On Tuesday, May 17th, a groundbreaking ceremony was held at the Tallahassee International Airport for the International Processing Facility. The facility is a $28 million project that will accommodate international travel and provide the infrastructure to required to process goods shipped to and received from destinations around the world.
The ceremony was led by David Pollard, the Director of Aviation for the City of Tallahassee, with comments from Mayor John Daily, Jacksonville Port director Jennifer Bradshaw, and Assistant Federal Security Director Christopher Baden.
Joining the speakers at the ceremony included City Commissioners Curtis Richardson and Diane Williams-Cox and Police Chief Lawrence Revell. Commissioners Jack Porter and Jeremy Matlow were not in attendance.
City of Tallahassee Director of Aviation David Pollard noted that “Passenger traffic at TLH is increasing to near record levels, and investments in the future can be seen throughout the terminal and across airport property. Planning for the International Processing Facility began in 2014, and we broke ground today thanks to the dedication and forward-thinking of many stakeholders at the local, state and federal level.”
Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey spoke about jobs and economic impact.
“Today, we broke ground on a project that will have far reaching impacts across the globe and closer to home. This major investment by the City improves the economic competitiveness of Tallahassee and our entire region. Construction of the International Processing Facility will have an immediate impact, and the following Foreign Trade Zone designation will spur longer-term economic benefits with the creation of more than 1,600 jobs and estimated annual economic impact of more than $300 million,” Mayor John Dailey said.
The City’s press release stated that the International Processing Facility is a key project in the City’s Five-Year Strategic Plan to enable capacity for continued growth and increase the airport’s annual economic impact to $1 billion. By prioritizing projects like this, TLH is on track to reach the City’s goals of serving 1 million passengers and processing 22 million pounds of cargo annually, with 100 additional acres of land leased to businesses by 2024.
City Officials Celebrate International Processing Facility at Airport added by Lynsey Kirk on
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Great!! Another classic case of Tallahassee putting the cart before the horse!
Wouldnt it be prudent to actually have contracts before committing to spend taxpayer $$$?
How many international travelors actually come thru TLH?
Wouldnt it make more sense to actually have a dozen local businesses asking for this?
Another classic boondoggle coming!!! And guess who will end up paying for their failures?
Where are they building the quarantine facilities? Atop the solar panels, under the solar panels?
After glancing over people’ copies of the Tallahassee Demonic the last couple days, I am especially grateful for the existence of TR.
The TD disinformation techniques are getting ever more extreme & sloppy. Yet, there are people who lack eyes to see…or maybe are like the 3 monkeys
They have failed to bring in Amazon Air which nobody is talking about this failure.
Pat has a point there. What are the plans? Fly in a bunch of international crap @zz products into Tally International load that junk on trucks and drive it to Miami and ATL???? That business model $ucks from the get go even before Mayor Flintstone even breaks a dirt clod with his golden ground breaking shovel.
This will be a losing proposition. I’ve seen this before. A small airport builds a sorting facility and the business never happens. TLH will never be a busy airport. Eventually, the new buildings will be leased to non-aviation businesses.
Great! Now more ways to bring in the MONKEYPOX!