A tireless, creative effort to help strengthen the Northwest Florida economy has earned Gulf Power recognition from a national economic development magazine.

Site Selection magazine named Gulf Power one of the Top Ten utilities in the nation for economic development — an annual list compiled by the magazine based on economic development programs utilities offer to help create jobs and improve economic activity in the communities they serve.

Site Selection magazine cited:

• Gulf Power’s Florida First Sites certification program for industrial properties
• The company’s Re-Occupancy incentive to encourage tenants for vacant buildings
• The Job Creation Rate Incentive for new and expanding companies
• Business prospect and job recruitment efforts

“We are honored with this designation because it means we are on the right track with our economic development programs for our customers,” John Hutchinson, Gulf Power’s director of Community and Economic Development said. “There is much more work to do with our community partners, but this designation is an important distinction for Northwest Florida.”

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Gulf Power helped expanding and relocating companies that created 3,436 jobs last year with total facility investments of $386 million. These companies included Navy Federal Credit Union and CHCS Services in Pensacola, FedEx Ground in Panama City and West Fraser Mill in McDavid.

Last year, Gulf Power introduced a new job creation rate rider incentive, as well as a re-occupancy incentive that pays incentives to business owners who are willing to occupy existing vacant buildings. Gulf Power also hired a full-time researcher who completed more than 100 projects for community partners.

Recently, Gulf Power launched FloridaFirstSites.com to market 13 key industrial sites in Northwest Florida that are going through the company's new site certification program.

This was the first time Gulf Power made the highly competitive list, which simply names the top ten utilities in alphabetical order without rankings.

The winning utilities joining Gulf Power, in alphabetical order, are Alabama Power, Birmingham, Ala.; American Electric Power, Columbus, Ohio; Duke Energy, Charlotte, N.C.; Entergy, New Orleans, La.; FirstEnergy, Akron, Ohio; Florida Power & Light, Juno Beach, Fla.; Georgia Power, Atlanta, Ga.; LG&E-KU, Louisville, Ky.; and Tennessee Valley Authority, Nashville, Tenn.

“For a relatively small utility like Gulf Power to make this list is significant,” Hutchinson said. “But economic development is a team sport so we certainly share this honor with all of our partner organizations across the region and with Enterprise Florida, our state partner.”