When a globally competitive sailing organization walked away from a New York base to build a permanent manufacturing facility on Florida’s Gulf Coast, it wasn’t a lifestyle decision. It was a calculated bet on a market that had the infrastructure, leadership, and workforce pipeline to support long-term growth.
That bet is paying off – and the playbook behind it has direct implications for developers, economic development professionals, and business leaders watching where sophisticated organizations choose to put down roots.
Kelvin Enfinger explored this story in a recent episode of Beyond the Build, the official podcast of Associated Builders and Contractors North Florida. His guest was Tyson Lamond, Chief Operating Officer of American Magic, a high-performance sailing and composite manufacturing organization that has made Pensacola its permanent home.
What started as a conversation about team building quickly became a case study in what makes a market genuinely attractive to organizations that had other options.
From Snowbird to Permanent: How a City Earns a Commitment
American Magic first arrived in Pensacola in 2018, scouting winter training locations after ruling out Key West on logistical grounds. A chance connection brought the team to Pensacola Bay – and the sailing conditions were immediately impressive.
But geography alone does not close a deal of this scale. What sealed it was the community’s response. City leadership, port officials, and local partners moved quickly and made clear they wanted the team there long term.
For the first few years, American Magic split time between Pensacola and New England, moving 65 to 70 people and their families twice a year. It proved unsustainable. When Lamond evaluated three locations for a permanent base, Pensacola won.
“They were like, ‘We’ll do whatever we can, but we want you guys to come back here long term,’” Lamond said. “That is the mentality that we’ve had in Pensacola from day one – it’s this local community where everyone wants to lift each other up and help grow.”
A long-term agreement with the Pensacola port followed within 12 months of that decision.
More Than a Race Team: The Real Economic Footprint
The American Magic High Performance Center is not a satellite office. It is a composite manufacturing and technology facility – the kind of capital investment that signals genuine confidence in a market’s trajectory.
American Magic now holds a five-year contract as the SailGP North America Training Hub, guaranteeing 110 days of international sailing activity annually and bringing 14 teams from around the world to Pensacola each year. That generates direct and recurring economic activity – hotel stays, restaurant traffic, airport volume – attached to a globally recognized brand.
“We are so much more than a race team,” Lamond said. “We are a high-end composite manufacturing and innovation and technology center. We’re going to create opportunities all across the board – for the airport, for the new hotels, for the restaurants on Palafox.”
For real estate and development professionals, this is what an anchor tenant that reshapes perception actually looks like. The decisions that follow from other organizations – where to locate, where to invest – are influenced by who has already committed.
The Workforce Pipeline Question
The thread that runs through Lamond’s account of why Pensacola worked is workforce infrastructure. American Magic now employs 18 full-time local hires, with active plans to grow that number across roles including composite manufacturing technicians, project managers, design engineers, and fluid dynamics specialists.
None of that hiring would have moved as quickly without pre-existing partnerships. The organization connected rapidly with the University of West Florida, Pensacola State College, and Children’s Home Society – institutions that had already done the work of building relevant pipelines.
“We could not grow the workforce as we are if it wasn’t for those partnerships,” Lamond said. “These things just do not happen if we don’t have a local pipeline.”
Enfinger drew the parallel directly to commercial construction, where technical training has expanded but mentorship for the next generation of project managers and field supervisors remains underdeveloped. The pipeline problem is not sector-specific. The markets that win consistently are the ones where education, business, and civic leadership have built that infrastructure together before the opportunity arrives.
What Civic Leadership Actually Looks Like
Lamond was specific about the human factor in Pensacola’s success. Mayor D.C. Reeves’s sustained advocacy – repeated trips to Tallahassee and Washington to bring resources and attention to the region – was, in Lamond’s telling, a direct contributor to American Magic’s permanent presence.
“His passion for growing this city is infectious,” Lamond said. “Without him doing that, there’s no way we would be sitting here today in this amazing facility.”
The Hard Rock, the Palafox refurbishment, new downtown restaurants, the Tristan Hotel – Lamond connected these developments directly to that kind of persistent, visible civic leadership. They are not coincidences. They are downstream effects.
For any market competing for this caliber of investment, the lesson is straightforward: incentives matter, but culture closes deals. Organizations with choices are evaluating whether a city will fight for them after the ribbon cutting, not just before it.
About American Magic: American Magic is a high-performance sailing and composite manufacturing organization based in Pensacola, Florida. Home to the American Magic High Performance Center, the organization serves as the SailGP North America Training Hub and is a leader in composite manufacturing and innovation. For more information, visit americanmagic.com.
About Beyond the Build Podcast: Beyond the Build is the official podcast of Associated Builders and Contractors North Florida, hosted by Kelvin Enfinger. Episodes are available on major podcast platforms and YouTube here.
This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.
Disclosure: Individuals or companies mentioned may have a commercial relationship with KeyCrew.