Contact: Stuart Doyle
                             (407) 956-5689
 sdoyle@eflorida.com

Saft America project honored for community impact

Enterprise Florida’s entry wins Trade & Industry Development’s CiCi Award

 ORLANDO, FL (April 14, 2010) – Thunderbolt, the economic development project that resulted in Saft America Inc.’s recent groundbreaking at Cecil Commerce Center in Jacksonville, has received the 2010 Corporate Investment and Community Impact (CiCi) Award, presented by Trade & Industry Development magazine.

           The CiCi recognizes corporate locations and investments, focusing on both the company investing in the community and the economic developers and partner organizations driving the effort. 

           Project Thunderbolt won in the Community Impact category.  All the honorees are featured in the March/April edition of Trade & Industry Development, a nationally distributed monthly that profiles progressive cities and regions and their attributes for site selection consultants and corporate executives.

           Enterprise Florida’s partners in the Saft America project included the City of Jacksonville, Cornerstone Regional Development Partnership and the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission. 

About Project Thunderbolt

          In August 2009, Saft was awarded a $95 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The funding is for a high-volume manufacturing plant to build advanced lithium-ion cells and batteries for military hybrid vehicles, aviation, smart grid support, broadband backup power and energy storage for renewable energy.  Alternative energy is a designated high impact sector in Florida, and the grant provided an opportunity to leverage federal funding with state and local resources to encourage growth and diversification of Florida’s burgeoning alternative energy sector. 

Saft America will bring roughly 279 jobs to the Jacksonville area during the next six years.

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Enterprise Florida, Inc. is a partnership between Florida's business and government leaders and is the principal economic development organization for the state of Florida.  Headquartered in Orlando, Enterprise Florida’s mission is to diversify Florida’s economy and create better-paying jobs for its citizens by supporting, attracting and helping to create businesses in innovative, high-growth industries.  In pursuit of its mission, Enterprise Florida works closely with a statewide network of economic development partners and is funded both by the State of Florida and by private-sector businesses.

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