as perhaps direct incentives for a potential project or some type of a business challenge – much like a Studer Institute funded $25,000 business challenge in 2015 that provided $20,000 for the Century Academy and $5,000 for a childcare center.

“I would like to see some dollars that get to the actual recipients and the actual people that are going be Monday though Friday in the town doing work and employing people,” Barry said.

“The future of Century and the future of Escambia County are tied together. Failure up there is failure down here,” Commissioner Doug Underhill said.

The four Haas Center proposals that were not funded were:

  1. Market analysis to assess the feasibility of mixed/use/commercial and/or residential development in reference to various vacant parcels and buildings within the town.  – $24,500.
  2. Market study of the Century Industrial Park to examine the historical trends in relation to industrial demand, assess current available industrial land sites and  buildings and consider trends and availability to comparable communities – $25,000.
  3. Strategic plan metrics and dashboard to collect public data across various metrics and to present them in an on line dashboard format in order to determine progress toward the achievement of the identified economic objectives as defined in the town’s economic development strategic plan – $15,000.
  4. Health Assessment and needs study to assess Century residents’ health behavior and to gauge how investment into the Community Health Northwest Florida’s expansion has increased access to resources and  overall health needs of the community – $15,500.
  5. CRA project mapping tool that allows users to view and interact with the spatial data (parcels, CRA boundaries, waterways, walkways, etc.) associated with the Century CRA implementation – $15,000.

The Escambia County Commission will decide at a future date which projects, if any, are funded.

Comments

7 Responses to “County Approves $24.5K For Century Market Analysis”

  1. nod on October 25th, 2018 10:58 am

    if century gets this money, will they just use it to give someone a pay raise?

  2. A.Wilton Thompson on October 24th, 2018 6:46 am

    I hope they don’t hand it over to the Town of Century.

  3. chris on October 23rd, 2018 7:26 pm

    “mixed use commercial and residential development” what investor in their right mind would put any money into Century? Poorly maintained properties from one end to the other. A small handful of businesses that somehow still survive. And a city government that would make the Dukes of Hazzard blush when it comes to inept management styles.

  4. Bama54 on October 23rd, 2018 4:30 pm

    Century has “NO” curb appeal!! No matter how many times you do a market analysis the results will be the same. I say start in Molino and build north is the only hope for Century. Sometimes bring the north and south together you have to start in the middle!!

  5. Niknak50 on October 23rd, 2018 2:54 pm

    There is already mixed use of commercial and residential regarding parcels and buildings in century. Many, but not all are eyesores and always will be. After the attempted extortion of the builders of the new apartment complex by the powers that be, no study will entice any business to invest in century. If you had the money to start a large project or business here, would you be foolish enough to put your investment at risk? I wouldn’t

  6. mat on October 23rd, 2018 12:46 pm

    May I do the market analysis? O.K. I’m done.
    Nothing to market here.
    Please send the $24.5K check payable to me at …

  7. Sam on October 23rd, 2018 7:07 am

    A waste of money. Ride through century. It will take about ten minutes. No tax base. Very few businesses. Low income housing. No jobs. No schools. A porly run city government.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News