A proposed fuel terminal that previously prompted safety concerns from some Volusia County residents and elected officials may have found a new home in Flagler County, pending processes and approvals that would still need to come through before any development plans are finalized.
Belvedere Terminals is eyeing a parcel of land zoned for industrial use in Palm Coast. The site is adjacent to railroad tracks, making it a good fit for the fuel storage and distribution terminal Belvedere wants to build, according to Chief Financial Officer Timothy Schwarz.
“We need to be adjacent to rail tracks for the way our system is designed,” Schwarz said. “Belvedere's system brings product in by rail, as opposed to coming over the water.”
Right now in Florida, “pretty much every gallon of gas you consume comes over the water,” from refineries off the Gulf Coast, Schwarz said. From there, the gas is long-haul trucked to various locations throughout the state.
“That is a system that has some vulnerabilities to it. It's subject to disruption, primarily due to weather,” Schwarz said. “You have evacuation challenges, and you have recovery and repair challenges in the aftermath of [hurricanes].”
Belvedere’s $500 million fuel terminal project is “designed to have a safer, more reliable, lower-cost, cleaner way to bring refined products — gas, diesel, jet [fuel] — into the state of Florida,” Schwarz said.
Originally, Belvedere had hoped to develop a fuel terminal site in Ormond Beach in Volusia County. But those plans ultimately fell through, following months of pushback from area residents, some of whom lived under a mile from where the facility would be built. A petition against the Ormond Beach site drew nearly 44,000 signatures.
“There was a fair amount of local resistance to that, and I think a fair amount of activity by the government — the elected officials — that appeared to make it a challenge, if you will,” Schwarz said.
After initially voting unanimously in favor of a temporary moratorium on industrial development, including the site where Belvedere hoped to build, Volusia County Council members later stepped back from that moratorium: clearing the way for Belvedere to build in Ormond Beach.
RELATED: Volusia Council tosses moratorium, clearing path for controversial fuel farm
Still, the company ultimately backed off from its plans to develop in Volusia. Now, Belvedere is finding a more receptive audience in Palm Coast and the wider Flagler community, according to Schwarz.
“We found a very welcoming, if you will, group of folks, both at the city and at the county, because of the tremendous benefits we bring to the community for doing this,” Schwarz said.
Many Volusia County residents had voiced their safety concerns with the proposed facility, which would be designed to store up to 500 million gallons of different fuels, according to an initial air construction permit issued in 2023 by Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection. Residents worried about what could possibly happen in the case of a chemical explosion or other emergency situation at the site.
But whether in Ormond Beach or Palm Coast, the proposed fuel terminal would not be dangerous, Schwarz insisted, describing safety as Belvedere’s “absolute number-one priority.” He pointed to the company’s investment of millions of dollars into “state-of-the-art safety systems,” adding that all rail cars would be brand new, designed specifically for Belvedere.
“It's a passenger-level safety, applied to commercial-grade rail traffic,” Schwarz said.
Belvedere, a private start-up, was established to deliver projects designed to boost the resiliency of Florida’s fuel supply, according to a company spokeswoman.
When asked about the company’s track record with building similar fuel terminal projects, the spokeswoman wrote via email that Belvedere works “with a broad team that includes some of the best design, engineering, and construction firms in the country, with decades of experience and hundreds of comparable projects.”
"This is a project that the Mayor of Palm Coast was seeking, and we are just helping with the grant portion to allow for the site to be acquired and developed."Flagler County Administrator Heidi Petito
To move the project forward, Belvedere has its eye on a $10 million appropriation to the Department of Commerce, which state lawmakers specifically set aside last year for either Volusia, Brevard or Flagler County to build a fuel storage and distribution terminal.
Flagler commissioners are slated to discuss approval of the $10 million appropriation at an April 7 commission meeting. From there, assuming commissioners secure the funding, the county would move forward with a purchase and sale agreement for Belvedere to acquire the industrial site, said Flagler County Administrator Heidi Petito.
But apart from that, “our involvement will be somewhat limited with this project,” Petito wrote in an email. Although the state appropriation requires a county to receive the grant funding, when it comes to the project itself, Palm Coast gets the final say.
“The property is located within the City of Palm Coast, so all the permitting and development approvals will take place at the City, not the County. This is a project that the Mayor of Palm Coast was seeking, and we are just helping with the grant portion to allow for the site to be acquired and developed,” Petito wrote.
