New Airport 65% Complete

On Tuesday, July 28^th, Panama City Airport Board met to discuss current financial activities, award bids for NAV AID and exterior signage, but the topic that dominated the short meeting was the airport relocation process, specifically how close to “on schedule” work at the new site edged.

An airport construction representative with KBR said the new airport construction was 65% complete, with most the projects ahead of schedule, only a few, albeit an important few, lagged slightly behind.

Stormwater ponds are 90% complete and the utilities 63% complete Gulf Power awaiting a DEP clearance. Water and sewer is over 90% complete. The terminal is 44% complete and is currently two weeks behind schedule as well as the control tower. Cargo maintenance is ahead of schedule and the roof is nearly completed at 90%. The representative said, “Although a few projects are behind schedule we are working hard to maintain the May completion date. The building’s getting dried in…the baggage handling system will run down to the wire. But we are confident in the original commitment.”

In related news, the bid for the NAV AID package was awarded to High Power for $1,728,800 with an additional $331,000 for center line lighting. The bid for Exterior Lighting was awarded to local company, Bell Sings, for just over $691,000.

New Airport Coverstory for Southeast Real Estate Business News

Southeast Real Estate Business News, a trade publication for the real estate industry, featured the construction of the new Panama City – Bay County International Airport as its July 2009 cover story.

According to the story:

The facility is the first piece in the West Bay Sector Plan, a mixed-use project destined for Panama City, Florida, and surrounding areas. The aggressive but environmentally responsible development strategy calls for residential, commercial and industrial space spread across 75,000 acres.

One large advantage of the plan is that it’s easy to build to each tenant’s specifications. With so much greenfield land available for developing, officials at large companies can easily come in, commit to a space and mold it to their requirements. “Most of the time, your options are limited because you have a small piece of land and everything around it is already developed,” Slappey says. “The advantage is that if you have a big user that comes in and wants this, that and the other, it’s easier to accommodate them because you have a lot more land to maneuver around.”

The full article can be read here.

Economic Development Potential for New Airport

Commerical Property News’ CPN Online has published an article detailing the economic development potential of the new Panama City – Bay County International Airport.

According to CPN Online:

Most of the country is waiting for the economy to turn, or even for the federal stimulus to have some measurable effect on local economies, but at least one part of the country has a third option. In the Florida panhandle, in particular the Panama City area, a new international airport–under construction, scheduled for completion next year–promises economic stimulation, both in terms of business growth and real estate development.

“A new business community will be able to grow around the new airport in a way that’s impossible around the existing airport, which is too small and too hemmed in for further expansion,” Randall S. Curtis, executive director of the Panama City-Bay County International Airport, told CPN. “But the long-term impact will involve more than development in the immediate vicinity of the airport. The entire region stands to benefit.”

The full article can be read here.

Source: www.newpcairport.com

15 Things to Know About the Development of the Old Airport Site

Leucadia National Corporation/CAR/SABLC: Leucadia National Corporation is the parent company of Community Airport Redevelopment, which was changed to the St. Andrew Bay Land Company. Leucadia has home offices in Salt Lake City, UT and New York City. Labeled as a “mini Berkshire Hathaway” as noted in their Wiki page, Leudadia was a $6.6 billion company in 2006 generating revenue in a variety of ways including mining & drilling services, telecommunications, health-care services, manufacturing, banking and lending, real estate, and winery businesses. Other notable developments by Leucadia include Rosemary Beach and Draper Lake.

The community will be walkable: With 703 acres, the property consists of a little more than a square mile. From the center, it would take approximately 10 minutes to walk to the edge of the property, and from one end to another a walk would take around 10 minutes; unless you’re a speed walker, in which it would take about 8.3 minutes. Although little design conceptuals have been made, it is anticipated that it will be an open community that is very ped-friendly.

3,200 total residential units: The development has the capacity to hold 3,200 residential units with an expected spread of approximately 60% single family and 40% multi-family (including condos and townhomes). Development time-tables will be completely subject to market demand and the expected build-out time is in upwards of 15 years.

Wide open community areas: Some of the discussions the other day included creating an area that Panama City could collect for events and holidays and enjoy company and the water. Right now, Panama City has no area like Pier Park to hold these community events. I believe Panama City could greatly benefit from this. If they were to bring in the right marketing team and layout the initial public development right, they could create a community before there’s actually a community there. Talk about buzz.

Multiple points of access: Feeding into the community are 8 points of access varying the ways with which to handle the out-flow and in-flow of the increased traffic. Access roads include Frankford, Airport Road, Lisenby, Airport Circle, Baldwin, W 39th Street, and Jackson Way.

700,000 square foot of commercial/retail: Some mixed among the residential, others in concentrated areas, there will be approximately 700,000 square feet of commercial and retail area. Right now, there are plans to have a “Town Center” in the middle of the community that will house the tallest of the structures, in addition to a higher concentration of retail. There will be a small lake with a boardwalk around it and the buildings will have retail on the first floors, office space on the second floors with residential above that.

Height limitations set at 120 feet: I was told that even though maximum height is set for 120 feet as defined by the zoning (light industrial), the maximum planned height at this time is 80 feet. In addition, the maximum height buildings will be in the center of the development, reserving the water-frontage for 2 and 3 stories.

Nothing available to purchase until 2012: The St. Andrew Bay Land Company will take possession of the land the day after the airport operations are moved to the new airport site. Upon possession, it is estimated that infrastructure installation will take approximately 1 year with real estate product available to purchase last 2011 or early 2012. The SABLC may build some, but it is expected that they will sell plats to developers to handle build out once infrastructure is in place.

Tons of green space: All the green areas depicted in the images will be open park-like areas that may have open grassy areas, trees, nature trails and the like. The idea, again, is to create a pedestrian-friendly community that encourages the natural beauty of the Bay County area.

No water-front buildings: There will be plenty of water views to be had from residential units, but nothing will be right on the water, cutting off access from the general public. The design is intended to keep the pristine areas pristine, and enjoyable by everyone. There will be large open areas in between the buildings and the water.

All open to the public: The whole community will be open to the public. Amenities such as shopping, dining and the marina will be open for everyone to enjoy and the community will not be gated.

150 boat marina: Quenching the thirst for much needed wet slip space, this new community will house a 150 slip marina capable of accommodating vessels up to 60 feet. The marina depth will be 6 feet. There is only one small spot on the whole plot of waterfrontage that will accept a marina without having a negative environmental impact; located at the top, close to where the runway terminates into the bay right now.

Marina to be developed first: Right now, talks include developing the marina first, in addition to around 10 shops and restaurants with some residential above around the marina. The idea is to give something to the community that is usable right now (or in a couple years) until the demand for real estate product comes back. The conversations I had were very interesting in that for once, I was talking to a developer that wasn’t acting like a developer, but a rational, reasonable person. With my background in preconstruction sales and marketing I have quite a bit of experience working with developers and new developments, and it always seems like they are drinking their own cool-aid; not so with these guys. They were very much verbal about the current conditions of the market and were very open with the fact that at this time its hard to tell where the market will be in two years. This, by the way, is exactly opposite the outlook of most of the developers I’d worked with in the past. typically with a new development such as this, you’d expect to hear aggressive development time-lines. I was pleasantly surprised and very impressed with their level-headed outlook.

The developmental options are plenty: They’ve kept the initial planned layout open so as to offer a wide variety of developmental options. With plats around 500 by 260 feet, it will be easy to determine where single family versus multi family will go in the future, based on market demand. The plats are large enough to accommodate an alley system, should they decide to go that route.

Sasaki Associates brought in to help with initial planning: Sasaki and Associates are known for their master planning of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Ruston Town Center in Virginia, The Woodlands in Houston TX, Charleston South Carolina Waterfront Park, and Harbor Town in Hilton Head, just to name a few.

PC Airport Construction Update – PHOTOS

The new Panama City Airport is less than 12 months from completion and the on site action is really accelerating. With new construction milestones being made on a weekly basis, new things seem to be growing out of the ground all the time.

The main 8,400 foot runway is 100% complete with final approval still pending from the FAA on the 10,000 foot extension. I have no idea what the hold up is, only that I’ve been told that it is expected soon (they’ve been saying that for months!). Once the approval comes in, however, construction of the runway extension will take less than 60 days. They are also seeding and mulching the main access road for grass. Sand is being installed on the bottom of Pond C.

The terminal construction is making great progress with the metal framing of the exterior walls in Area A on the 1st and 2nd floor helping to define the overall shape of the building. The roof decking in Area A, B and a portion of C are almost complete. The excavation for the pedestrian bridge construction has begun and the fire sprinkler installation in Area A (baggage claim area) has begun as well.

The existing terminal is just over 55,000 square feet. The new terminal more than doubles the size at 120,000 square feet with ample room for ticket counters, baggage claim, TSA offices, and offices for the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau and a business center hosted by the Bay County Chamber of Commerce.

The air traffic control tower is growing with the structure over 100 feet tall. The final tower will rise 15 stories into the sky.

7 Ways for PCB to Get Ready for the New Airport

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Brand New Name:
This is a big one. What’s in a name? Everything. A name identifies what something is and can convey the magnitude of its existence. Panama City-Bay County International Airport just isn’t going to cut it for a 10,000 foot 4,000 acre international airport capable of receiving the largest of passenger jets from anywhere in the world. We need a name that conveys a much larger representation. Suggestions here on Pcbdaily have included Sunshine State International Airport, Emerald Coast International Airport, Florida International Airport, Gulf of Mexico International Airport, and Southern U.S. Intercontinental Airport. Several readers in a previous post emphasized their favor towards Emerald Coast International Airport. This name will literally be in front of millions, and the first impression that is imminent needs to be great.

Better Sense of Arrival on Highway 79:
What is the first thing fliers will see when they are driving down to our beautiful snow-white sand beaches? A newly widened road with power lines and no landscaping; snore. We need to excite them with a fantastic sense of arrival, a road adorned with huge, gorgeous palm trees, lush green grass, sidewalks, curbs, street lights, and underground utilities. Put simply, it needs to look just like Beckrich , ‘er’uh’ R. Jackson Blvd. This is another one of those “first-impression” things that we can’t afford to screw up. I know that “officials” will say that there is a reason that we are doing the CRA in the order that it’s being done, but we need to find a way to change it up. Highway 79 needs to be top priority, then next Front Beach Road needs to be addressed.

Improve Front Beach Road First:
It was remarked in another post’s comments that more emphasis needs to be placed on Front Beach Road’s improvements than on the improvements of the north/south corridors. This is so true, tourists spend most of their time driving on Back Beach Road and Front Beach Road and very little time on the roads taking them in between. Why did we spend money improving Churchwell, then Beckrich first? Now we’re moving onto south and north Thomas Drive? I know these areas needed improvements, badly, but we need to focus on what is more responsible regarding servicing our number one customers, tourists. They don’t care what Beckrich looks like, they don’t EVER drive on Churchwell , but they see (and remark to me all the time, frankly) the ugly power lines and crave sidewalks to accent their stay with a little recreation. This needs to be addressed NOW.

We’ve Got to Reintroduce Ourselves to the World:
Known as the redneck riviera and the spring break capital of the world (I don’t even want to dignify those titles with capital letters) we’ve got to totally re-introduce ourselves to the world. Comments that came out of recent focus group sessions that took place in Atlanta discussing Panama City Beach were very revealing. 100% of the people in attendance had traveled to Panama City Beach, yet we were given the least favorable rating when compared to neighboring destinations. Quoting a commenter, Bryan Durta, explaining remarks of some of the focus group attendees, “Negative comments included tacky, kinda like being at a bar with a bunch of drunks, dirty, rednecky, party city, too honky-tonky, and lots of cigarette butts on the beach.” We need people to not only think of us as a classy destination that they’d want to come back to in a heart beat, but a classy destination that they’d recommend to their friends just as quick. How do we do this? We do this through innovative PR and Marketing efforts, much of which is much under way – bravo Jennifer Barbee Inc. and the CVB Marketing Team.

We Need a Year-round Destination
Every year businesses across the beach close down to save on expenses because the cost of operating exceeds the money they make during the winter season. In Panama City Beach, we need to create more things for winter travelers to do so as to attract some of that shoulder-season money. Right now, there are quite a few events that bolster weekend traffic during a time in which long weekends are king, but we need more. And, they have to be good, real good. We’re doing great, but we need to do better. Events like the Panama City Beach Seafood Music and Wine Festival and Pier Park’s New Year’s Eve Beach Ball Drop have been immensely successful in the past, and will continue to bring people to our beaches year after year. In addition, we need to better market to our winter-traveling retired friends. We need to be sure that we have promotional materials created speaking directly to them and ensure they know we exist.

Transportation Sector:
In order for us to prepare for all the new people that will be traveling to our little slice of paradise, we need to centralize our transit system and educate our “transportation representatives”, aka cab-drivers. We need a standardized licensing and education system to be sure that the first people that our tourists spend time with are not only knowledgeable, but that they are courteous as well. In addition, in order to ensure a pleasurable experience, we need to be sure that the cab cars are of consistent quality and that the first impression of our new visitors is great enough to keep them coming back for years to come.

Standardized Hospitality Training
Here we go on the training thing again, but it is just so important. Who is the first person you see when you check into your resort on vacation? The person working the front desk. So, if that person is grouchy, or doesn’t speak English or is just plain rude – how will that set the stage for your vacation? I wouldn’t feel happy, and neither would many tourists. The Resort Collection of Panama City Beach’s Edgewater Beach Resort teamed up with Gulf Coast Community College last fall to create a 20 hour training course that provides the hospitality and tourism businesses in our community with a consistent industry wide training program to increase customer service standards and the customer’s experience while visiting our destination. This not only ensures that the people meeting our visitors are trained in how to interact with them, but that they are interacting in a quality that is consistent all down the beach.

5 Ways PCB's New Airport Will Help Your Business

As Panama City Beach prepares for a new airport slated to be taking in flights by this time next year, many question how the airport is really going to benefit their businesses. Well, here is your answer…actually, five of them.

1. More People = More Money

This is the easiest reason. Obviously, with the completion of the new airport, Panama City Beach will be able to reach new markets it could not before. In addition to opening direct travel channels that previously did not exist, current feeder markets will be more encouraged to fly into Panama City Beach because of the significantly cheaper rates than PFN. The lure of the one-hour flight will just be too much for markets like Atlanta and Birmingham exposing Panama City Beach to the “disposable income” demographic. Panama City Beach will see a significant increase in the amount of travelers, in turn, an increase in revenue for just about everyone.

2. Real Estate Value

Panama City Beach has already seen considerable growth in developments over the last 5 years. The new airport is expected to both accelerate that growth as well as open the gates to investors. There have been all sorts of theories on whether PCB will see a “boom” in real estate growth or a “gradual incline” but regardless, businesses will benefit. Investors will be attracted by the new airport’s effect on Panama City Beach inexorably boosting economic return on private capital. When the overall value increases so too will things like, say…I dunno…room rates? Cha-Ching.

3. Re-Introduction, “Hello, New York, My Name Is…”

The new airport presents a unique opportunity very difficult to come by for any tourist destination. Panama City Beach has been labeled as the “Redneck Riviera” and most people who’ve visited the city have visited it previously and are knowledgeable about the resorts and hotels and attractions. The effect the new airport will have on the destination’s ability to re-invent itself will be invaluable. Equally, every accommodation and attraction throughout the beach will be presented the same opportunity. You get to retell your story however you like. If you haven’t started getting ready for advertising and marketing, now is the time, because you’ll get one shot to show a new group of people that you’re worth spending money.

4. Opportunity For A New Season

This hasn’t been talked about much, but should be considered. Panama City Beach’s biggest encumbrance is its seasonal activity. All over the beach establishments close for three months or more out of the year to accommodate the severe lag in business. With the new airport completed coupled with TDC/CVB efforts to create off-season tourist-attracting events, what used to be a seasonal-lag may become a goldmine. Imagine if the business you do during peak season continues at nearly the same rate all the way to December? With the ability to create flight package deals, this may be the next step in PCB evolution.

5. Morale – The Domino Effect

Initially, this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but consider the overall economic impact the new airport will have on the beach. More jobs, more money and better pay makes for happy people. What we’ve seen over the last few years, the increase in the developments, the CRA projects and now the negotiations in adopting form-based design regulations are direct results of the new airport. What you will have in the coming years is a more beautiful and happier city than ever before. I don’t know about you, but that may be the most valuable consequence of all.

These are our 5, do you have more?

Video of Environmental Damage at New Airport Site

Having been up there, I was able to take video of the creeks and waterways that serve as the natural water run-off point for the new Panama City Airport. Again, I was able to see no apparent damage or side-effects of any damage. However, apparently, after the comments in the other post, I would need to be in a helicopter to observe the claimed negative effects the airport construction site is having on the environment.

Despite Reports, New Airport has Little Environmental Damage

Despite other reports in the media, the construction of the new Panama City airport in West Bay has caused little disturbance in the natural environmental habitat of the pristine areas of West Bay, Burnt Mill Creek and the adjoining waterways. Linda Young of the Clean Water Network, a whistle blower since the beginning of the project going underway, cried red flags citing that serious, irreparable damage was being caused by water run-off at the construction site. Young claimed that the natural pristine areas would be forever damaged and that the marine habitats’ destruction would ruin the tourism industry only to correct herself by citing that it would ruin the charter fishing industry.

In a phone interview with Young, she claimed to have photographs documenting the excess run-off and the damage it has created to the surrounding environmental areas but failed to produce them after two requests were made. Young also claimed that a dark powdery residue could be found on surrounding vegetation in the run-off areas, yet I observed non-such-matter. It could be possible, however, that I was looking in the wrong areas, as we were limited by where we could go without some serious off-terrain gear. I was taken up Burnt Mill Creek until we couldn’t go anymore without running aground and took note that all of the vegetation looked the same as the vegetation all along the West Bay waterway, again, noting no muddy residue.

I visited the airport construction site on Thursday to talk with officials and was told that there were run-off issues that were being dealt with and that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection was and had been made aware of the issues. The issues were noted during a period of heavy rain-fall during the months of March and April during regular weekly tests and were reported to the FDEP .I was told that in collaboration with the FDEP, measures were being taken to correct the issues that had caused the excess and improper run-off. I was told that the issues were not serious and that no permanent damage had occurred, but there were definitely issues to be resolved.

Phone calls to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection were not returned.

Upon noting above average levels of turbidity in the surrounding waterways at the new Panama City airport site, the airport authority hired a private independent environmental consulting group. Ecological Resource Consultants (ERC) conducted a study of the environmental areas in and around Bear Bay Branch, Kelly Branch, Morrell Branch, Crooked Creek, Burnt Mill Creek and West Bay. Over a period of 10 days, ERC studied data from the DEP, data from the Airport Authority and their own independent findings at the sites in question and found:

During construction, with the exception of March/April 2009, turbidity levels remains the same just off site as they were before construction began.
No sediment was found in Bear Bay Branch
Kelly Branch/Morrell Branch had sediment accumulation, which means the wetlands performed correctly, catching the sediment before it went into the creeks.
There was no sediment found in Burnt Mill Creek, Crooked Creek or West Bay.
ERC took 8 core samples from Burnt Mill Creek and Crooked Creek, from the branch outfall locations all the way down to the mouth of each creek at West Bay and found no sediment accumulation.
They also had a snorkeler check and found no visible impact to sea grasses and no sediment in West Bay.
Found finer textured sediment which causes some minor concern because it could possibly reactivate with a heavy rainfall, but they are working with DEP to develop an approved approach to limiting remobilization.
There was no measurable impact on either Creek or West Bay.
Almost all of the sediment was contained on the airport property and within the permit boundaries.

After talking with Roy Willett, KBR Construction Manager at the new Panama City Airport site, I was told that through on-going communication with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection approved resolutions were being made to improve the existing run-off systems to provide minimal impact on the surrounding areas. To help, more than 600 acres of land has been seeded and mulched in the last 2 weeks.

Gov Crist Here, Comments on Airport, No Education Cuts, and Offshore Oil Drilling

Dancing on the animated floor projection, Governor Charlie Crist made an appearance at the Panama City Beach’s Chamber of Commerce last Tuesday to attend a “round-table” meeting with 10 of the leaders of the Panama City Beach community. Among many topics, the dynamics involved with education funding, offshore drilling, and the new Panama City-Bay County Airport were discussed.

A restricted schedule kept the questions to a minimum, but 5 were able to address the Governor including Anthony DuBose on the lending industry, Al McCambry on private vs public education funding, Dan Rowe on offshore drilling, Tom Morgan about the new airport, and Gary Walsingham regarding college funding. The answers varied and actually resulted in around 50 minutes of video footage.

Starting off discussing the housing market, Governor Crist talked about the current 10% annual cap on property taxes for 2nd homes and businesses and the possiblity of that being cut in half, should the people of Florida vote on it on the November 2010 ballot. The Florida legislature just passed this to be on the ballot. In addition, there will also be a 25% reduction in property taxes to first-time homebuyers.

Governor Crist also commented on state-wide education in that when he first came into office, Education Weekly ranked Florida education 31st out of 50 in the United States. Last year, the state of Florida was ranked 14th and this year Florida ranked 10, marking a clear improvement, Crist said. The Governor humbly credited his predecessor Gov Jeb Bush for setting in play most of what led to the increase in quality education in Florida.

Regarding offshore drilling, Governor Crist voiced his opinion in support of drilling citing that if “it’s safe enough, far enough and clean enough,” then he thinks we should do it. He discussed a new technology that was presented to him three weeks ago that placed a mushroom-shaped dome on the ocean floor that housed all the oil extraction equipment so that no surface equipment would be needed any longer. He said that this could be the future of drilling and could lead to less environmental risk. “I believe the founders of our country signed the Declaration of Independence, not the Declaration of Dependence,” said Crist, describing how we need to alleviate our dependence on foreign oil.

Governor Crist commented on the airport saying that the timing couldn’t be better to help push this part of Florida into prosperous economic times. Enterprise Florida, a new initiative to grow industry in the State of Florida has the potential to spread its influence further into the Bay County area, and Crist said that is largely due to the economic opportunities the new airport will make possible. There lies huge opportunity in the aerospace, bio-engineering, cargo, and more. Crist, excited about the opportunity, “This is so much the right thing to do.”

Crist also cited that there was an increase in education funding to the tune of $2.1 billion which will lead to about $43 million in increased funding for community colleges and $100 million in increased funding for university-level colleges.

In attendance:

Beth Oltman, President/CEO of the Panama City Beach Chamber
Anthony DuBose, President of Coastal community Insurance and PCB Chamber
Mayor Gayle Oberst of Panama City Beach
Philip Griffitts Jr., Owner of Sugar Sands Inn and Suites
Paul Wohlford, VP Sales and Marketing of the Resort Collection of Panama City Beach
Marty McDaniel, President of Oaseas Resorts, Chairman of the Bay County TDC
Dan Rowe, President of the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau
Jessica Pfefferkorn, Commanding Officer, Naval Support Activity Panama City
Robert Carroll, Vice President, McNeil Carroll Engineering
Al McCambry, General Manager of Knology
Karen Blackerby, Vice President of Magnum Capital
Jack Bishop, Restaurant Owner
Steve Counts, President of Counts Real Estate Group
Gary Walsingham, CEO Walsingham Investment/Ripley’s Beleive It or Not
Elizabeth Walters, Attorney/Partner of Burke Blue Hutchison Walters & Smith
Edy Rivard, Gulf Coast Medical
Tom Morgan, St. Joe