Studer Community Institute

The groundwork for Navy Federal's future

October 13, 2014
/ Carlton Proctor
/ economy

Nearly 18 months ago Navy Federal Credit Union CEO Cutler Dawson flew to Pensacola from his Virginia headquarters carrying big news. Really big news. Before a host of local business leaders and politicians, including Gov. Rick Scott, Dawson announced a "One Ten Twenty" plan to expand Navy Federal's campus in the Beulah community. What he unveiled at that event were plans for a $1 billion campus, employing 10,000 people by the year 2020. The scale of it was breathtaking. Nothing like it in terms of private capital investment and job creation had ever even been dreamed of in the Pensacola area, much less promised. And it all was made possible by a complex and controversial $3.4 million deal with the 4-H Foundation to buy the group's 240 acre site that lay adjacent to Navy Federal's existing 62-acre campus. Navy Federal desperately needed growing room, and the world's largest credit union (assets of $60 billion) got plenty of it. Fast-forward to early July of this year when ground was broken for the first phase of Navy Federal's $200 million expansion of a campus that already is home to some $300 million in capital investment. Headed by Senior Vice President Debbie Calder, the project, when completed in 2016, will be home to the 1,500 new jobs the credit union promised if the 4-H deal went through.

On track to 10,000

[caption id="attachment_5923" align="alignright" width="300"]

Kim Aderholdt Debbie Calder Navy Federal

Kim Aderholdt and Debbie Calder of Navy Federal Credit Union's Pensacola campus.[/caption] Since that July 7 groundbreaking, Navy Federal's construction manager Kim Aderholdt and general contractor Hensel Phelps have been in overdrive. Contractors have cleared several dozen acres of the 4-H site and are laying the groundwork for two new office buildings, a central energy plant, parking garage and recreation area. If you want to get a sense of what a sprawling $1 billion corporate campus will look like one day, drive along Beulah Road (U.S. 90) south of Interstate 10 and take a look at the impressive scale of construction activity. "We are on schedule for the Phase 1's two buildings and commons area to be ready in May 2016," said Calder. "We're really impressed with Helsel Phelps' capabilities and professionalism." Currently, Calder said, Navy Federal has more than 3,800 employees in Pensacola, with several hundred working off-site at temporary facilities on Pace Boulevard and in the Milton area. "The plan is to move those (off-site) employees here," she said. "Once that's done we will be more than 50 percent occupied in the Phase 1 expansion. "Cutler (Dawson) has said he wants 10,000 employees here in Pensacola by 2020," Calder said. "That's the plan, but there are a lot of things that have to fall in place before we get to 10,000."

Eyeing the future

One of those things that has to fall in place is the four-laning of U.S. 90 from Navy Federal's campus north and east to Pine Forest Road. Aderholdt said the Florida Department of Transportation has recognized the growing need to expand U.S. 90, and has been given the funding to do so by the Florida Legislature. Plans call for the first two phases of the U.S. 90 expansion to begin in 2016, she said. Expansion of U.S. 90, said Pensacola Community Economic Development Association CEO Scott Luth, also is critical to the development of a proposed commerce park on a 640 acre helicopter landing field immediately south of Navy Federal's campus. "From my perspective the four-laning Nine Mile Road (U.S. 90) is one of the strong connections that will have to be made if we're to successfully develop and market a world-class commerce park," Luth said. Escambia County, the chamber, businessman Jim Cronley and retired four-star Adm. Robert Kelly are working closely with the Navy to build a similar-sized, alternate helicopter training site in Santa Rosa County and eventually swap that site for the one in Beulah. Meanwhile, Navy Federal continues to grow its operations in Pensacola, and Calder said sees that growth continuing, fueled in large part by the quality of the area's workforce. But she did couch that praise, and prediction, with a caveat. "The workforce here continues to be really, really strong," she said. "It continues to exceed our expectations. "Now I will say, 10 years down the road, when we have 10,000 employees, I do worry about our appetite for our needs for our workforce. And I do worry, from an education standpoint, whether this area will be able to provide a quality workforce to sustain our growth here." She notes the student achievement disparities between Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. "However, I'm really happy to see that there seems to be a real, major effort afoot," Calder said, "in terms of getting the business community and education leaders together to and think this through, and to say, 'What can we do to make sure we follow through." Navy Federal has a vested interest in being part of that effort, Calder said. "We at Navy Federal need to play a big part in making that happen," she said. "If we have any inkling that the labor pool here may be dwindling, or not be able to sustain us, that will be a big decision point for our expansion plans here. "As a community we need to support education, and we can't just expect the school system do that on its own," Calder said. "It's going to take a village."

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The groundwork for Navy Federal's future

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