Bay’s First FRLA Meeting: “PCB Unprepared.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Bay County’s newly formed branch of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, or FRLA, met for the first time at the new Palms Convention center.

A long agenda couldn’t keep the conversation from remaining on a single topic: training. Comments from the likes of Julie Hilton, Jack Bishop and Paul Wohlford all centered on the need to and the benefit of having food/alcohol and hospitality training services for beach employees. “We need a lesson in hospitality,” Mr. Bishop acknowledged, “We sometimes treat our tourists like invaders.”

Conversations weren’t just about the concierge side of things, but the need to make sure the destination as a whole is versed in things like vendor responsibility, food safety, sexual harassment awareness and more. The inevitable goal of Bay County’s FRLA branch will be to lead the county in the delegation of efforts such as training and supplying information on regulatory compliance services. This training will be key in preparing for Bay County’s anticipated tourism boost when the new airport opens. The sentiment throughout the meeting was that, as of now, Bay County is simply not prepared on a professional level to handle the possible influx of new tourists.

Discussions about the airport during the meeting spurred a constructive debate on the need to extend training to Panama City Beach’s transportation sector. Mr. Wohlford stated frankly, “We need better trained ground transportation.” He went on to say. “These are our concierge. I think it’s important that these guys [transportation sector] are trained and knowledgeable about where to stay, where to eat and so on. They are going to be the first impression on our tourists.”

The Bay County FRLA branch began creating committees that will spearhead efforts, in conjunction with the CVB and local Chambers, to make sure standardized hospitality training is available for all local businesses. This will be the first step in making Panama City Beach a better overall destination for tourists both current and future.

More: Jimmy and Johnny Patronis were elected to the Restaurateur and Hotelier hall of fame. Expect to see quite a gala for their ceremony.

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?

Laketown Wharf Showing Signs of Life

This Thursday, June 18^th2009, Sterling Resorts will host a grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate 300 units available for rent. As many know, this announcement has been long in the making.

For those who have not followed the Laketown Wharf soap opera, Laketown Wharf, the towering Thomas Drive edifice completed back in 2007, was supposed to redefine Panama City Beach luxury as a city within a city with 765 total units and unique amenities unmatched on Panama City Beach like a Vegas-style musical fountain display, a 650-seat live performance theater, 5 restaurants, 1,000’s of square feet of retail space and a private lake.

But, due to economic nosedives and various other reasons, by September 2008 developer Jerry Wallace signed over the mostly empty resort to Corus Bank based out of Chicago. Even still, in February of 2009, Corus Bank reported a quarterly loss of $260.7 million and stated that more than a third of their “$4.1 billion in outstanding loans were nonperforming,” all the while the massive structure remained empty, all those lovely amenities wasting away. Lucky for them, in January Corus signed an agreement with Sterling Resorts to operate the condo’s rental management program.

That brings us to this week, when Sterling Resorts plans to rejuvenate excitement in the estimated $200 million property, opening its doors to vacationers. Sterling Resorts should do well considering the rental company currently manages 24 Gulf Coast properties between Panama City Beach and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and has strong familiarity with the tourism trends on Panama City Beach. Currently, online rates at Laketown are set to compete: a 2 bedroom/2 bath for this weekend was set at $292.20, just a little more than I, personally, expected but not bad. If things go well, the opening should act as somewhat of a defibrillator, resuscitating a property in need of a new life.

If you intend on attending the ribbon cutting ceremony RSVP with Kristy Keen: 850-563-0457 or email here at kkeen@sterlingresorts.com

**Date correction: The event will be June 18th at 4PM**

The Face Lift PCB's Been Waiting For: Form-Based Regulations

Last Thursday, June 4^th, the City of Panama City Beach held a joint City Council and Planning Board workshop to discuss potential form-based design regulations that will dramatically affect future Panama City Beach developments. These form-based regulations, negotiated in part by Planning Works, 180 Degree Design and White and Smith Planning, are recommendations intended to provide standards that will create consistency and form between high-rise edifices and the neighborhoods that surround them.

A team of urban planning specialists, headed by Michael Lauer, urban planner Planning Works, helped explain in the 3-day workshop how adopting these new regulations will encourage higher quality future development while maintaining the small town beach lifestyle with an overall more attractive and walkable streetscape for Front Beach Road. These new regulations will also harmonize with future and current CRA developments such as the revamped Richard Jackson Boulevard.

These comprehensive regulations actually broke down into simple decisions for the board to discuss and eventually adopt:

Building Height Requirements
- Based on zoning buildings in residential /low intensity areas will max out at 35ft with a better overall definition of that requirement. Traditional areas will max out at 50ft with an allowance for greater height based on developments to that area. High Rise areas will see a flexible cap of 220ft, with an allowance for more height (with a decrease in footprint) to help promote variety.
Moving Buildings Closer to the Street
Eliminate Auto Oriented Design
- Lots of talk on this topic, but essentially parking lots will no longer be allowed on the street side. They will be required to park behind buildings or incorporated into the design of the building in the form of covered parking.
Internal Street Standard
Require Retail to Be Along the Street-Side

The goal of all this, as said by Michael Lauer, is to “keep the street fronts alive” by promoting more active fronts based on the design codes. An example of “active fronts” would be to see more cafés, pocket parks and urban amenities on the street side rather than parking lots or deep set backs.

On top of the physical incentives, the hopes of the city and the planning organizations are to provide incentive for developers as well with hardship variances and additional administrative variances. Current buildings that can’t or won’t participate in the developments can, under these regulations, do relatively simple façade or cosmetic changes to help coincide with the improvements. But not everything will be an easy fix. City Attorney, Doug Sale, when asked a question about buildings that will lose their parking lots due to these potential regulations, acknowledged the difficulty in transition by answering, “The preferred approach would be shared access to parking in back. But we’ll have to deal with it case by case.”

Still, within the group of attendees, the form-based design regulations were met with rave reviews, even subtle complaints that the city should have done this a decade ago. Even Mayor Gayle Oberst endorsed the sentiment by adding that when past opportunities to move in the direction of such regulations surfaced the council “punted,” Oberst added that these talks have been the “the kick in the pants” the city needed. “I think it’s the future of Panama City Beach,” Oberst said. “It’s not going to be easy, but we can do it. I’m excited about it and [when it’s completed] we’ll all be proud of it.”

So what should Panama City Beach residents expect? Nothing, yet, as these talks will continue to be negotiated until September. But when the time comes, Panama City Beach will have a new look. You’ll see more bike lanes, walkways, outdoor cafés, tropical landscaping, more accessible frontages and better roadways for driving. These regulations, the planners said, should also help attract new investments by increasing square footage available for office, retail or rental units in turn raising economic return on private capital.

The planning groups will begin drafting these new form-based rules, but, for now, all potential developers and those who intend on putting additional monies into renovating old properties will have to consider the likelihood that these regulations will be adopted…and that likelihood is higher than any high-rise on Panama City Beach.

Thomas Drive Mystery Solved!

If you’ve been curious about the huge new development on Thomas drive south of Magnolia and Winn Dixie, we’ve got you covered. But first, some back-story;

Over the last year, if you taken a drive down North Thomas Drive you’ve no doubt noticed major new developments beginning at the turn off Hathaway Bridge down to Grand Lagoon Bridge. You’ve seen more restaurants, banks, grocery stores and retail shopping centers added to the area community. Those updates may be but appetizers to a main-developmental-course. Stimulus money in the sum of $18.5 million and a combination of state and local funds, will be used to expand Grand Lagoon Bridge. The bridge will expand from 150ft to 250ft widening it from two lanes to four and increasing the height over water from 10 to 18ft.

For the last 18 months, planning has been taking place on the bridge expansion, but no funds had been earmarked leaving no definitive timeline for construction. However, with funding tentatively secured, we should begin to see some timelines released. The heightening will be a huge improvement as the current height has been historically limiting to the type and size of boat that property owners on the east side of Grand Lagoon could own.

Stimulus funds will also widen the adjacent North Lagoon feed into Thomas drive into a five-lane highway with room for bike-lanes and sidewalks down to Bristol Street. The area near Grand Lagoon has always been popular with locals, but the planned Grand Lagoon expansion may be an even greater pull for the tourism base as well, which brings us back to the original mystery.

That area being mowed down near Magnolia Beach Road and Winn Dixie is making room for a new restaurant. Another restaurant, whoop dee doo, right? Well, the type of restaurant and the space being allotted for it may surprise you. The huge area is making way for Jasmine Thai Restaurant. This isn’t big news until you consider that a Thai restaurant, somewhat unconventional for Panama City Beach, decided to purchase a long-sitting commercial lot to compete with the likes of Captain Anderson’s and the Treasure Ship. Not only will it compete, but from the looks of it, it has high expectations as three-fifths of the land is being flattened strictly for parking.

Future developments may become a trend if tourist traffic to that area is increased due to the Grand Lagoon Bridge expansion and proof of the location’s economic lure. With the addition of The Saki House II, Hooters, Donut Island and Bruster’s Ice Cream just north, what may have been a jewel area for locals could turn out to be Panama City Beach’s most eclectic and busiest dining experience for tourists. With the revival of the “West-End,” we may see a huge shot in the arm of Panama City Beach’s “East-End.”

Bay County Planning Department did not have a projected completion date or a total square footage but did acknowledged that the restaurant needed a variance for the parking and based on design the restaurant itself will be 50% kitchen and 50% seating, an unusual ratio for the type of establishment.

PCB Sand Sports and Panama City Beach

PCB Sand Sports in partnership with the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau welcomed Beach Tennis USA President Jim Lorenzo and Daniel Weinberg Marketing Director along with the EVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour President Ross Balling. Russ Smith hosted the group at the Towne of Seaaven’s Origin as part of the hospitality coop from the local area. Many local properties offered to host these important guests and we appreciate the interest and excitement from across the community.

Richard Sanders, Director of Sports Marketing with the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau discussed dates and tournament schedule ideas to showcase Panama City Beach as one of the host cities for the EVP Pro Beach Tour in Summer 2009. The EVP Pro Beach Tour can bring exposure on Comcast Cable TV Network to more than 70 million homes.

PCB Sand Sports is working with both major beach sand sports associations to present the white sand beaches across Panama City Beach for the launch of a combined sporting event that will showcase “sand sports” . This will include Beach Soccer as we continue to share our vision of how this can help develop the new brand for PCB and grow activities for the local community as well as offer events and exposure to grow tourism in the area.

Rick Dye, President of Regions Bank and a founder of the non-profit Bay Areas Sports Association which is focused on developing sports for the local community by working closely with schools hosted a reception Friday night January 9th at Baja Grill. This provided an opportunity to introduce both sports to the local business community.

We had a great attendance with much interest in the “new sport and buzz of Beach Tennis” and discussion on how to work closer together. Beach Tennis showcased the “ball” used for Beach Tennis and provided t-shirts and hats as part of their hospitality for the attendees.

Dr. Jason Newsome, Director of Bay County Health Department was also in attendance and shared his input on the benefit sand sports can bring to the local community to get citizens out to play.

We discussed ideas to engage the schools within the community to expand opportunities for local leagues along with the tournaments and Pro Beach events for these hot and growing beach sand sports. Beach Tennis is now licensed in more than 7 global countries and can bring International visitors along with Beach Volleyball as the area prepares to open the new airport.

Director of Economic Development Alliance Resigns, Dr. Ed Wright Steps In

The Bay County Economic Development Alliance(EDA) has announced that Ted Clem, Executive Director of the EDA, has resigned after accepting a position as President/CEO of the Albany – Dougherty County Economic Development Commission in Albany, Georgia.

“I am very grateful to the EDA board and leadership for giving me the opportunity to serve them,” said Clem. “Together we have had a great deal of success and have watched Bay County transition from a seasonal economy to a year round economy. I love this community greatly, but I believe the time is right time to move on to new challenges and opportunities.”

Clem has served as Executive Director of the EDA since September, 1999, and was instrumental in helping recruit new companies to the area such as Sprint/Nextel and Oceaneering International.

In order to ensure a smooth transition to new leadership, Dr. Ed Wright, retired Dean of FSU-Panama City has agreed to serve as an interim director of the EDA and to lead the search for a new executive director. The EDA Board, investors, and volunteers have initiated a strategic planning process to determine future direction and priorities for the organization in these challenging economic times. Dr. Wright’s leadership through this process will be invaluable to the organization.

“We are appreciative of the job Ted has done for us over the years and will miss his leadership and expertise,” said Elizabeth Walters, chairman of the EDA. “These are challenging times in a difficult economy, but Bay County’s future is brighter than ever. Bay County is well poised to expand its place in the global economy. We are grateful that Dr. Wright has agreed to work with us in this transition period such that the work of the EDA proceeds without interruption. His past experience as a community leader in Bay County and his academic background in public administration and policy make him uniquely qualified for this task.”

Clem’s resignation will mean that his official tenure as executive director will end on January 5th, but will be available to assist Dr. Wright as needed until he assumes his new role in Albany in Mid-January.

TDC's $52 million improvement iniative

Wednesday, the TDC’s Revenue Enhancement Committee (fancy for bed tax committee) met to discuss improvement ideas for Panama City Beach and how to fund it all.

The ideas range from a new beach trash disposal system to a grass amphitheatre with bathroom and concessions facilities at Aaron Bessant Park.

The ideas stem from the Strategic Plan and include:

TDC Marketing and Awareness
- Welcome to the Beach campaign which would include welcome signs west of the Hathaway Bridge and along Highway 79, and replacing existing signs.
- New beach trash disposal system to replace the existing blue refuse containers.
- Beach safety campaign to increase public awareness about the flag warning system and fund additional flag poles. (THIS ISN’T ENOUGH, PEOPLE, AND YOU KNOW IT!)
- Estimated total cost of $500,000 per year.
Special Events Marketing
- Construct a permanent stage suitable for concerts and theatrical performances at Aaron Bessant Park, at Pier Park.
- Build an amphitheatre ‘bowl’ with a grass covered berm with restroom and concession space on the back/underside of the grass ‘bowl’. Should be capable of a 5,000 capacity.
- Create space for tents, vendor areas, or other festival support areas in the flat areas of the park.
- Estimated total coast of $5 million

I think this is a really neat idea, and definitely worth looking into, but we need to be planning for 25,000 people, not 5,000 people. Aaron Bessant Park needs some renovation, but will never have the capability to have anything much larger than the summer Concerts in the Park series. We need to be looking at improving larger capacity facilities, like Frank Brown Park.

Sports Marketing – Frank Brown Park
- Develop two additional ‘pinwheels’ of softball/youth baseball fields with the appropriate infrastructure.
- Make two of the fields in the new ‘pinwheels’ the ‘marquee’ fields with additional seating, dugouts, press boxes, etc., one for baseball, one for softball.
- Look at building a warm-up pool and permanent seating at the aquatic center to enhance potential at attracting regional swimming competitions.
- Enhance the equestrian facilities
- Estimated total cost is $7.5 to $10 million
Sports Marketing – Sports Village Complex (in addition to Frank Brown Park, would need to acquire additional land)
- Develop indoor field house to expand offerings to include court and mat sports.
- Develop 8 to 12 rectangular fields for soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, flag football, etc. Some would have grass, others artificial turf
- Develop 8 full-sized baseball fields for additional tournaments and practicing facilities.
- Estimated total cost is $33 to $35 million
Destination Marketing
- Begin international marketing efforts when the new airport comes online and our area becomes more easily accessed.
- Increase domestic advertising – more money is needed in order to fully penetrate our core markets and expand outside the southeast (or we could just use the $500k that was wasted on the Summer White Sale campaign for something that is more innovative, creative, and effective)
- Enhance the Visitor Center with new technology and look and feel
- Estimated total cost is $1 to $2 million

Now, where did all these numbers come from? That is an unknown as of now, just estimations. The committee requested of Dan and Staff to ‘zero-base’ the numbers and give details to how much each aspect of these improvements will cost, ideally to have everything spelled out by the December TDC meeting. The goal is to have everything in order to request an additional 2cents be added to the bed tax first part of the year.

Staff counsel, Doug Sale said that from implementation to actual collection could be up to 90 days, so if they could get the tax implemented first of the year, collections could start rolling in for the new season in spring break.

I’m in total agreement that we need to collect additional bed tax in order to keep up with the competition. I’ve not been too impressed with the way the money has been spent in the past, however. I will give kudos to TDC Chair Andy Phillips for staying on everyone to be sure the numbers included will have some specificity in the near future.

Resort Collection Educates the Tourism Industry

This has been discussed in the past, and the Resort Collection of Panama City Beach has taken the lead in paving the way to provide education to those involved in the tourism industry in our area.

“This is an opportunity to raise the bar among our employees and give them the tools to reach and exceed the expectations of our visitors.” Said Tom Sparks, general manager of The Resort Collection, “We are proud to be the leading hospitality organization in this program, it is our commitment to make Panama City Beach the premier destination of Northwest Florida Gulf Coast.”

By instilling some form of formal training for employees of the local tourism industry, a standard can be easily set for what is expected in order create a great customer experience for tourist of Panama City Beach.

The Resort Collection of Panama City Beach has partnered with Gulf Coast Community College (GCCC) to create the first of its kind hospitality education program for Bay County.

During a planning session last week, members of The Resort Collection and GCCC laid the foundation of what will become the Hospitality Corporate Culture training and education program.

This twenty hour course which is part of the college’s Lifelong Learning department, will provide 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 Hospitality Corporate Culture program will officially launch before the end of the year. Sparks said, “The program will be open to employees at all levels of the hospitality industry and will prepare us to better serve our domestic and international travelers as our destination grows.”

The program is being facilitated and managed by John Hamati, president of Vie Hospitality LLC. Hamati has a successful history in the hospitality business and has helped create this initiative to fill the gaps in local training.

“The Hospitality Training Program has been a hot topic for the Greater Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce and for Gulf Coast Community College for over two years now. Finally, with the assistance of the Edgewater Beach and Golf Resort, The Resort Collection along with Gulf Coast Community College, we are now able to launch this new training in Panama City Beach.” Said Hamati, “we thank Tom Sparks, general manager of the Resort Collection, and the Edgewater Beach and Golf Resort team as well as Gulf Coast Community College in stepping forward and making this training a reality.”

TDC ditches their brains, gets bested by competition

Perhaps this post isn’t necesary, but I feel it prudent to underscore Bryan’s comments and insight into the current actions of the TDC.

An interesting point is brought up, and that point is: why are we just now discussing the budget?

We had all summer with little or almost no activity regarding public TDC meetings. It seems that there was ample time to discuss these issues and more. Is there a reason the TDC meetings come virtually to a halt during the summer months? This is the time we need to be discussing everything and making changes on the fly as needed.

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