North Brevard Economic Development Zone Quarterly Report Highlights Outstanding Businesses

Space Coast daily business spotlight

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA  – The following report is a quarterly review of business news published by the North Brevard Economic Development Zone.

Located in coastal east-central Florida, the region known as North Brevard is an approximately 200-square mile area of Brevard County that includes the communities of Mims, Port St. John, Scottsmoor, and the City of Titusville – a region with a population of more than 145,000.

Known as an economy with a mixture of aerospace, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, boating, and tourism, North Brevard is home to NASA’s famed Kennedy Space Center, and to world-class firms such as Boeing, Barn Light Electric, Blue Origin, VectorWorks, OneWeb Satellites, and Gold Tones Musical Instruments.

NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS

Terran Orbital, one of the world’s leading providers of small satellites (also referred to as CubeSats), recently announced plans to build a new 600,000 sq. ft. facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The new manufacturing center, projected to cost $300 million, will be built on property near the former Space Shuttle Landing Facility, an area managed by the state’s aerospace and spaceport development authority, Space Florida. The project is expected to create more than 2,100 direct new jobs in Brevard County over the next few years.

Terran Orbital combines satellite design, production, launch planning, mission operations, and in-orbit technical support to serve a diverse customer base that includes military, civil, and commercial clients. The manufacturing complex that the company plans to build in North Brevard will enable Terran to manufacture “nanosatellites,” compact apparatuses approximately the size of a shoebox, but equipped to do almost everything a conventional satellite can, for a substantially lower cost per unit.

The new facility will feature 3-D printing and additive manufacturing technologies to permit rapid space vehicle delivery to Earth’s orbit, as well as capabilities to produce and fabricate the highest quality, most technologically advanced printed circuit board assembly.

Additional information about the company and its plans for satellite production in North Brevard can be found at www.TerranOrbital.com.

BRAGG Equipment, a national supplier of heavy-lift, mechanical cranes and attachments, is currently building a new 9,200 sq. ft. office and warehouse facility on Chaffee Drive in the Spaceport Commerce Park in Titusville. The general contractor for the project is Certified General Contractors of Melbourne.

BRAGG, which is based in California and operates locations in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Texas, began operations in 1946. The company specializes in selling discontinued parts for American and Link Belt cranes, including engines, fuel pumps, transmissions, and boom sections, but also provides crane services, rigging materials and transport, and even sells complete crane units. The new Titusville location, which should be completed by early spring, is expected to create 8 to 10 new jobs. To learn more, visit www.BraggEquipment.com.

Orange Plumbing, a commercial and residential plumbing contractor, continues work on its new distribution and fabrication center, located on State Road 405, approximately two miles north of Exit #215 of Interstate 95. The approximately 20,000 sq. ft. facility, estimated to cost more than $1.5 million, will provide greater parts storage, and an area for fabrication work. The Titusville-based company began operations more than 30 years ago, and has a service area extending as far south as Sebastian in Indian River County. Orange Plumbing employs more than 20 service technicians and administrative personnel.
To learn more about the firm, visit www.OrangePlumbing.com.

NuVision Custom Builders, a residential construction firm based in Brevard County, has started work on its new 4,000 sq. ft. office headquarters building at the corner of Pinedo Drive and South Washington Avenue (U.S. Highway 1) in Titusville; the project is expected to be completed by early spring.

In recent years, the company has built a reputation for constructing high-end luxury homes throughout the county, including ones in Titusville’s The Great Outdoors subdivision and the new South Carpenter Estates development near Interstate 95.

According to company founder, LEED1 Accredited Professional Mark Ledford, the new office location in Titusville will serve as both a workspace for the firm’s design-build team, and a showroom for products and architectural features/options available in new home construction. NuVision employs approximately 20 people. Visit the company at www.NuvisionBuilders.com.

Blue Origin, the commercial aerospace company that completed construction of its initial 700,000 sq. ft. rocket manufacturing center in North Brevard in 2017, has filed permits to expand its facilities at Exploration Park on Merritt Island, to an approximately 90-acre parcel located south of its main plant, and adjacent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

This latest project, labeled Blue Origin’s “South Campus,” according to reports in Florida Today, will nearly double the size of lands already leased by the company from NASA. Blue Origin is expected to build its 322’ New Glenn rocket at its “North Campus” industrial complex, with a targeted launch timeframe of 2022 – 2023.

Blue Origin employs more than 700 people in North Brevard and operates other facilities in multiple states. For more information on the company and its missions, go to www.BlueOrigin.com.

RETAIL SEGMENT GROWS IN PORT ST. JOHN

Several new retail developments are currently underway in the community of Port St. John, an unincorporated area located south of Titusville. A five-mile ring encompassing this trade area contains 52,366 people, with a median household income of $58,784 and an owner-occupied household rate of 73.5%, according to GeoMetrix. Emblematic of the community’s recent retail growth spurt is a new 4,000 sq. ft. building constructed by Coop Construction for a restaurant called The Cellar. To view the demographic report on the area, go to https://www.nbedz.org/reports. 1 LEED stands for the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design designation

SPOTLIGHT: LOCAL FREIGHT-HAULING FIRM FEATURED IN TIMES ARTICLE

John Greene Logistics (JGLC), a freight hauling brokerage firm headquartered in Titusville, was recently highlighted in an article on the nation’s supply chain crisis in The New York Times. JGLC, which began operations in 1962 in the North Brevard community of Mims, is well-known in the produce industry, a key market segment that still represents approximately 70% of the company’s annual sales. In the article, Jeff Greene – who now runs the family-owned business his father started – states that companies should expect continued shortages of commodities in the coming weeks.

CAPE WITNESSES FRENZY OF LAUNCHPAD REDEVELOPMENTS

As recently noted in The FLORIDA SPACErePORT, the year 2022 promises to be a banner one for the redevelopment of previously-idled launch pad facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in North Brevard. United Launch Alliance is expected to complete its refurbishment in 2022 of Launch Complex 41 for its new Vulcan rocket.

Firefly Aerospace is currently converting Launch Complex 20 for its Alpha rocket, while Relativity Space is rebuilding Launch Complex 16 for its Terran family of rockets. Blue Origin continues to renovate Launch Complex 36 for its New Glenn spacecraft – a rocket more than three times the size of its current New Shepard vehicle, which is providing space tourists launching from Texas a brief encounter with zero gravity – while Astra Space will begin improvements on Launch Complex 46 for its rockets.

And NASA itself is in the last phases of renovating Launch Complex 39B for its Space Launch System (SLS) project (featuring the Orion Spacecraft) and future Artemis missions to the Moon.

The FLORIDA SPACErePORT is a free, weekly newsletter summarizing developments within the space industry. To subscribe, contact EdwardEllegood@InterFlightGlobal.com.

Local Real Estate Market. According to the Space Coast Board of REALTORS, “Closed Home Sales” (single-family homes) for October of 2021 were up 3.9%, with 1,069 units closed, compared to 1,029 units a year prior (October 2020). “New Pending Sales” were down, by just -3.1% over the previous year, with “New Listings” – an indication of available housing stock – also down, by -5.2%.

The median sales price for a Brevard single-family home continued to climb, up by 19.3% (to $327,000), compared to last year during the same period, when the median sales price was $274,150. “Months’ Supply of Inventory” of homes for sale was down, by a significant -33.3% to just one month, a decrease from 1.5 months during October 2020. For additional information on key economic statistics for the North Brevard area, please visit www.NBEDZ.org and www.SpaceCoastMLS.com.

SO, WHAT DO 2,100 NEW JOBS MEAN FOR THE COMMUNITY?

As reported earlier, the Terran Orbital project is expected to add more than 2,000 new jobs to the North Brevard area in the coming years – an impact that will lead to the creation of additional jobs.

Using the Regional Input-Output Modeling System (or, RIMS II) developed by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Terran project is also expected to create 2,542 indirect jobs (those created by suppliers of materials, services, and/or goods used in the construction and/or operation of Terran’s manufacturing center). To view the full economic impact report, follow this link at the NBEDZ website: https://www.nbedz.org/reports.

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