Open House at the Chamber's New Tourist Information Center

Beaches Chamber To Hold Open House

Panama City Beach, Florida (May, 2008) – On Thursday, May 15th The Greater Panama City Beaches Chamber of Commerce will hold an Open House of the Chamber’s new Tourist Information Center for Chamber members and guests. Tours will be given throughout the day from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, and refreshments will be served. RSVP is not required.

Attributes of the new state of the art Tourist Information Center include a Virtual Floor, Interactive Kiosks, a History Wall and “The Best of PCB” program featuring all Panama City Beach has to offer. The lobby’s Coastal-Chic style showcases Panama City Beach’s businesses, accommodations, restaurants and attractions as well as community events and relocation information.

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May 11th “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” Highlights Technology

Solace Salon and Spa Stylists Use FreeStylist™ System To Make Their Blow Dryers Weightless

Panama City Beach, Fl– May 6, 2008 – Area residents don’t have to wait until this week’s edition of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” to see how the FreeStylist™ makes salon blow dryers weightless and hair stylists very happy. Stylists at Solace Salon and Spa, in Pier Park, have been using the FreeStylist and their clients have been rapidly spreading the word about blow dryers ‘hanging from the ceiling.’

“We wanted to enhance our guest’s salon experience by streamlining the stylist’s station, removing the tangled cords, and making the blow dryers weightless for our stylists as well,” said owner Jennifer Staerker. “Our stylists love their FreeStylists because it makes their styling service so much easier to provide to our guests.”

The FreeStylist was recommended to the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” design team and team leader Ty Pennington by New England distributor R.G. Shakour and will be included in this week’s edition of the popular ABC show. The installation also includes the world premiere of a new salon lighting system that provides a more accurate light resource for hair color service, and it uses 75% less electricity.

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Borders Books and Music Opens at Pier Park

Borders Celebrates the Grand Opening at Pier Par

PANAMA CITY BEACH – Borders will celebrate the grand opening of its newest concept store beginning Friday, May 9 through Sunday, May 11 at its new store in Panama City Beach, located at the intersection of Starfish Drive and Bluefish Drive in Pier Park.

The 23,356-square-foot concept store represents a significant enhancement over existing Borders stores inside and out and fulfills the company’s mission to be a headquarters for knowledge and entertainment.

Throughout the weekend-long celebration, Borders will be highlighting its newly created Destinations within the new Borders concept store-Cooking, Travel, Wellness, Graphic Novels and Children’s- with special activities, in-store performances and prizes.

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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:

  1. Construction has begun on the new Panama City – Bay County International Airport following favorable jurisdictional decisions
  2. The completion of a successful equity offering that virtually eliminated all debt (the sale of 17 million common shares of stock – apprx $580 million)
  3. 57,000+ acres of non-strategic rural lands were sold for more than $91 million
  4. 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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The Summer White Sale has been released

I was unaware that this had been finalized, but I guess final numbers were supposed to be in by April 25th by all the retail partners participating in this program.

I came across this press release:

Savings Roll In: Panama City Beach Announces ‘Summer White Sale’ With Discounts From 50 Tourism Partners

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla., May 6 /PRNewswire/ — Surf is up, and prices are down in Panama City Beach, Fla.

This award-winning destination on the Gulf of Mexico launches its Summer White Sale today, offering great savings on everything you need for the perfect beach break. The White Sale joins more than 50 Beach accommodations, restaurants and attractions. They team up to present 75 different discount offers with a total value of more than $6,000. All offers are valid now — Aug. 31. More local businesses can join in for additional savings to roll in all spring and summer long

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Exaggerated College Spring Break Numbers in the Media

There is a problem with the College Spring Break economic impact figures that have been reported in the media this past season. I first noticed it when ABC affiliate, WMBB, aired a report on March 3rd. Reporter Mark Jenkins stated that “Tourist Development Council Commissioners are expecting an overall income of $100 million this month.” Based on my prior public records requests, I was already aware that the TDC/CVB had very little research to support their official 2007 estimate of $62 million in spending. Therefore, I was surprised to hear that they were now boosting their estimate by over 50%.

Then MSNBC on March 17th referenced the same $100 million in spending. In addition, MSNBC reported that PCB was expecting “about 350,000 students”. I already knew the TDC/CVB had no research to support their 2007 estimate of 250,000 students. And now they apparently were boosting this unsubstantiated estimate by 40%. Although MSNBC did not report who provided either of these estimates, I wrongly assumed that they had been provided by Andy Phillips, chairman of the TDC/CVB. My assumption was based on Phillips being the only PCB representative quoted in the article.

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Bay County should take the lead in educational innovation

JuliannBy: Juliann Talkington

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

With the dismal state of primary and secondary education around the country, Bay County has a tremendous opportunity, if we are willing to lead.

According to Michael Hodges in Dangerous Erosion of Education Quality and Productivity, the Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) * shows advanced US high school seniors continue to score poorly in international science and math comparisons – near the bottom of all the countries tested.  In addition, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) * shows the general US student population scores well below the international average in math and science.  And worst of all, this trend has continued for many years.

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pcbdaily.com – Something New is Coming

I’ve been working on this for a while and finally was able to bring it live – The New PCBDaily.com!

Not only do we have a fresh new design, but I’ve also made the content more available with a new navigation at along the top. With all the content, this should help make it easier to find it.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be rolling out new features. A new feature that was just deployed was a new image gallery feature. I had had requests from some that could not access yahoo’s flickr site for the images, so I switched to a self-hosted photograph system that should alleviate this problem. Also, I added a sidebar item that shows some of the most recent pictures.

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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 Stores Opened in Pier Park

We’ve been waiting for it, and now it is here. The rest of Pier Park is opened, including Borders, Aeropostale, American Eagle, and more!

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (April 30, 2008)- Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE:SPG), the country’s largest owner, developer and manager of high quality retail real estate, will celebrate more exciting retailer and restaurant openings from late April through May 1 at Pier Park, located on 93 acres that covers land from Front Beach Road (at the City Pier) to the heavily traveled Highway 98 (Back Beach Road).

New anchors and specialty shops scheduled to premiere include the following:

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