St. Joe buys Shark's Tooth Golf Course in Wild Heron

There certainly has been a lot of buzz about the acquisition of Shark’s Tooth Golf Course in Wild Heron by St. Joe in the last couple of months. Every since Playground left in January, I’ve been hearing rumors of this very thing taking place. St. Joe closed on Thursday paying $30 million with the acquisition including Shark’s Tooth Golf Course, a 10 acre practice facility, a 21,000 square foot clubhouse, a huge cart storage facility, a 4,000 square foot pro shop, four lighted HydroCourt Har-Tru tennis courts and the private 100′ waterfront beach club property.

Click here for the entire press release.

404 Permit issued for Airport Relocation

This is what we’ve all been waiting for, this is what many have claimed will be the beginning of the end of all their problems. The final federal permit needed for the Panama City Airport Relocation, the 404 Permit, was received as announced today by the Bay County International Airport and Industrial District (Airport Authority).

Quote:

“In issuing the Section 404 permit, the USACE concurred with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (FDEP) analysis. In its analysis, FDEP cited a number of net ecosystem benefits that will result from the project, including:

The conservation and permanent protection of significant contiguous portions of the West Bay region, including bay shoreline, wetlands, streams, uplands and the overall watershed;
A wetlands function lift significantly in excess of that needed to compensate for functional losses (impacts);
A mitigation plan that significantly exceeds both state and federal requirements for all possible current and future impacts; and
An effort to restore a large contiguous tract of uplands and wetlands to approximate historical conditions more suitable for dependent species native to the area. . .

The Airport Authority is nearing completion of a ten-year process to relocate the Panama City – Bay County airport. In the late 1980s, the Airport Authority began an effort to address significant deficiencies at the existing airport, including non-standard runway safety areas. When local environmentalists and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection objected to extending the existing runway system into Goose Bayou, a particularly environmentally sensitive part of St. Andrews Bay, the Airport Authority began considering relocating the airport.

After completion of a feasibility study in 2000 and a site selection study in 2001, the Airport Authority identified a new site for the airport in northwestern Bay County (West Bay) on land owned by The St. Joe Company.

Following the FAA’s selection of the site, the Airport Authority partnered with the State of Florida, Bay County and St. Joe in an innovative planning process authorized by Florida law known as “optional sector planning.” The process included numerous public meetings, data gathering, analysis and visioning for the future. The plan was approved by Bay County and the State of Florida in 2002 and detailed specific area plans were also approved in 2003.

The sector plan incorporates approximately 78,000 acres and of particular significance is that the boundary of the plan includes an entire bay system (West Bay) thereby allowing unprecedented planning to protect an entire watershed. The purpose of the plan was to ensure that appropriate land uses were placed near the airport and that appropriate environmental protection measures were built into the plan. The plan is conceptual and guides future development and conservation. . .”

Read the entire press release here.

Mobile Homes in Laguna Beach

An issue growing warmer every day is the ever decaying presence of mobile homes in Laguna Beach. The half sized lots from blocks 2 and up have been attractive for mobile homes for years, even decades and many of the residents want that to change. I will be the first to agree that not all residents of mobile homes are trash, contrary to what many believe, however, they do have a tendency to attract those of a certain socioeconomic status that often participate in illegal activities and lack the financial capabilities for proper and regular maintenance and upkeep.

With that said, actually, the typical resident in this particular situation, I believe, is a renter, with the owner/landlord actually holding the responsibility to keep these “homes” in good order. A new ordinance proposed by Bay County Commissioners will require newly arrived mobile homes to look more permanent, covering the wheels and axles and kept up to code. In addition, local code enforcement needs to visit the area more frequently.

Personally, I think Laguna Beach is a very charming area, but I think many owners have let their properties become dilapidated over the years in an attempt to minimize cost. I can respect not wanting to spend money, but I think the owners should be expected to keep their properties up.

Front Beach Road CRA

This month’s Friday at the Beach was held at the Edgewater Beach Resort yesterday and featured guest speakers Ben Faust from DRMP and Panama City Beach Planning Director Mel Leonard. The topic was the highly anticipated Front Beach Road CRA and details and updates.

CRA is short for Community Redevelopment Area and was created a couple of years ago because of the sprawling growth and development and concerns over whether the infrastructure in place could handle the automobile and pedestrian traffic in addition to the increase in strain to existing utilities infrastructure. The goal of the CRA is to not only increase the workability and viability of the infrastructure, but also to beautify the area and make it more pedestrian friendly and “walkable”.

The first project to begin as part of the CRA is Churchwell Drive, by the post office on the beach. Faust said that this was the first, not because of priority, but because the FDOT funds were ready for that one, so they decided to begin. Included in this section of the CRA will be landscaping, underground utilities and 127 parking spaces for the public beach access. I could be wrong on this date, but scheduled completion is in the summer of 2008.

The official “ground-breaking” for the Beckrich Road CRA will be on September 12, 2007 with approximately a 22 month construction time. I don’t have details as to what exactly this will involve, but I plan to stop by the DRMP office in the next couple of weeks. Currently they are working on getting some of the Edgewater property ready for these improvements.

In addition to the parcel purchased on Thomas Drive, the city is negotiating and preparing to purchase 8 other parcels on this section of Thomas Drive to help improve and prepare for the Multi modal Tram Station to go on the large parcel the link shows you above. They are also planning on having a separate Station on the west end of Panama City Beach around the Highway 79 area on the City Hall Campus. Faust mentioned that in the designing of the East End Multi modal Station, that they recognize that it needs to be more than just a tram station, it needs to be a place where people will want to gather and it has got to offer amenities that people will use and enjoy in addition to being beautiful.

The actual Front Beach Road planning is done with approval for the first phase to go before the city next month. The “typical” Front Beach Road layout will the the 100′ width streetscape example with a Tram pullout lane, pedestrian walkways and bike paths on either side of the road way. Although, now that I think about it, I don’t know that most of the roadway will be like the 66′ wide example, with the 100′ wide example representing what the roadway will look like periodically at Tram stops.

The end result will feature walkways all along Front Beach Road, landscaping to accentuate the roadways and beautify the pedestrian experience and bike and transit lanes so that people will be able to move up and down the beach without their cars, I can’t wait.

For updates visit PCBOnTheMove.com

Pictures from the event.

Pictures of Pier Park and Churchill Road Improvements

Market Updates, More Positive Agents

John Skinner, a local agent also known as the “Condo Man” was kind enough to allow me to post his monthly newsletter providing some current data on sold pre-construction condos.

As of right now, he indicates that the MLS shows:

188 active 1 bedroom gulf front condos
326 active 2 bedroom gulf front condos
134 active 3 bedroom gulf front condos
32 active 4 bedroom gulf front condos
86 sold 1 bedroom gulf front condos built 2003 – 2007 this year so far
188 sold 2 bedroom gulf front condos built 2003 – 2007 this year so far
41 sold 3 bedroom gulf front condos built 2003 – 2007 this year so far
9 sold 4 bedroom gulf front condos built 2003 – 2007 this year so far

This brings the total of new condos sold this year to 254. He also notes that the current inventory has gone down consistently since August 2006. (more)

I continue to get emails from agents telling their positive stories:

When I watch the news and they say that the real estate market is doomed, I look at my team partner and say so then why have we already closed over 13 million in production numbers this year? Why are we so stacked with customers that we are literally forced to work 7 days a week to keep on top of all of the deals we are currently working on? My 2 person Realtor Team did over 15 million in 2005 which everyone sites as our “boom” year. If we close a fraction of the deals we are currently working on then we will exceed our 2007 goal of 20 million in closed production numbers with ease. I wonder what our numbers could have been this year if we had some positive press instead of all the negative…….hmm…..

Stephanie Adams, Realtor

ADAMS TEAM

ERA Chipola Realty

http://www.AdamsTeam.net

Florida Home Insurance

Despite promises of a new Governor, urgings, and passed bills, Florida home owners have yet to see any relief on their insurance premiums. Personally, my premium went up 33%, but from what I heard from readers and other locals, this is nothing. I talked with some whose premiums went up 100% and more. So far, the average final rate filing is at an increase of over 30% although the insurance commissioner’s office has rejected these increases. The insurance companies seem to be having trouble making everything pencil with the estimated $40 billion paid out by insurance companies during the active hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, claiming that they still have to have enough cash on hand should we have another active hurricane season, despite how painful it may be to the wallets of the policy holders.

Front Beach Road CRA

As some of you may know, there is a CRA (community redevelopment area) for all of Front Beach Road. This was created to funnel some of the tax money from all the new condos into improving the infrastructure. Planned is a complete reworking of all of Front Beach Road, along with many of the feeder streets as well. The vision seems awesome and will certainly be beautiful when it is done. I’m just wondering when it WILL be done.

I’ve seen little activity other than the Churchwell Drive improvements. I think the answer may be that they will start on another project when they complete Churchwell Drive, but I don’t understand why that can’t start other projects more immediately. If someone has some insight to this, or more information, that would be great.

PCBOnTheMove.com seems to have some pretty good information, but it is a little vague. I sent an email to info@pcbonthemove.com asking for more specifics on project information, including projected start and end dates. I got no response last time I sent them an email, so hopefully they’ll respond this time.

The plans for the redevelopment of Front Beach Road include an expansion of the road way to a combination of 66′ wide and 100′ wide road ways with three lanes and a dedicated tram/bike lane on each side. There is a planned multi-modal tram station proposed at the east end of Front Beach Road, just down from Walmart.

At the web site, there is a short movie showing and explaining what the new Front Beach Road will be like. All in all, it is going to be a great thing, I’m just a little impatient, and want it now.

FAA's NextGen

The other day I posted on the FAA’s NextGen reform. The reform addresses many aspects of the aviation industry, including the new airport, however something else it addresses is the rapidly becoming overwhelmed radar network. Technologically, the aviation industry has never seen much improvement with regards to aircraft location tracking with the GPS or ADS-B, as it is called having been in the works for the last 10 years.

Anyway, Popular Mechanics just wrote an article speaking into the technology of ADS-B giving a little background and an explanation of how it works. And yes, I said how it works, as in present tense. They have been testing the system, with great success I might ad, on Alaska Air. UPS has already began utilizing this technology and Southwest Airlines expects to install the system on its entire fleet of 737’s by next year. (more)

Pier Park on time

I had the great pleasure of attending a tenant meeting yesterday for Pier Park and was excited to get new information. Forgive the bullet point style if you are a reader, but sometimes I just like to give the information the way it is:

Target has reported that their store at Pier Park is in the top 10% of their nationwide sales portfolio.
Ron Jon Surf Shop expects to take possession in the next couple of weeks, this will be their sixth location nationwide.
Borders Books and Music will be the 1st in the Panhandle.
200,000 sq ft to be turned over to tenant coordination within 30 to 45 days
Starbucks to be opened October 1
Grand opening for the Boardwalk area on 2/15/07
I think they said that Dillards and JCPenny’s will be open March 1, 2008 (Simon, please correct me if I’m wrong)
Half of all Pier Park to be opened before year’s end
ULTA will be the first in the Panhandle, with the closest being in Orlando or Atlanta

Personally, I’m super stoked. Up at the front across from the dedicated beach will be Ron Jon’s and Margaritaville along with Reggae J’s and Back Porch Seafood House and another restaurant that has yet to be announced. I was told that some of these restaurants will have second floor outside seating that will overlook the Gulf.

Along the boardwalk will be expansive, open areas in front of the stores to provide room for playing and gathering. It was described as a park-like setting. In the meeting, Paul Ajdaharian, of Simon kept talking about “feel good first, buy later”. Their emphasis towards the tenants is make the customers feel good and the sales will take care of themselves. This is awesome because it provides for a great place to, just be.

All along, Simon has talked about creating a great place for gathering. I can say they’ve already gotten off to a great start with the concerts in the park. My family and I went a couple of weeks ago and it was packed. There was barely enough room on the lawn for all the people, and the space is no small space. I can tell you right now: Pier Park WILL be a great place for gathering.

Ajdaharian said that he was unsure of the exact percentage, but if he said that if he had to guess he would say that Pier Park is over 80% leased. “They cannot believe their sales”, Ajdaharian said of Panera Bread.

I’m very excited about Pier Park, as I know many of you are, and I’m very glad to see it moving along so quickly.