THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180356
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By Christopher Dinsmore
STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 38 lines
Metro Machine Corp. wants to build a small shipyard near Jacksonville, Fla., to meet the Navy's ship repair needs there, its top executive said.
The Norfolk-based ship-repair firm has a letter of intent to buy a 5-acre waterfront site in Fernandino Beach, Fla., said Metro Machine President Richard Goldbach.
``In the Jacksonville area, there is no dry dock, so when ships require dry-docking they always leave the area,'' Goldbach said.
Metro took the option on the land after the Navy started talking about offering a five-year maintenance contract for 12 destroyers and cruisers based at the Mayport Naval Station near Jacksonville. Any potential bidder would have to develop a full-service shipyard inthe area.
The Navy wants to keep the maintenance work in the Florida area to maintain quality of life for its sailors, Goldbach said. If there was a shipyard with a dry dock near Mayport, crews wouldn't be displaced far from home when their ships go in for maintenance.
The Navy has 23 ships in Mayport.
The Navy hasn't decided to go ahead with the contract yet, Goldbach said. It has told potential bidders that it would make the Navy dry dock Sustain, now at the Norfolk Naval Base, available to the winner, he said.
Officials with the Naval Sea Systems Command in Arlington were unavailable to discuss the potential contract.
Should the Navy go ahead with the project, Metro Machine would likely face competition from a number of Florida and Gulf Coast ship-repair firms, Goldbach said.
Metro would likely employ 500 at a Florida shipyard, he said.
Metro has a lot of experience working on Navy combatants. Its principal yard in Norfolk's Berkley section frequently has two or three warships in for work. It also operates a smaller yard in Chester, Pa. by CNB