ADD-ON LEGISLATIVE ACTION ITEM
SPONSOR: City Council President Jared Moore
SUBJECT:
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LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR FLORIDA WEST ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE IN SUPPORT OF BUILD BACK BETTER PHASE 1 PROPOSAL
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RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
That City Council authorize the Council President to prepare and sign a letter of support on behalf of the City Council, supporting Florida West’s Build Back Better Phase 1 proposal.
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HEARING REQUIRED: No Hearing Required
SUMMARY:
Part of the American Rescue Plan is a Build Back Better program, which is designed to assist communities in their efforts to build back better by accelerating the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and building local economies that will be resilient to future economic shocks.
The $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge will provide a transformational investment to 20-30 regions across the country that want to revitalize their economies. These regions will have the opportunity to grow new regional industry clusters or scale existing ones through planning, infrastructure, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Workforce development, access to capital, and more.
Within Phase 1 of the program, 50-60 regional coalitions of partnering entities will be awarded $500,000 in technical assistance funds to develop and support three to eight projects to grow a regional growth cluster.
Florida West will partner with Emerald Coast Regional Council (ECRC), the Florida Institute for Human Machine Cognition (IHMC) and Pensacola State College to form a consortium. The consortium will devise, plan and build a new LIFT (a Department of Defense national manufacturing innovation institute and public-private partnership dedicated to driving the United States advanced manufacturing technology and talent into the future to reestablish the nation as a global manufacturing) in Pensacola. This LIFT location will serve as an innovation lighthouse and compass to attract and showcase the region with the objective to educate, influence and encourage their adoption and grow profitable smarter manufacturing businesses of all sizes in the region.
This letter will express Council’s support of Florida West and the consortium in seeking Phase 1 funding.
PRIOR ACTION:
None
FUNDING:
N/A
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
None
STAFF CONTACT:
Don Kraher, Council Executive
ATTACHMENTS:
1) None
PRESENTATION: No