BY DAN HILDEBRAN
General manager
STARKE—Florida’s Cabinet led by Gov. Ron DeSantis voted to turn over a 100,000-square-foot warehouse and its accompanying 24 acres to Bradford County.
State CFO Jimmy Patronis and Attorney General Ashley Moody joined DeSantis in greenlighting the property transfer during a December 19 cabinet meeting.
The Douglas Building is located at the southern end of the U.S. 301 Bypass, across U.S. 301 from Walmart.
The deal clears the way for the county to lease the property to Montreal-based MHD-Rockland, which owns the largest private inventories of Lockheed P-3 Orion and C-130 Hercules aircraft worldwide.
In 2020, the company began training German flight crews on the P-3 at the Keystone Heights Airport through a $64.5 million contract with the U.S. Navy.
The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a turboprop surveillance aircraft used by the U.S. Navy since the 1960s. The P-3 is equipped for anti-submarine and reconnaissance missions.
The Boeing P-8 Poseidon will eventually replace it. However, the U.S. Navy and many foreign military forces still use the P-3, including New Zealand, Japan, Australia, Germany, Brazil and the Republic of Korea.
MHD-Rockland said P-3s will continue to fly missions well into the 2030s.
County could make up to $1 million a year
The county said in a memo justifying the transfer that the deal would allow the area to retain 22 jobs with an average salary of $87,000 and could mean an additional 26 jobs with a high-end wage of $200,000 a year.
The county added that lease revenue from the property could reach $1 million a year and that the tenant plans to invest between $2 million and $3 million into the facility.
Canadians impacting local economy
The deal marks the second time within a year that a Canadian company has improved the jobs outlook in the Bradford County area.
In June, IKO, a Toronto-based roofing, waterproofing, and insulation manufacturer, confirmed that it plans to construct a new manufacturing campus in Clay County, about five miles north of the Bradford County line.
IKO said construction of the new $270 million site would include an asphalt shingle production facility, an insulation board plant, and a commercial rolled roofing plant. The company added that it plans to hire 100 workers for the facility.
Crawford Powell, president of the Clay County Economic Development Corporation, said IKO’s move into the area would provide multi-generational jobs, much like what the E.I. DuPont Company and its successor Chemours provided when DuPont launched its Trail Ridge operations in the 1940s.
Aircraft parts, pilot training
In addition to Montreal and Keystone Heights, MHD-Rockland has facilities in Ontario, Maryland, Washington State, New Zealand, and Australia.
The enterprise traces its roots to 1981 when Charles Dollimore established MHD International Aircraft Parts. His son Bryan launched Rockland Aerospace twenty years later, and the two companies joined forces in 2010.
In 2016, the company opened its Keystone Heights operation for parts and maintenance of P-3s.
Over the decades, the individual firms and combined company has acquired P-3s and the submarine hunter’s civilian counterpart, the Lockheed L-188 Electra.
MHD-Rockland’s accumulation of parts has created a critical need for warehouse space. The company invested in the initial steps to construct a warehouse at the Keystone Heights airport and was approved for a $25 million loan from Space Florida to build it. Around two years ago, it also started looking into the Starke warehouse.
Two-year process
Current Bradford County Manager Scott Kornegay got involved with the project in 2021, before his employment with the county while he was on the airport board.
At that time, the Starke warehouse was owned by the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Kevin Guthrie led that agency. Kornegay and Guthrie knew each other when Guthrie served at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and Kornegay was a firefighter and later administrator at Jacksonville Fire Rescue.
After a phone call, Guthrie agreed to release the property, which was transferred to the Department of Environmental Protection. The county said the building has been vacant for three years after going through the Department of Environmental Protection’s surplus property process. All state agencies were allowed to acquire the parcel, but there were no takers.
The North Florida Economic Development Partnership provided $25,000 for an environmental assessment of the property, and the county hired a lobbyist to get the project over the finish line, with Mike Grissom shepherding the project through the governor’s office and other agencies.
Kornegay said that besides climatizing the 100,000-square-foot warehouse, building out the interior, and adding landscaping, MHD-Rockland may also build a two-story administrative building that will house a flight simulator and 3,000 square feet of administrative space.
Kornegay credited a handful of local leaders for the project’s success, including Capital City Bank’s Patricia Evans, Diane Scholz, Director of Rural and Economic Development Services with the North Florida Economic Development Partnership, North Florida Regional Chamber of Commerce President Pam Whittle, Bob Milner, Rep. Chuck Brannan, and Sen. Jennifer Bradley.
He added that his contribution was primarily his contacts in Tallahassee and knowing how to open doors at the State Capitol.
“This will have a huge impact on Bradford County,” he said, “not to mention the value of retaining the flight operations in Keystone with fuel sales and rental income at the airport.”
