- December 16, 2025
New criteria stipulate the facility must be within 25 miles of a major international airport, which disqualifies Palm Coast.
The Federal Aviation Administration training facility in Palm Coast, which employs about 115 people, is in danger of leaving town, according to officials.
The lease on the facility, located on Palm Coast Parkway near Fairways Circle, is expiring, and the FAA wants to relocate it within 25 miles of a major airport. The Palm Coast facility is too far from Orlando and Jacksonville, and so it doesn’t qualify.
A final decision hasn’t been made, but the FAA is currently soliciting offers for a new location for the training facility, and a decision is expected soon, an FAA spokeswoman said via email Tuesday.
The facility — the Center for Management and Executive Leadership — is a destination that FAA employees must attend at some point, according to County Commissioner Milissa Holland.
City officials are working with their lobbyist and with U.S. Rep. John Mica to see if they can keep the facility here. Mica has proposed legislation that would require “economic distress” to be a factor in the decision to relocate the facility, thus giving Palm Coast a greater chance. That language is in the current bill, but it has been stalled because of a labor union issue.
Palm Coast has the highest unemployment in the state at 14%, according to numbers released Dec. 16 by the state.
“Our concern is that ... if the bill takes too long, that the provision wouldn’t be in place,” said Beau Falgout, senior economic planner for Palm Coast.
However, Kansas City officials are also working hard to attract the facility to fill a vacant building downtown, which ostensibly fulfills the requirements from the FAA.
Should the facility leave Palm Coast, Holland said the trickle-down effect would encumber Palm Coast’s economic recovery.
“This is disappointing,” Holland said Tuesday. “We need this facility here. We can’t afford to see it move.”
Holland said the message was clear that the FAA has another location in mind when the FAA established the airport proximity criteria.
The facility is owned by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, not the city of Palm Coast. Falgout said ERAU was interesting in “fixing it up.”
All Palm Coast wants is a chance, Falgout added.
“We need to huddle and make our concerns be heard and raise the issue so it doesn’t happen quietly in the night,” he said.
—Brian McMillan contributed to this report.
