BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Space Florida is looking into developing a special district south of the Kennedy Space Center to keep up with the tremendous growth of the commercial space industry.

It involves a mix of government facilities and retail space along a portion of State Road 3 and nearby Space Commerce Way.

The goal is to attract private investment as the commercial space industry continues to thrive, bringing with it jobs and the potential of attracting citizens and tourists to open their pocketbooks.

A plan by Space Florida  — the state’s aerospace economic development agency — could bring in a new client base in a big way.

It’s called the Space Commerce District, named for the existing Space Commerce Way which connects NASA Parkway and Courtenay Parkway, also known as State Road 3.

FDOT has already widened Space Commerce to accommodate oversized space industry rockets and hardware.

And recently the larger NASA Causeway Bridge opened to do the same.

The goal is to identify developable areas of the 140,000-acre Kennedy Space Center property.

Space Florida and NASA would encourage private sector development by making non-essential land and facilities available to commercial space companies, making space access less costly and more routine.

The proposal includes constructing eight buildings on a 60-acre site, with a total of 315,000 square feet.

Eight hundred permanent employees would work there.

One building is already up and in use by Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, where there is a final small satellite assembly line.

In the north part of Exploration Park, an astronaut training facility would be built on a 66-acre site.

It would accommodate 50 staff members and up to 30 astronauts at one time.

A public restaurant and cafe would serve up to 180 people.

Included is a 15-year development plan to accommodate the expected increase of full-time staff and visitors to this area from 1.7 million in 2024 to a projected 3.3 million in 2038.

Local business owner welcomes plan

It is a busy afternoon at the Tiki Shack Salon and Barbershop off State Road 3. Fatima Younis has been styling hair there for two years.

It is the people she serves that make the job worthwhile.

“It’s my outlet, I love meeting people. I love making them pretty, feeling more confident, everything about it,” Younis said.

Most of her customers are local and live nearby.

“Their main satisfaction of this shop is how convenient it is,” she said.

Younis sees an increase in people working in the area as part of the plan as a potential boon for the salon.

“A development here would be nice,” she says.