Jacksonville Rail Project Gets State Money

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said $5.5 million from the state’s Job Growth Grant Fund will help Jacksonville link three miles of railway from the Cecil Commerce Center’s “megasite.” The project is expected to increase transportation access for manufacturing and for logistics companies in the 600-acre megasite, which is in a northern part of the 17,000-acre Cecil Commerce Center and adjacent to Interstate 10 and CSX rail. DeSantis said the work is expected to bring manufacturing and logistic jobs to the region. DeSantis said talks are underway “at the local level and state with some companies that are eyeing this, and this would be enough for them to want to come.” The Job Growth Grant Fund, created in 2017 after a battle between lawmakers and then-Gov. Rick Scott about business incentives, gives the governor discretion to distribute money to workforce training and public-infrastructure projects. Last year, DeSantis awarded $6 million to complete nearly two miles of roads, along with accompanying utilities, at the center’s Cecil Airport and Cecil Spaceport.