THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609120322
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 28 lines
Metro Machine Corp. said it has won ``conditional approval'' from Florida's governor and cabinet officers to start seeking permits for a ship-repair facility near Jacksonville.
Norfolk-based Metro wants to build the facility on five acres in Fernandina Beach, Fla., for which it holds a purchase option. It plans to use the yard to repair and maintain warships from the nearby Mayport Naval Station.
Charles Garland, Metro's vice president and chief engineer, said Wednesday he hasn't yet learned what conditions the Florida officials have set for proceeding with the permit applications. Because the site is classified as part of an ``aquatic preservation area,'' Metro needed the go-ahead just to begin obtaining the necessary water- and air-pollution, dredging and building permits.
Even if Metro gets all the permits it needs, there's no guarantee it will win a long-term contract from the Navy to repair Mayport ships. But Richard A. Goldbach, Metro's president, said last week that having the yard would give his company an ``above average'' shot at the work.
Goldbach said that if it won a Navy contract there, Metro would start hiring for the yard in 1998 and eventually employ as many as 500 people at the facility. by CNB