PGA Tour requests $16.7 million in incentives for digital media facility

The St. Johns Board of County Commissioners preliminarily approved it as Project Breeze.


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  • | 5:00 a.m. May 13, 2021
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The PGA Tour headquarters along Palm Valley Road in St. Johns County.
The PGA Tour headquarters along Palm Valley Road in St. Johns County.
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The St. Johns County code-named Project Breeze has been identified as the PGA Tour, according to a May 18 St. Johns County Commission agenda. 

The project, previously described as an unnamed information technology project, is a broadcast media building for the PGA Tour, according to the economic development agreement. 

The PGA Tour would relocate its PGA Tour Entertainment arm from its 32,329-square-foot building in World Golf Village to the new 150,000-square-foot facility. The 135 employees at the company would be retained.  

It would be constructed on property along Palm Valley Road, adjacent to its world headquarters that opened earlier this year. 

The St. Johns County Commission approved a motion to draft an agreement with the applicant on April 6. 

There are some changes to the agreement than what the PGA Tour first requested.

The tour is seeking $16,778,760 in incentives, down from $23 million.

It previously requested an additional $9,605,237 in incentives for retaining jobs at the existing PGA Tour Entertainment facility, but that is no longer part of the deal.

In its first iteration, the PGA Tour requested $13,774,888 in incentives for the construction of the new facility. The additional $3 million in incentives accounts for higher estimates of ad valorem taxes and tangible business personal property taxes.

That includes 25 years of ad valorem taxes paid by the applicant on capital improvements and 25 years of tangible business personal property taxes paid by the applicant.

The PGA Tour expects to invest more than $100 million in the project, including land, construction and equipment costs. 

If the tour decides to move forward with the project, it estimates completion in 2024. Construction would begin March 2022. 

PGA Tour Entertainment would use the space to “design, originate, produce, edit and broadcast original content” for “worldwide partners,” said the amended economic development application.

It anticipates creating 45 new jobs at an average wage of $79,442 by 2035. 

The Board of County Commissioners will vote on the agreement May 18.

 

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