North Florida Shipyards, a ship repair and conversion facility in Jacksonville, has completed improvements using the city's Recovery Zone Bond Program. Located on East Adams Street, the company utilized a $4 million allocation to acquire a new mobile vessel hoist, construct a new basin and improve the existing area. The project cost $7.6 million and is expected to create 246 new jobs with an average wage of $39,900. The new mobile vessel hoist allows the company to work on multiple ships at one time, in one of seven new docking bays on land. Since acquiring the mobile vessel hoist in August, 11 ships have been overhauled.

The Recovery Zone (RZ) Program was created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as part of the Federal Stimulus package, to promote job creation and investment within distressed and underutilized areas. The program allows companies to issue tax-exempt debt. Jacksonville was allocated $16.3 million in RZ Economic Development Bonds and $24.5 million in RZ Facility Bonds.

North Florida Shipyards has been the only company to receive part of this funding. There is still time to apply for the program. RZ Bonds must be issued by January 1, 2011. Interested parties are encouraged to contact Lindsey Ballas, JEDC Business Development Chief, at (904) 630-2940 or lballas@coj.net. Click here to learn more about the recovery zone program.