Little Known Facts About Winter Haven's Planned CSX Integrated Logistics Center

Lauded as one of the biggest and most important projects in Florida to date, the controversial CSX Integrated Logistics Center project in Winter Haven, FL promised to bring nearly 8,500 jobs to our area. 

I love this city, and can't imagine living anywhere else.  However, I am becoming more and more disheartened with this CSX project  - as the promise of a new day for jobs in Winter Haven, Florida are, in light of the economy and gas prices, seeming to fade prematurely into distant memory.

Chuck Welch and Billy Townsend are two of Polk County's most astute writers, and they've done much to enlighten me and my readers about the true impacts - occupational and societal - this CSX hub project may have in store for Winter Haven and Polk County as a whole.

Jobs Impact

Comments left by Chuck and Billy on my main Florida Mortgage Blogger blog do a lot to highlight some things many local folks here may not understand.  I know I didn't - perhaps simply from not doing enough homework.  Nonetheless, I felt it important to share them here:

Chuck Welch: (Can be found at this site: Chuck Welch, Human:)

"One of my problems with this project — in addition to all the secrecy of course — is the inflated job number. On June 19, 2007 I attended a meeting with CSX officials and we had quite a discussion about the expected jobs. Here’s a part of what I wrote then:

• Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Forget the 8500 number. Pretend you never heard it, because that depends on the hub attracting many businesses, and the number isn’t for employees in Winter Haven. Try these numbers:

• Somewhere below 200. They expect the terminal to need 200 employees, but will offer present Taft Yard employees the opportunity to transfer. So, less than 200 new jobs for Winter Haven.

• 1370 temporary construction jobs for whoever builds the thing. However, most construction companies are going to bring in their own people.

• 1800 jobs for the ILC:”

Note “CSX will own the terminal, but will not develop the rest of the facilities. They’ll find someone to do that for them.” That’s the 1800. 1100 of those jobs are estimated to average $36,800 for employee compensation. That includes salary, health insurance, retirement payments, and non-cash compensation. In other words, don’t think that is near the salary. I wonder if the salary will be a “living wage?”

And don’t forget even CSX estimates give the employee numbers as after 10 years. If they materialize.

I also would remind your readers of this: “A long discussion followed where the CSX officials were asked why they had measured “growth potential, but not impact potential.” The concern was raised that CSX was offering plenty of possible job numbers based on optimistic growth, but could not supply the same numbers for impact items (trucks traveling to and from the facility for example).”

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Billy Townsend: (Can be found at this site: LakelandLocal.com)

"First, thanks, Kevin for taking the time to read and think about this. It’s hugely complicated, and it feels really good to have somebody really think and consider what Chuck and I have written.

I don’t have a huge amount to add to Chuck’s comment, given the constraints of a comment thread. I’m going to do a post tomorrow on LL that you are welcome to cross post if Chuck doesn’t mind."

A couple of quick points:

1) I think the permanent job number for the hub is down to about 70 now, (I know it’s under 100) with some portion of those jobs relocated from rail yards in Orlando and Tampa.

2) There is no second phase of the project, no high end biz park. There are no 1,800 jobs. There might be one day, but there’s no proposal of any kind now. Just trains for the hub.

3) The hub is one part of the larger CSX deal with the state. The other part is the relocation of existing freight traffic out of Orlando and onto a west Florida line that runs though Ocala, Plant City and Lakeland. The state would pay to upgrade this west Florida line so that CSX can run more trains on it. This deal is far worse than the hub by itself. It’s this deal that was defeated last session, at least temporarily. This deal has the state paying upwards of a billion dollars, through various elements of the plan, to help CSX establish its business plan in the Florida. The hub is key to that business plan, but it’s not everything.

4) With regard to #2 above, much has changed since this deal was first announced. The most prominent thing is the economy. Supporters of this sold the benefits of this whole package based on 2004-2005 growth rates of vehicle sales and consumer product container traffic and Florida population. I saw the graphs and powerpoints. All of those things have cratered, and gas is plummeting. Who knows if this is a temporary thing, or if Florida really is “over” as the Wall Street Journal reported a while back? But it does seem to me that all of the economic assumptions underpinning this deal - and that goes for skeptics and impact-worriers like me, as well - are out the window."

You can see from their comments that Chuck and Billy are very well informed about the CSX project and its inability to live up to promies made.  As Billy stated - it's a very complicated issue... and one that reaches far past our local municipalities  - all the way to the state capital.

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Lakeland, FL Officials and Merchants Opposition Derails

Lakeland city officials and a merchants group have halted their attempts to block the CSX hub.  They still feel that the increased train and truck traffic through Lakeland en route to Winter Haven will pose problems for them, but understand that there's just too much steam behind the engine on this one - so to speak.

Florida State Senator J.D. Alexander (R-Lake Wales, FL) is a staunch supporter of the CSX project and has recently been installed as the chairman of the Senate committee charged with handling the state budget.  As such, you can see where the CSX project is getting firm backing from the capital. 

Me?  I'm left with a sense of disspointment.  I wanted the CSX hub to be a great thing for Winter Haven.  It still may prove beneficial to our town, but the benefits from a county-wide standpoint do seem to favor us - leaving Lakeland to bear a tangental "load," with little to no economic gain. 

 

If you live in the Polk County, FL area - or just have a comment to make regarding this issue, I absolutely welcome your feedback. 

As always, I remain...

Your Friendly Florida Mortgage Blogger

 

 

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