Ground broken for Exelis operation

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Ground was broken Tuesday for the ITT Exelis facility at the VentureCrossing Enterprise Centre in Bay County. The 105,000-square-foot facility will be used by the company’s mine defense systems work. The event was hosted by St. Joe Co., which is developing the 75,000-acre mixed use business park near the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. The park will include office, industrial, manufacturing, hotel, retail and residential uses. Gov. Rick Scott said the project is important to Florida because of its strong ties to the defense industry. ITT Exelis currently has about 100 employees in the Panama City area. (Source: Panama City News Herald, Business Wire, 11/08/11)