On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., announced the United States Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding a $4 million CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to Volusia County to prepare a 56-acre site adjacent to Daytona Beach International Airport for the development of Project COVID, a medical research, manufacturing, and multi-modal distribution facility.
This EDA grant, to be matched with $1 million in local funds, is expected to create hundreds of jobs and generate $150 million in private investment.
“This grant will fund critical pharmaceutical research, a manufacturing facility, and potentially create hundreds of jobs that will greatly benefit our residents in northeast Florida,” said Waltz. “The pandemic painfully demonstrated our dependence on China for protective equipment and pharmaceuticals. We must bring our manufacturing back home. I’m thrilled to have worked with Volusia County and the local business community to make this project a reality.”
This project was made possible by the regional planning efforts led by the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council (ECFRPC). EDA funds ECFRPC to bring together the public and private sectors to create an economic development roadmap to strengthen the regional economy, support private capital investment and create jobs.
This project is funded under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (Public Law 116-136), which provided EDA with $1.5 billion for economic assistance programs to help communities prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus. EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance, which is being administered under the authority of the bureau’s flexible Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) program, provides a wide range of financial assistance to eligible communities and regions as they respond to and recover from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
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