UCF postpones decision to give BRIDG $5M
$25M already has been invested in struggling facility
BRIDG, a manufacturing facility that once hoped to attract thousands of highpaying tech jobs to Osceola County, is short on cash.
The University of Central Florida has invested nearly $25.7 million since 2016 in the facility. On Monday, UCF’s trustees delayed a decision for 30 days on giving an extra $5 million to BRIDG to help keep it afloat while it searches for a longterm investor.
BRIDG could run out of unrestricted cash by the end of the month, according to UCF.
UCF Interim President Thad Seymour discouraged trustees from pouring additional cash into the facility, saying he feared it would serve as a bandage on a problem that would require a much larger investment to fix.
“I am not confident in the business plan as currently proposed,” Seymour said.
UCF, he said, is “nearing the end of our ability to fund it any further.”
But leaders from Osceola County and the organization say the future still looks bright for BRIDG.
“I believe this is going in the right direction; it just takes a while,” Osceola County Commission Vice Chairwoman Cheryl Grieb said during Monday’s meeting. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and there will be dividends and payoffs beyond what we can even imagine.”
The anchor of the 500-acre NeoCity development off U.S. 192 near Kissimmee, BRIDG was ini
tially conceived as a consortium with corporations and others paying membership fees to use the facility to conduct research. But it instead became a manufacturing center focused on obtaining grants and contracts to test and package semiconductor chips for federal agencies.
The organization has secured federal grants totaling about $30 million, but UCF leaders don’t expect that to generate a significant amount of new operating money for the facility.
Grieb described the project as a “game-changer” for the county and urged trustees to approve the additional cash infusion. The county commission agreed last month to send as much as $8.3 million to BRIDG for the purchase of microelectronics manufacturing machines. The county has committed more than $100 million over 40 years, UCF said.
BRIDG was banking on
considerable investment from the state — $25 million a year for five years, UCF said — and much of it hasn’t come through. The state has contributed $35 million for operations and tools since 2017, less than half of the amount requested during that time.
BRIDG has received some good news lately, as it secured a $20 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to provide a new technology that promises to help strengthen national security. UCF and Belgian nanotechnology firm imec, which has a team at BRIDG, recently worked to develop cameras that can detect pythons in the Everglades better than the human eye.
Additionally, Fran Korosec, BRIDG’s vice president of program management, told trustees the organization planned to cut expenses by $9 million by the end of 2020.
Trustee David Walsh, who has served on a task force focused on resolving BRIDG’s financial issues, urged his colleagues to approve
the cash infusion — with some stipulations, including requiring the organization’s board to be restructured to give UCF and Osceola County a stronger voice. BRIDG would also have to submit a financial plan that’s acceptable to UCF.
“I think a number of us wish we wouldn’t have gotten as involved in a complex technical business as we did, however, we’re there,” said Walsh, who recused himself from the vote because he’s a member of the organization’s board.
But some of the trustees said UCF, which has kicked in an extra $8.5 million during the last couple of years, doubted whether BRIDG could become financially viable in the near future and said the university shouldn’t hand over additional funding.
Trustee Bill Yeargin said he didn’t see a strong case for UCF to give additional aid.
“I have a desire to see BRIDG be successful, but I don’t think UCF, because of our past involvement, has
any obligation to be the rescuer here,” Yeargin said.
Several trustees also said they were concerned about spending money on something that’s outside the university’s core education and research missions. While UCF leaders say more collaboration is possible in the future, few faculty members are currently conducting research on-site.
Trustees John Lord and Robert Garvy opposed delaying the decision. UCF is in the process of repaying roughly $100 in leftover operating money it used for construction in violation of state rules, Garvy pointed out. That leaves the university, he said, with “no excess funds whatsoever.”
“To delay this for 30 days, to me, is delaying the inevitable,” Garvy said. “I’m going to vote against this motion. I think the facts are clear. If BRIDG is going to find a source to continue their operations, it’ll have to be somewhere other than UCF.”