Despite bad news from America’s naval shipbuilding programs, the U.S. maritime industry is awakening from decades of slumber. With America’s big legacy shipyard sites in Virginia, California and elsewhere unable to easily expand, the U.S. Government has an obligation to identify America’s next centers of maritime industrial growth. A national competition is in order, where the winners get decades of guaranteed waterfront development and thousands of steady jobs.
As a start, the U.S. government—the U.S. Maritime Administration, the U.S. Navy, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Maritime Commission—can, if pushed by an engaged White House, move quickly to identify and survey a handful of potential “maritime opportunity zones,” where modern maritime industries can, with a little government help, break new ground.
In Florida, the Jacksonville region offers an ideal template for aggressive maritime development. As a port, Jacksonville has long been overshadowed by larger, more strategically located harbors on America’s Atlantic coast. But Jacksonville’s urban waterfront hasn’t been subjected to overwhelming residential growth, nor has the local economy moved away from the basic “blocking and tackling” of military support work. The region is decidedly pro-business, and there’s plenty of space for the maritime industry to expand along the St. Johns River.
In total, the St. Johns River basin offers a solid, modestly-sized blend of government and commercial customers, a functional shipbuilding industry, and a relatively untapped workforce, all within an easy cruise to the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
The region is already committed to the maritime. It has fought hard to keep their harbor and maritime-oriented military bases active, full and busy. Jacksonville’s port, or JAXPORT, isn’t known as a national leader in vessel or cargo throughput, but it is one of only 17 U.S. Strategic Seaports, on call to move military cargo. To stay relevant for maritime commerce, JAXPORT has deepened the port’s channel, upgraded berths, and taken other steps to handle new, post-Panamax freighters.
At the mouth of Jacksonville’s harbor, Naval Station Mayport is open and, despite losing treasured status as an aircraft carrier “home port”, the piers remain full of ships. As a base for the troubled Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships, the region’s repair yards have enjoyed a steadier stream of business than other shipyards have gotten in the big Navy hubs of Norfolk and San Diego.
Along with surface combatant maintenance, delays to the Columbia-class Strategic Missile Submarine may also open additional opportunities. The Trident Refit Facility at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay is just 45 minutes from Jacksonville, and the nation’s aging Ohio-class strategic subs seem set to receive a complex service life extension.
Though shipbuilding never really caught on in Jacksonville, the Jacksonville area has a long history of serving as a second-string “emergency” naval shipbuilding center. Between the sleepy town of Palatka, tucked away on the sleepy St. John’s River, and the coastal town of St. Augustine, the Jacksonville area has hosted at least 22 large shipbuilding ventures, building hundreds of ships and craft during World War I and II. Most of the sites are gone, but plenty of facilities could quickly be reconstituted.
Little remains of the town’s once-vast Navy-associated shipbuilding infrastructure. Downturns in the eighties and nineties eliminated government shipbuilding opportunities in the Jacksonville area, leaving the MV Kilo Moana (T-AGOR 26) as the last government vessel ever contracted to a Jacksonville-area shipyard. The area hasn’t seen a large government shipbuilding contract since 1999.
Signs Of A Waterfront Renaissance:
Despite the dearth of naval shipbuilding. Jacksonville’s industrial waterfront is stirring. In 2022, Fincantieri Marine Repair began establishing a repair yard in long-vacant property on Commodores Point, along the St. John’s River. Speaking to Forbes.com, Pierroberto Folgiero, the CEO of Fincantieri, was enthusiastic, “Our Jacksonville shipyard is attracting investment, creating jobs, and is already having a strong financial impact for the region.”
Detailing waterfront improvements and the future delivery of a 500-foot drydock, Folgiero continued, “For Fincantieri, the Jacksonville area is an important location where we see a lot of potential for strengthening the US shipbuilding sector, and we are aiming to grow our workforce to 300 people by 2028…In total, our shipyard represents the potential for revival of domestic shipbuilding in the USA more broadly, offering an example of just how crucial sustained waterfront investment is for coastal cities with a strong history in maritime industry.”
That’s not all. BAE Systems, at their Jacksonville Ship Repair facility, is making a $200 million investment in their shipyard, adding one of the largest shiplifts in the Americas. When complete, the yard expects to employ up to 1,000 new shipbuilders.
Farther upriver, in Palatka, former naval shipbuilder Joe Rella, recruited to revitalize Saint Johns Ship Building, said, “the Jacksonville region may get overlooked as a shipbuilding center, but with added investment from the Navy, MARAD, the State of Florida and by our commercial partners, the region will become a significant contributor to America’s shipbuilding industrial base.”
It’s a good start. But a formal designation of the Jacksonville region as an “emerging national shipbuilding center”, or a new type of “maritime opportunity zone”, could build local interest and spark even more maritime investment. A surprise announcement, or a win after a national search would galvanize the entire area.
Even without help from a formal designation, the Navy could do a lot to move Jacksonville towards embracing a maritime future. By awarding the St Johns River delta their first government shipbuilding contracts in 25 years, offering economic incentives to local maritime stakeholders, or building up a local shipbuilder training and employment program, capable of funneling workers from the region’s underutilized employment HUBZones into the maritime industry, the Jacksonville region could shift from a maritime laggard to a maritime leader overnight.
