Toll Road Voted NO in Washington County

In a 3-2 vote against the proposed toll route from Montgomery to Bay County, Washington County, Florida commissioners expressed their concern for the new toll road slated to come through their community. Supporters of the toll road claimed that they had contacted all but 1 of the 27 property owners affected by the new road and that all had given indication that they would be willing to work with the development in order to prevent eminent domain.

Commissioner Jerry Sapp and Commissioner Joel Pate voted for the new toll road.

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Panama City Beach Needs more Branded Hotels

Kaoru Chikushi from HVS International wrote a piece on Panama City Beach that was published on HospitalityNet.org titled The Need for More Branded Hotels in Panama City Beach, Florida.

You should read it, but I’ll summarize it here.

Chikushi estimates that approximately 7 million visit Panama City Beach each year with around 250,000 spring breakers and 15,000 “snowbirds”. Again, not sure where the numbers came from, but 250,000 sounds much more realistic that the “millions” others in the media tout.

I was glad to see Chikushi references Panama City Beach as “once known as the Redneck Riviera” and describes our area as being in an “era of transformation.” Signaled by the new airport and Pier Park, she finds justification in Panama City being named the #1 place to own real estate in the next 5 years (the Business 2.0 article).

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Toll From Montgomery to Panama City to be public road

In the Moulton Advertiser it was reported that the toll road to travel between Montgomery and Panama City may revert to public ownership once the toll fees pay off the cost to construct. The road would be constructed and operated by a non-profit organization.

As reported, Luthor Strange, a Birmingham lawyer is pushing the project in hopes of seeing it come to fruition. He represents Focus 2000 of the Wiregrass, an organization that is made up of potential investors and local officials and businessmen in SE Alabama.

Strange beleives that there is a way to construct the highway by using public and private resources, although there is no federal or state funding available for this project.

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Can we expect flights from Chicago to Panama City for $99?

A buddy sent me an email from AirTran advertising one-way flights for as low as $69 with the flights from Chicago to Pensacola priced at $99. When I was in Dallas, there were one way flights all the time to Austin for $49. Heck, my parents used to fly down for the day all the time when I was in high school.

This would open up our area in a way we can only dream about right now. There have not been any airlines announced for the new airport yet, but this is what we could see a few years after the airport opens up, demand starts to rise and the number of flights increases.

Check after the break for a complete list of prices.

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Construction Update – New Panama City Bay County International Airport

Huge progress has been made since construction began at the beginning of the year at the new Panama City Bay County International Airport site north of up Highway 79 north of Highway 388 in Bay County.

The entire site consists of 4,000 acres that can be used for the airport and all future expansions with a total 1,300 acres permitted for construction right now. Phase I will include a primary runway of 8,400 feet and a secondary cross-wind runway of 5,000 feet. The primary runway will run almost due north at 340 degrees with the secondary at around 50 degrees.

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St. Joe Quarterly Numbers Up from Last Year

The Q1 2008 Earnings Call Transcript was posted on the 6th.

Reported was an increase in net income up to $32.1 million from $19.7 million first quarter 2007. This increase was mostly attributed to strong rural land sales.

Significant progress in four areas was noted:

Construction has begun on the new Panama City – Bay County International Airport following favorable jurisdictional decisions
The completion of a successful equity offering that virtually eliminated all debt (the sale of 17 million common shares of stock – apprx $580 million)
57,000+ acres of non-strategic rural lands were sold for more than $91 million
A new CEO will be appointed next week, Britt Greene

Peter Rummell was quoted, “we’re taking important steps to be properly positioned when [the markets improve]. . . we have become a leaner, more nimble company.”

“At the construction site of the new Panama City Airport, at West Bay, the first quarter saw the combination of a decade of hard work. Each day the airport authority continues, construction brings us one day closer to a new airport capable of tracking better our service and stronger economic development for the region.

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Possible Toll Road Planned from Dothan to Panama City Airport

A Chipley online news publication, FosterFollyNews.com, reported of a possible toll road traveling from Dothan, Alabama through Washington County and down to the new airport. The road will eventually connect to Montgomery, Alabama.

This project is under discussion and will be addressed at a public meeting at the Washington County Annex as proposed by a group called Focus Thursday May 15th at 9am. With initial discussions being held in April, no official route was discussed nor commitment timelines.

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New Airport Designs released

As reported by the News Herald.

HNTB Architecture, the firm that has taken over the design of the new airport facilities presented the new design ideas to the Airport Authority Thursday.

HNTB meets with the Airport Authority Board monthly and have been challenged to get the overall cost of the $30 million terminal down and make it more environmentally friendly.

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Panama City Airport Relocation Update

With the stay lifted, construction is heavy underway again with main runways and taxi-ways to be completed in 2008 and the terminal to be complete in 2009. The new airport is still slated to open mid 2010.

All sounds good with the exception of another suit being brought against The Army Corps of Engineers and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service claiming that the 404 Permit issued for the relocation was not legitimate.

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Airport Cleared by Court

I don’t have any specific information, but I just got word that the case was thrown out of the Federal Court of Appeals in New York. This should clear the road to get construction underway pending the reissuance of the USACE 404 Permit.

– edited 1/26/2008 –

Apparently the decision was made late Friday and solidified early yesterday morning with the airport authority being notified just before their regular Monday morning meeting. We all, including the airport officials, expected to wait weeks if not months for this thing to draw out and certainly did not expect a decision so quickly. This speaks strongly to the quality of work the FAA and the other agencies involved in support of the relocation.

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