Torres: Time for Brevard County Commission to support a Brightline station in Cocoa
Five million dollars.
That may be all that stands between a Brightline train station coming to the Space Coast. The alternative — Brevard continuing to be just a blur for passengers traveling between Orlando and Miami on the high-speed passenger rail — is not quite as exciting.
The vote on whether to free up $5 million in tourism tax funds goes before the County Commission for a vote tonight.
I'm hoping our commissioners vote with a resounding "yes."
Why? Well, in addition to the obvious notion that it would be better to have a train stop in Cocoa than none at all, there are these factors to consider:
■ The $5 million could become $25 million, due to a federal grant program that quadruples local investment. Applications for the grant must be submitted by May 28.
■ This is not property tax or a specialty tax or a loan. This is money the Brevard County Tourism Development Council already has at its disposal, through revenue collected from tourists, via a 5% tax on hotel rooms and vacation rentals. The council, by the way, already voted 8-0 in favor of the money being used for a station.
■ The city of Cocoa already authorized $5 million for the station. (This number also could become $25 million, due to the federal grant program.)
■ The Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization already allocated $15.5 million in federal funding for the project.
■ If the county negotiators insist on a clawback stipulation, then the $5 million gets returned to the coffers if for some reason the federal funding does not materialize.
I know $5 million is a lot of money, but is it really, when you consider the railway's plans to connect to the Tampa area and eventually Jacksonville? Plus, there's no guarantee that unprecedented federal program will continue past this year. Additionally, a delay now will only result in rising construction costs, and who's to say Brightline won't find somewhere else to build another station.
It's also not a lot when you consider the cost of the $45 million station and the $30 million needed for track improvements needed to accommodate a stop.
Brevard County Commission Chair Jason Steele said "we'll be kicking ourselves until the day we die," if the county misses out on this opportunity. "Because I tell you what, when those trains start going to Tampa and we start missing out on the opportunity to be 'prime time,' then we're making a major mistake."
Steele added that the county has spent a lot more tourism tax money on things that didn't result in the "'heads to beds'' (hotel stays) a train stop will result in.
The Cocoa station would be 7,500 to 9,000 square feet. It would be built on a part of a 90-acre-plus site near Clearlake Road/U.S. 1 and State Road 528. Brightline is donating land for the project, as well as absorbing operating costs of the station and 500-space parking lot, totaling about $3 million annually.
Brightline currently operates 32 trains a day — 16 in each direction — from early morning to late evening on the roughly 3?-hour route between Orlando International Airport and Miami.
"This is the most exciting thing that's happened to Brevard County ever, in my opinion," Steele said. "Fifty years I've lived here, and I've never seen an opportunity like that."
Is this a perfect situation? No. Would it be better if the county had more time to consider the funding? Sure.
Brightline also had been losing money, but officials claim the company is solid and losses during the first few years of operating the new line were expected. There has also been some scuttlebutt about the trains not having enough seats to accommodate discounted monthly passes in south Florida, but more coaches have been ordered and should be in place by the end of the year.
The county made a mistake several years ago when we lost Major League Baseball spring training. Then, we lost minor league baseball. I know youth sports and amateur tournaments held at Space Coast Stadium bring in a lot of dollars, but let's not lose out on this when we're so close to seeing it materialized.
Vote yes.
Contact Torres at [email protected]. You can follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @johnalbertorres.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard County is so close to getting its own Brightline train station