Project Beep, a confidential airspace firm, to lease land for $247M Merritt Island facility
Space Florida has authorized leasing 25 acres on northern Merritt Island for Project Beep, an undisclosed aerospace company that plans to build a future quarter-billion-dollar facility and create about 1,000 jobs just outside NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Little information has been publicly released about this confidential company.
"It captures the increasing pace of activity around the world's busiest spaceport," Space Florida President and CEO Rob Long said during the authority's May 28 board of directors meeting.
"Obviously, we welcome this growth and are excited about the bright future for the space industry here in Florida."
By unanimous vote, Space Florida authorized completion of negotiations for a 30-year Project Beep lease for the last two remaining parcels of the opening phase of Exploration Park, which is managed in partnership with NASA.
"Project Beep intends to set up manufacturing, research and development, laboratory, warehousing and office facilities to support aerospace operation at Cape Canaveral Spaceport," said Howard Haug, Space Florida executive vice president, treasurer and chief investment officer.
"The project estimates total investment of $247 million and expects creating approximately 1,000 jobs at industry-average wages."
During a post-meeting press conference, Long said Project Beep officials are still looking at building structural designs, and Space Florida will work with the mystery company on that topic during the next several months.
Statewide, Space Florida reported it is pursuing 204 business opportunities. The Space Coast leads the way with 51 potential deals, followed by Central Florida with 28 opportunities and the western Panhandle with 24.
The Space Florida meeting kicked off 3½ hours after SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center into low-Earth orbit on another Starlink mission. The liftoff marked the 45th orbital rocket launch thus far this year from Florida's Space Coast.
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space. Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Space Florida to lease land for Project Beep aerospace firm, 1,000 jobs
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