Month: July 2009

Why I Love Being A Realtor

This is not really a tip more an explanation of what I like about being a Realtor since we are kind of taking a week off from our normal show and articles. When I was a little girl my grandfather and my dad were contractors and later we had a Real Estate company right on Rucker Blvd. I was not a natural born Realtor and when my dad suggested that I become a licensed Realtor I stomped to a class at the college very grudgingly. Curt (that is what we called him) asked me to get my license so I could do more than work on just our family owned stuff. I think I said something sweet like “over my dead body” Well I am very much alive and I am really loving what I do and can’t imagine not doing it.

I want to add that my father was one of the sweetest men and all the people that worked for him just loved him. I tell you all this because I was the only one that he ever fired. Somehow he did not think that I should get paid for filing my nails and going to lunch at the Mexican joint down the road. My father has been gone for years and somehow I ended up full circle but this time I am doing it with great joy and there is rarely time to file my nails.

I love being a Realtor and I have a problem knowing when to shut down the computer and my” Crackberry “and call it a night. I have met some of the most interesting people and had some of my most amazing challenges in this career. I laughed and got a little aggravated when a person blogged on one of my articles suggesting that she would love to know how much a Realtor makes by the hour. That is a number I really do not want to know!! What I do know that like many of my Realtor friends I get a thrill out of studying the market and seeing what is sold, pended and back on the market and all those wonderful price reductions. It is a thrill to meet new people all the time and be a part of their first home purchase or help them sell a home to move up to their retirement or dream home. In today’s market it is not so easy but it is satisfying when you help them sell that short sale that takes a load off their mind and their pocket book.

One of my favorite parts of this business is that it is always changing and if you are wanting a job that is never dull then this is the gig. I love my fellow Realtors and in spite of what you may think… most of us really like each other and we get a big rush to help our fellow Realtor. I love it when a Realtor calls me to ask me things about Wild Heron because I happen to know and love that place and they do the same for me when I travel into uncharted territory. A good Realtor is one of the hardest working people I know and learning to work with delayed gratification is a must in this profession especially if you have to have the green reward. Sometimes my reward is someone calling me up and thanking me for helping them find their home and how much they love it and many times the reward is just knowing that I am doing what I love to do.

I have a motto that I really strive to live by and you will see it on everything that I write and it is….”The only people we have to get even with are those that have helped us” My list is long and I hope yours is too. I used to wonder if I could make a difference by being a Realtor or maybe I needed to be someone in a field that was more giving. I have found that I can make a difference and this can be my mission just like any other. So I want to end with a heartfelt thank you to all my customers and all my Realtor friends and my precious people I work with that make this such a fun and exciting career. Thanks for watching TheBeachShow.com and Jason and I will be back in full form next week.
In the meantime, “I have to go file my nails”

The Mystery of the Term 'Condo-tel'

Since I am getting so many questions these days regarding condos and condo-tels and since the secondary market for these properties, i.e. Fannie and Freddie, has all but disappeared, I thought I would try and clarify why a project will or will not fly. First, a condo-tel is not a new concept. It has always been a type of property designation we use along with single family detached, duplex, etc. The problem is that for many years, Fannie and Freddie did not adequately identify beach-front, resort-style condominiums for what they really were. So what makes a condo-tel? Actually, any number of things. I have heard many times that a project is not a condo-tel because it doesn’t have an on-site rental desk. While an on-site rental desk would classify a project as a condo-tel the absence of one does not make it immune. If they have a website that advertises rentals it is a condo-tel. If an owner is required to rent per the bylaws it is a condo-tel. If it has daily maid service it is a condo-tel. So if a project doesn’t have any of these things then it is okay with Fannie and Freddie and fixed-rate financing is available? Not necessarily.

There is another classification we use for condominiums and this is the term ‘warrantable.’ Warrantable refers to whether it can be warranted as sellable to Fannie or Freddie meaning it meets their criteria for an acceptable condominium project. So what makes a condominium ‘non-warrantable’? If the developer is still in control of the HOA it is non-warrantable. If more than 50% of the units are investor owned it is non-warrantable. If one entity owns more than 10% of the total units it is non-warrantable. If the project has pending litigation against it or if a large percentage of owners are delinquent in their HOA dues, or any number of other factors cited by the appraiser can lead to a project being classified as non-warrantable. Every once in a while we come across a project that we can warrant but they are rare to say the least.

Between a project having one or more condo-tel attributes or having one or more of the non-warrantable attributes, you can see that most every condo here on the beach has no secondary market financing available. This is why a few banks like Vision have developed alternative vehicles to get these properties financed. Our portfolio 3/1 and 5/1 ARMs are not a panacea. Yes, they carry a certain amount of risk and the rates are at a premium over the current thirty-year fixed-rates, but, in the absence of a secondary market, these ARMs are the best alternative for providing financing to the buyer while protecting the bank from interest rate risk and meeting our future capital requirements. It is our hope that in there will eventually be a thawing in the secondary market for condos and that our products can provide a bridge to that future. In the meantime, we will continue to lend on these properties because we have a vested interest in seeing them sell and we have a firm belief that the collateral is sound.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-07-14

5 Ways Pier Park has Changed Panama City Beach

pier_park_picPier Park, without doubt, has become Panama City Beach’s premier shopping destination and has created a Panama City Beach buzz all throughout the Emerald Coast and vacation markets. The stunning 1 million square foot open-air regional lifestyle center provides some of the best restaurants and stores anywhere. It’s addition has changed and will continue to change Panama City Beach. Below are 5 ways Pier Park has changed Panama City Beach as a tourist town as well as a community.

Centralizing: In a previous article, I said that Pier Park is quickly becoming Panama City Beach’s new downtown. Well, that statement grows truer every day. Years past, the beach was spread out from end to end with tourists making it more difficult to keep the place clean and to police it all. That still occurs today, but Pier Park’s size, draw and location has become the primary place of congregation. While, to some, that may not sound like a big deal, but in doing so it reduces traffic, makes it easier to police any happenings. Also it takes away much of the congestion at the Front Beach Entrance and the City Pier where, before, drew large crowds without providing much to do. Large crowds and no attractions lead to problems. Pier Park provides loads to do and more than enough space to do it in.

Business: In April, 850 Business Magazine published that despite a worsening economy, Pier Park has continued to do well. While retail stores are closing all over the place, the report stated, “The [Simon] company reported an 8.8 percent growth in funds from operations, which chairman and CEO David Simon attributes to the company’s high quality portfolio and strong balance sheet.” Mark Gilbert, executive vice president of Schwartz Media Strategies, was quoted as saying, “The better properties are still doing well,” he says. “(Pier Park) has a great location and better tenants, which is why it is able to sustain its status.” What all this means is that without the Pier Park location businesses could, well, be out of business. Pier Park has provided an attractive lifestyle setting for local and chain businesses to set up shop and flourish.

Buzz: These days, buzz is everything. You can call it whatever you want;  buzz , viral or word-of-mouth advertising, but getting customers to spread the word about a you through their social or professional networks is the hottest ticket in the marketing world. Pier Park has created a buzz Panama City Beach hasn’t seen since, well, I can’t remember when. What this means is that people are talking about Pier Park and if they are talking about Pier Park they are talking about Panama City Beach. Providing a venue for things like free concerts, jazz festivals and street fairs, all of a sudden Panama City Beach has new dimensions and people are taking notice.

Competition: If you noticed, during the 4th of July weekend, something happened over on the East side of Panama City Beach that previously had never been done. Capt. Anderson’s restaurant, Boatyard restaurant, The Treasure Ship restaurant, Lighthouse Marina and Pirates Cove Marina, places that had competed intensely for years, coordinated to have their own fireworks show. This was in direct competition to Pier Park’s firework’s display. This is one account of many where business all over Panama City Beach are stepping up their game in order to compete. Places like Mr. Surf’s Surf Shop have revamped and added awesome features to their business to draw tourists away from Pier Park and is a better store for it.

Mindset: Mindset, in my opinion, is the most important factor. For so many years, and in some ways even still, Panama City Beach has been known as a Spring Break destination. A part of that stigma was based on the fact that the city didn’t have anything else on which to hang its hat. With Pier Park, we now have something more. Whether you love or hate Pier Park, it has improved the quality of shopping, dining and activities and provided a reason for tourists to come back to Panama City Beach. That confidence, that “hatrack”, means that the TDC and local business can better focus their advertising and marketing efforts. Because of Pier Park, Panama City Beach is more than just a beach and a lifestyle. With the airport on the way, Pier Park will play an integral part in bringing more people here to visit and to live.

With all that said, I won’t even go into the rumors of the resurrection of Miracle Strip Amusement Park in Pier Park West.

Imagine what that would do.

How Green is Panama City Beach?

green-recycle-imgSo how “Green” is Panama City Beach? Well, by most accounts, not very but at the same time not terrible. When attempting to determine a city’s overall “Green-ness” there are twelve criteria that decidedly affect all cities, no matter the geography, that are the standard. The twelve criteria list was put together after a survey done by the National Geographic’s “Green Guide”. Here is the list:

Air Quality: In order to measure air quality, we based our score on the EPA’s Air Quality Index (AQI) and smoking bans noted on the Smoke Free World website. About 60 percent of cities surveyed have passed a smoking ban. AQI values are broken into five different ranges with lower values indicating less polluted air (Good 0-50, Moderate 51-100, Unhealthy for Sensitive Individuals 101-150, Unhealthy 151-200, Very Unhealthy 201-300 and Hazardous 301-500). Anchorage, Alaska, had the best median AQI at 19 while the worst was a 79 in Saint Louis. The average value was 43.5 for cities participating in this study.

Electricity Use and Production: Close to 40 percent of U.S. emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) comes from electric utilities. Since coal accounts for over 90 percent of these emissions, we asked survey respondents to note each city’s energy mix from resources including coal, oil, biomass, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear, oil, solar and wind. Also included were incentives for the home use of solar or wind power, such as rebates or property tax exemptions.

Environmental Perspective: City administrators were asked to rank from 1 (highest) to 9 (lowest) nine issues in order of importance to city residents—education, employment, environmental concerns, health care, housing costs, public safety, reliable electricity and water service, property taxes and traffic congestion. Scores were assigned depending on the ranking given to environmental concerns. Out of a total of nine, the average ranking for the importance of environmental concerns was 5.4.

Environmental Policy: In the survey, we asked city officials whether the city has an environmental policy, a specific indication of concerted effort at the municipal level to better the environment. Thirty-six cities, or 58 percent of respondents, had such statements.

Green Design: The resource-conserving, non-toxic standards of USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program have become the basis for many cities’ green building projects. Recognizing this, we based scores not only on survey responses about policies and incentives for green design but also on LEED projects listed on the USGBC’s website. While we collected data on the degree of LEED certification (Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum) buildings achieved, this did not affect scoring. Additional points were given to cities reducing sprawl. A total of 29 cities, or 46.8 percent of participants, reported having a policy to encourage green design. Forty cities, or 64.5 percent of respondents, reported having a city policy to help prevent sprawl.

Green Space: Survey respondents were asked to identify the variety of green spaces, including athletic fields, city parks, public gardens, trail systems and waterfronts, along with any additional spaces. This question was designed to elicit the variety of outdoor amenities available and was scored on the total number of different types of green spaces present. Scoring also considered the percentage of overall city area occupied by green space.

Public Health: Scores were based on Robert Weinhold’s rankings of the 125 healthiest U.S. cities as published in the March 2004 Organic Style.

Recycling: Survey respondents were asked to indicate which items their city recycles from a list that included aluminum, cardboard, glass, hazardous materials, paper, plastic, tin and other. Cities that had more then seven categories of recyclable items were given the highest scores.
Socioeconomic Factors: Cities scored well for having less than the national average of families and individuals earning below the poverty rate. Participants also gained points for having a city minimum wage and for the availability of housing affordable to families earning the area’s median income according to the National Association of Home Owners’ Housing Opportunity Index.

Transportation: Wishing to recognize efforts to get people out of their cars (reducing greenhouse gases, traffic congestion and smog), we asked survey respondents about the transportation options available, including bicycle paths, bus systems, carpool lanes, dedicated bicycle lanes, light rail, sidewalks/trails and subways. As a follow up to this, we also asked about the percentages of residents who used public transportation, rode bicycles to work and carpooled.

Water Quality: In order to assess this complicated factor, we drew on data from the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) and noting violations of the Safe Water Drinking Act, with the greatest weight given to health violations.

How Does Panama City Beach Fare and What Can We Do?

On the surface, Panama City Beach’s “Green-ness” isn’t bad. The beach, and necessary steps to keep the beach clean, puts it in environmentally good shape. In air quality, Panama City ranks “Good” lower than the average at 35 but higher than other Florida Cities like Hollywood, FL who whose AQI was at 23. In 274 days in a year, 228 of those days the air quality was good, 43 days moderate and 3 days the air was considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.

In terms of the PCB’s programs for recycling, transportation, overall green space and green design, Panama City Beach needs some serious work. And, to be honest, it’s not easy being green. For any city, big or small, the job of keeping up with the loads trash, fluctuating traffic and pollution can be at times overwhelming. And for Panama City Beach, during it’s major tourist season, that job borders on impossible. Being greener is definitely a challenge, but in the end you have good public transportation, smart recycling programs and the kind of well-kept streets, parks and playgrounds that make cities fun and healthly places to live.

There are a number of ways Panama City Beach can become greener. The easiest, and of course greatest greenest priority, is to put regulatory efforts in keeping the beach cleaner. Here are a few other ways of helping Panama City Beach become greener without tearing it to bits:

Recycling: We have to do a better job of this. Cities all across America have not only adopted recycling programs, but integrated into their sanitation division to be picked up simultaneously from homes. We can do the same thing with little effort. It should also be noted that hotels and condos should be encouraged to recycle the many, many reservation papers they print as well as the ink cartridges used to print them.

Bike Sharing Programs: Bicycle-sharing programs offer racks of public bikes that can be used for one-way rides around town. Though such programs have mostly failed over the last 20 years, France is starting to break through: in 2005, the city of Lyon deployed a successful program, and Paris then adapted it. A one-year pass in Paris (about $40) buys access to 20,000 bicycles available at 1,500 stations throughout the city. The bikes cost nothing for the first 30 minutes, after which a sliding scale of rates apply. Some two dozen cities, notably Barcelona and Washington, D.C., now offer some sort of bike-sharing program, often subsidized by advertising. Best thing is, it’s cheaper and greener than busing.

Reduce Water Consumption: When I worked for a few different unnamed hotels and condos, I noticed that when they clean the pools, they drain them in order to clean the filter. On top of this, if the pool is ever out of chemical alignment, it requires more draining. What happens to all that water? Well, it is dumped and then replenished. Thousands of gallons every day. Much of this could be significantly reduced if chlorine pools were made into saltwater pools. The changeover is surprisingly simple and could drastically reduce the cost of water and chemicals.

CRA and Form Based Design: The upcoming decision on form based design regulations could very well be the catalyst to a much greener Panama City Beach. With talk of adding more pocket parks, bike lanes and walker-friendly store fronts, the implementation of the proper coding could do wonders for the city’s overall green-ness.

Smart Grid: The power grid that delivers our electricity might be complex, but it’s not too bright. Think of it as that phone in grandma’s house – you know, the one that doesn’t give you caller ID, let alone receive text messages or video of your friend’s graduation party. If it were smart, it could communicate with your house, and vice versa. At the household level, this means you’d know exactly which appliances are hogging power, and how to manage them more efficiently. At the city level, a smarter grid could change how power gets consumed, in part by charging more money at high-demand times. You could even sell excess renewable power back to the grid. You of course bury the current power lines and all of a sudden Panama City Beach is leading NW Florida in power efficiency.

The key to being a greener city is encouragement. It is up to our officials to coordinate and educate everyone, and encourage a greener lifestyle. It isn’t about changing who we are or spending unnecessary funds, in the end, it’s all about conserving our best asset: Panama City Beach.

Photos From You – Yoga on The Beach

Every week we’ll feature photos from you, the reader, of anything from crowded streets at Pier Park, to finger crabs scurrying across the beach. They say pictures are worth a thousand words, share your words with pcbdaily.com. Submit your photos and share your Panama City Beach pictures.

Photos By Paul Zipes Owner of Yoga For You

These photos were taken during a free yoga session. If you missed this see the article about it here.

2009_05220023

2009_05220027

2009_05220030

seagull-bid-a-wee-beach

sun-at-bid-a-wee-09

sun-at-bid-a-wee-and-beach-09

Patronis and Coley at First Friday

On Friday, July 10 Bay County Chamber of Commerce and the Panama City Beach Chamber got together again for Danishes and coffee and the ever popular First Friday sponsored by Comcast. Dozens of business teams and community leaders attended to network and meet guest speakers state representatives Marti Coley and Jimmy Patronis. Rather than giving a prepared speech, both Coley and Patronis opened the floor to take questions from our local businessmen and women. “We want to hear from you.” Said Reprentative Coley. The questions were few but specific, ranging from oil drilling and stimulus funds to the political musical chairs looming at the state level. Addressing the issue of Governer Crist leaving his seat as well as many others at the state level following suit, Patronis said, “It provides an opportunity to move agendas and legislature forward.” Coley added, “Let’s get educated, partner up and work together to move forward our economy.”

Several awards were given out, includiung the construction award to Waterstone in Springfield and the Small Business award given to Advanced Eye Care. Overall the event, which felt a bit like a pep rally of sorts, was another successful pairing of both Chambers.

If you missed the event, there are lots of other July events to attend. Here is the upcoming July schedule.

July 14 –

EDA Executive committee Meeting – Chamber Boardroom – 7:30 am

July 15 –

“Take Your Elevator Speech to the Next Level Workshop” – Chamber Boardroom –  8:00 am

Business Referral Network Group D Meeting – Sonny’s Real Pit Barbeque – 12:00 pm

July 16 –

Bay Young Professional Breakfast – La Quinta Inn and Suites on Thomas Dr. – 8:00am

Board of Directors Meeting – Chamber Boardroom – 11:00 am

Junior Leadership Bay Steering Committee –  Chamber Boardroom – 4:00 pm

Business After Hours Grand Opening for Panama City Health Club and Spa – 5:00 pm

July 21 –

Business Referral Network Group A Meeting – Loco’s Restaurant – 12:00 pm

July 22-

Existing Industry Committee – Chamber Boardroom – 8:00 am

Speed Marketing – Gulf Coast Community College, Student Union East – 12:30 pm

July 23 –

EDA Board of Directors Meeting – Chamber Boardroom – 8:00 am

July 28 –

Ambassador Meeting – Chamber Boardroom – 4:00pm

July 29 –

Business Referral Group C Meeting – The Place – 12:00 pm

Leadership Bay Steering Committee Meeting – Chamber Boardroom – 4:00 pm

Results Boot Camp Hosts Charity Boot Camp at Gallagher’s Gymnastics

Bay County residents now have an opportunity to support local school children as they shed some pounds.

On Saturday, July 18th at 10 am, the new Results Boot Camp will be holding a charity fitness boot camp at Gallagher’s Gymnastics to raise awareness, money, and school supplies for the Panama City Rescue Mission’s Klothes for Kids program. You can attend the 45-minute training session by bringing a $10 cash donation or school supplies totaling $10 to the Gallagher’s Gymnastics facility, located at 7508 Holley Circle, less than 1 mile from the Hathaway Bridge in Panama City Beach. 100% of the donations will be given to the Klothes for Kids program.

Unlike military and gym-based group classes, the Results Bootcamp training program is held indoors on a spring-loaded and padded floor, which greatly reduces the chance of creating or aggravating joint injuries.

“After 14 years in the fitness and weight loss industry, we know what works. It takes intelligently designed programming, proper nutrition, and a lot of support to lose weight and get into great shape,” says Jeremy Nelms, who owns and operates the boot camp with his wife, Alissa. Alissa was once ranked in both singles and pairs figure skating and brings considerable expertise to the mental development, discipline and willpower necessary to get people back into their skinny clothes.

For more information about the charity boot camp, visit the Results Boot Camp website at http://www.ResultsBootCamp.com or call Jeremy Nelms at 850.890.6260.

Does Spring Break Make PCB a Less Attractive Destination?

The answer to the title question is a categorical YES, demonstrated in almost “Duh!” fashion by a Y Partnership study. The study, presented at Tuesday’s TDC meeting by Y Partnership representative Peter Yesawich, showed that 3 times as many respondents, in a study that included 1,025 adults, believed Spring Break makes Panama City Beach a less attractive destination. While this conclusion, and other conclusions in the study, did not come as a surprise to me or those in the meeting attendance, what became apparent was that the debates were more than just Spring Break banter, but a commentary on Panama City Beach’s identity.

Dan Rowe during the meeting made a poignant statement, “We’re at a critical juncture approaching Spring Break 2010. Exactly 60 days from the opening of the new airport.” The question no doubt on everyone’s mind was how we present ourselves to this new markets. Do we condemn our relationship with College Spring Break and bid for a new clientele or do we hit the new markets hard with Spring Break advertising to maximize the season? Obviously, the question does not inspire a simple answer, but at the core of it we have to really ask ourselves who we are and what is the identity we are trying to assume? Are we the party town of old, are we Destin 2.0 or are we something different entirely?

In some way, and maybe I’m the only one, I’ve always likened Destin and Panama City Beach to siblings; Destin being the older, more civilized sister and Panama City Beach the crazy, fun-loving little brother. For years, this analogy fit quite well. But with recent developments Panama City Beach has changed; it grew up, as little brothers must eventually do, and is turning out to be quite a winner.

The reality is although Panama City Beach has indeed “grown up” enough to even make its older sister jealous, PCB differs from every other destination because at its heart it’s still the fun-loving life of the party. This is a sentiment even acknowledged by Andy Phillips, who said “We have a party reputation, folks, that’s just who we are. People come here because we are fun. They can come here and put lawn chairs in the back of Cadillac Escalades and cruise the strip.”

Any conversation about Spring Break, concurrently, is a conversation about Panama City Beach’s identity. To ask, “do we market to the College Students or the Family Spring Breakers during Spring Season” is merely the small scope of a much broader issue: who and what are we?

Take Orlando for example. They are an amusement destination and have completely embraced it: even guest service agents are trained to smile big, laugh and be able to tell you at least one Mickey Mouse story. Now, if Orlando suddenly wanted to become a stodgier business-traveler destination, they’d be in trouble. Which may be the very reason why destinations like Panama City Beach have such a hard time shaking the party-town stigma. Maybe, on some level, that’s just what they are.

All that being said, the solution to Panama City Beach’s Spring Break/Identity conundrum does not have an easy answer. Panama City Beach, frankly, is somewhere in between party and civility; like a frat boy, turned charming businessman. At some point a balance can be found and I believe Mr. Marty McDaniel, TDC chairman, hit on the key idea. “We are going to have to learn to evolve.”

Evolution is the key word. How do we evolve and what are we evolving into? The evolution of Panama City Beach may not yet be visible, but by defining and accepting our current identity, I think, we have the opportunity to gingerly guide it in the direction we want.

The truth is, after all the talk, what will probably happen is no more funds will be allocated to Spring Break and instead moved into beach conservation efforts and perhaps a little into Family Spring Break marketing. And, frankly, that’s where the money should go. We need to keep our best asset as clean as possible and Family Spring Break may be the next big thing. Spring Breakers of the college type will always come to Panama City Beach whether you market to them or not. You may hate them or love them, but at least at the moment, they seem to know us a little better than we know ourselves.

The mixture of Family and College Spring Break will work. I’ve seen it and you’ve seen it. Every year in February and early March there is a mixture of Spring Breakers and Snowbirds. The Snowbirds take just enough rooms to keep the beach from being overrun by students, which in turn lessens the amount of incidents and overall beach filth. Somehow, both groups are able to seamlessly coexist. The college breakers are at the  clubs with no worries, the Snowbirds are entertained by the crazy antics and perhaps even a little nostalgia and everyone’s happy; a little bit of responsibility and a little bit of fun. I suppose that is the inevitable destination of our evolution, question is how to get there unscathed.

On Aug. 19 the TDC will gather again to hold a community forum for PCB residents to express their opinion on the matter before any final decisions are made.

Top 9 Things to Know About the New Grand Lagoon Bridge

070809_grandlagoon_rendering

If you’re familiar with the Panama City Beach area then you know that the beautiful (sarcasm), yet archaic Grand Lagoon Bridge is and has been badly in need of replacement.  Having been built in the 50’s, it is time to be out with the old and in with the new.  The planning has been in the works for years, but funding has always been the question.  So, thanks to some stimulus funds, we’re good to go.  Here are the top 9 things to know about the new Grand Lagoon Bridge, and the construction process.

  • New bridge construction will begin sometime in September.  Bids for construction just went out last week and are due in July 31, 2009, and I was told that construction is expected to begin within 4 to 6 weeks of final bids in.  This seems a little aggressive to me, but if everything falls in place, these timelines should stay intact.
  • Access over Grand Lagoon will remain intact throughout the duration of the construction of the new bridge.  They will actually erect a temporary bridge to the west of the existing bridge which is expected to take 1 to 2 months.  When the temporary bridge is up, they’ll switch traffic and demo the existing bridge (hopefully I’ll be there for that!)
  • Total construction time of the new bridge is expected to be around 18 months.  This time frame includes construction of the temporary bridge and the widening of Thomas Drive from North Lagoon Drive to the bridge, then from the bridge south to Bristol Street, which is around the curve – sweet!
  • The estimated cost of the entire project (bridge and Thomas Drive widening) is around $18.5 million.  Currently, Bay County has $19,462,409 to fund this project with $5,629,822 from local stimulus funds, $9,299,990 from state stimulus funds and $4,532,597 from grants that Bay County has been working on for years.  Based on the cost estimate, Bay County has all the money necesary to fund the entire project.
  • The new bridge will be 4 lanes total, two lanes of traffic traveling each direction and will stretch 250 feet across Grand Lagoon over three span structures.  Each span will be 83 feet 4 inches long.  In addition, on the outside of the lanes traveling in each direction will be a bicycle lane and pedestrian walkway.  The automobile lanes will be 12 feet in width, the bicycle lanes will be 5 foot 6 inches, and the pedestrian walkways will be 6 feet.  The total width of the new bridge will be 73 feet 6 inches, including 2 feet and 6 inches of outside barrier. The existing bridge is only 10 feet above the water, severely limiting the boat size that has access to the residential section of Grand Lagoon.  However, the new bridge will rest 18 feet above the water.
  • Right now, Bay County is considering walkways to accommodate fishing and other recreational activities under the bridge both on the north and south side of the lagoon.  I’m unsure at this time if the existing funding in place could cover this cost, or if it would be in addition to.  I would think this should be included in everything.
  • The existing roadway that feeds the north and south side of the Grand Lagoon Bridge is only 2 lanes with a center turn lane, but the new wider roadway will be 5 lanes total.  With four 11 foot lanes and a 12 foot center turn lane, the new widened section of Thomas Drive will also include bicycle and pedestrian walkways, to continue the ease of passage for business foot commuters and bicyclers alike from the bridge.
  • The bridge will remain open to marine traffic for the duration of construction, with the exception for when the new spans are installed for the new bridge.  At that time, the waterway closure will be coordinated with the US Coast Guard and local commercial marine businesses.  Once the new bridge is complete, the waterway opening will increase to 218 feet with the maximum navigational width between the center span increasing to 72 feet 4 inches.
  • The existing bridge structure was built originally in 1952 and sustained damage in 1995 during hurricane Opal.  It has been cited to have irrepairable damage and is badly in need of replacement.  Right now, the bridge is a 6 span structure that is 150 feet wide.