The following article appeared on WMBB News 13:
OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – Destin was the home of a meeting and ‘competing’ of the minds Wednesday afternoon.
Some of the most notable investors in Bay County’s industrial workforce were at the second annual ASTRO America FSU InSPIRE Tech Showcase.
“This competition here in Northwest Florida is having these big aerospace companies judge the software solutions, not only in terms of technical merit, but also on the business propositions, is the software technology that they’re bringing affordable? Is it user-friendly, and is it going to be a sustainable business model?” ASTRO America President and CEO Neal Orringer said.
Due to the nature of the cunning software and one-of-a-kind ideas on display, News13 was unable to witness these minds battle it out.
Although it was clear that fun would be had, there was more at stake for the six competitors.
“At the end of the competition, there’ll be an opportunity for them to meet with our investors tomorrow. Anyone who’s a winner, so either one or two finalists, will have a chance to meet with our private equity fund to talk about more opportunities. So we kind of liken it to Shark Tank,” Orringer said.
When Orringer decided to become a key part of Northwest Florida’s industrial economic boom, the goal was to use advanced manufacturing to drive down the costs of weapons to the military and taxpayers, while speeding up the process, and encouraging others to do the same.
But he’s not the only player in what’s been a decades-long effort, heavily driven by the Triumph Gulf Coast Board, to diversify the economy.
“We can’t do it alone. We’re a nonprofit I like to say I put the nonprofit in nonprofit, but what we’re trying to do is actually build a village. So we bring teams together. So collectively, we work with our teammates, companies like Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin Aerospace, and we all convene together to help solve problems. So collectively, we’re talking about somewhere in the order of $12 million just in the last year and a half that we’ve been matching to some of the investments that were made by Triumph Gulf Coast and others,” Orringer explained.
Several of the companies Orringer mentioned are the judges in the competition, along with FSU InSPIRE’s Col. Drew Allen.
He told News13 his investment in Bay County is about to become tangible on a 25-acre plot at Venture Crossings.
“We’re about to break ground the first week in November on our first phase one facility that will be for additive manufacturing,” Allen said.
And they aren’t stopping once construction on the 50,000 square foot facility is complete.
“As soon as that’s complete or at least breaks ground, we’ll roll rightly immediately into our Phase two facility, which will be roughly another 50 to 75,000 square feet of our aerospace and testing facility, which will be built secure and we’ll be housing our suite of wind tunnels all the way up to a hypersonic wind tunnel down to a climactic tunnel and other testing equipment. So we’re set to expend close to $100 million in the next three years on building facilities and buying equipment in Bay County,” Allen said.