Year: 2008

Economic development in Northwest Florida depends on education

JuliannBy: Juliann Talkington

Juliann Talkington is the administrator of the Panama City Renaissance School. Reach her on 850-215-8712 or jtalkington@pcrschool.org.

On Friday, Florida’s Great Northwest, the economic development organization for our region, presented details on a target industry study. The event was attended by government officials and business and community leaders from Bay County and the surrounding areas. The study suggested our region has a competitive advantage in four target industries: 1) aerospace and defense, 2) health sciences and human performance-enhancement, 3) renewal energy and environment and 4) transportation and logistics.

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4/18/08 CVB/TDC Marketing Committee Meeting – Smr 2008 Mrktng, Indian Summer Festival

9 of the 11 committee members were present. Absent were Debi Knight and Russ Smith.

President Dan Rowe and Peter Yesawich announced that Y Partnership has removed Barry Lott from the Summer Marketing Campaign assignment. Mr. Yesawich also apologize on behalf of the agency for the inappropriate derogatory name directed at audience member Charles Mason by Mr. Lott at last week’s Board meeting. It was not made clear whether Mr. Lott has been removed from all CVB business or just the current campaign.

Summer Marketing Campaign Changes

Mr. Yesawich presented the committee with the options available for the changes to the Summer Marketing Campaign approved by the Board at their last meeting. The program targets our traditional drive markets of Georgia, Alabama, and Nashville/Chattanooga for a 12 week period beginning May 4th and has three elements. The first is newspaper ads in 12 newspapers throughout Georgia (but not the AJC due to high-costs), the Nashville Tennessean, and 4 papers in Alabama.

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Pier Park North is almost ready to open

Old Navy is open (thanks Billy), and Aeropostale, Hollister, Borders, Bath and Body works, American Eagle, Chicos, NY&C, and more will be open first week in May. Tilly’s is also coming. For those of you that don’t know what Tilly’s is (I was in that catagory) it is a cool clothing store. I took a peek inside the windows this morning and saw Volcom, Roxy and other cool-guy apparel signs. Sweet!

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TDC/CVB Marketing Committee Actions 4/18/08

A complete recap will follow, but here are the actions taken by the TDC/CVB Marketing Committee at their meeting today.

Changes to Summer Marketing Campaign

The committee voted 7-2 to approve the theme “Summer White Sale” along with an accompanying estimated savings statement such as “Save up to $1000”. The exact amount of estimated savings to be included in the advertisements will be determined by staff and Y Partnership after the tourist-related businesses submit their discount offers. The motion also directed staff and Chairman Phillips to develop a co-op plan so that sufficient funds can be raised to upgrade the newspaper advertising to color.

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Churchwell Drive CRA Complete – Road Opened Thursday

Churchwell Drive, the road that goes by the Panama City Beach Post Office connecting Middle Beach and Front Beach Roads was reopened Wednesday.

Construction began April 2007 and was completed ahead of schedule as it wasn’t slatted to be completed until mid summer 2008.

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Olive Garden to come to Pier Park

Press Release

More Reasons To Dine and Shop at Pier Park!
– Popular New Eateries and Stores Coming Soon –

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (April 14, 2008)- Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE:SPG), the country’s largest owner, developer and manager of high quality retail real estate, is pleased to announce more exciting concepts for its Pier Park development in Panama City Beach, Fla. today. Pier Park is a 900,000-square-foot open-air regional lifestyle center offering premiere retail, dining and entertainment choices located on 93 acres that covers land from Front Beach Road (at the City Pier) to the heavily traveled Highway 98 (Back Beach Road)

Baja Grill, Guy Harvey’s Island Grill, Olive Garden and Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge will enhance the already burgeoning roster of restaurants at Pier Park. In addition, Paradise Found will join nearly 40 other retailers that are already open for business.

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