New General Manager at Edgewater Beach Resort

The Resort Collection of Panama City Beach, the largest rental management company in Panama City Beach, has announced the appointment of Tom Sparks as General Manager of the Edgewater Beach & Golf Resort. Sparks has a 17-year history with the Edgewater Beach & Golf Resort, having served most recently as Vice President of Association Operations. In that capacity, he worked with the Board of Directors of the various associations and his responsibilities included overseeing the maintenance of the physical properties, buildings and grounds.

Sparks is a long-standing member of the area’s hospitality industry. In 1981, he relocated from Fort Payne, Alabama to Panama City Beach where he and his family owned and operated a beach hotel property. He became active in the Bay County Hospitality Association (which later became The Greater Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce), serving as President and on its Board of Directors. Sparks was a founding director of The Greater Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce and has served as President of that organization as well. Along with other area hospitality leaders, he was instrumental in creating the present-day Tourist Development Council.

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Have Panama City Beach Condos Hit Bottom Yet? Probably Not.

From www.condosaletrends.com

Jason’s April 12, 2008 article titled “Have We Hit Bottom Yet?” implies that because there are no negative newspaper stories concerning the current real estate market, that we must be nearing the bottom. Jason quotes NAR chief economist, Lawrence Yum predicting “Notable Improvement” in 2008. I have been following Yum’s analyses and predictions from the months leading up to the top of the real estate bubble (mid to late 2005) up to his latest prediction. The thing that stands out about Yum’s analyses is that he has been 100% wrong on every prediction. We all want to believe that the bottom of this market cycle is near.

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Existing Home and Condo Sales up in March

Although the numbers are down from the same period last year, from February to March, the number of existing home and condo sales is up in Florida.  With 9,142 total existing single-family home sales in March, this marks a 10% increase over February’s 8,310 number.

Condo sales were up over 13% in March compared to February 2008 with 3,145 total sold, compared to 2,765 condos sold in February.

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New Tourist Information Center Opens in Panama City Beach

Press Release:

Panama City Beach, FL (March 2008) – The Greater Panama City Beaches Chamber of Commerce’s top priority for 2008 has been to relocate its offices to a larger facility which would double as a tourist and relocation information center. That goal was met on April 7, 2008, when the Chamber’s new Tourist Information Center opened at the Beckrich Centre, Panama City Beach’s newest, Class-A business center located in the heart of the Beckrich corridor. The spacious, state-of-the-art lobby is informative and historical, educational, entertaining and fun, and is the perfect resource for visitors coming to the area looking for accommodations, things to do, demographics, economic stats and community information. Directional DOT (Department of Transportation) signs are being placed all over Panama City Beach guiding visitors to the new location.

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Economic development in Northwest Florida depends on education

JuliannBy: Juliann Talkington

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

On Friday, Florida’s Great Northwest, the economic development organization for our region, presented details on a target industry study. The event was attended by government officials and business and community leaders from Bay County and the surrounding areas. The study suggested our region has a competitive advantage in four target industries: 1) aerospace and defense, 2) health sciences and human performance-enhancement, 3) renewal energy and environment and 4) transportation and logistics.

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4/18/08 CVB/TDC Marketing Committee Meeting – Smr 2008 Mrktng, Indian Summer Festival

9 of the 11 committee members were present. Absent were Debi Knight and Russ Smith.

President Dan Rowe and Peter Yesawich announced that Y Partnership has removed Barry Lott from the Summer Marketing Campaign assignment. Mr. Yesawich also apologize on behalf of the agency for the inappropriate derogatory name directed at audience member Charles Mason by Mr. Lott at last week’s Board meeting. It was not made clear whether Mr. Lott has been removed from all CVB business or just the current campaign.

Summer Marketing Campaign Changes

Mr. Yesawich presented the committee with the options available for the changes to the Summer Marketing Campaign approved by the Board at their last meeting. The program targets our traditional drive markets of Georgia, Alabama, and Nashville/Chattanooga for a 12 week period beginning May 4th and has three elements. The first is newspaper ads in 12 newspapers throughout Georgia (but not the AJC due to high-costs), the Nashville Tennessean, and 4 papers in Alabama.

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Pier Park North is almost ready to open

Old Navy is open (thanks Billy), and Aeropostale, Hollister, Borders, Bath and Body works, American Eagle, Chicos, NY&C, and more will be open first week in May. Tilly’s is also coming. For those of you that don’t know what Tilly’s is (I was in that catagory) it is a cool clothing store. I took a peek inside the windows this morning and saw Volcom, Roxy and other cool-guy apparel signs. Sweet!

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TDC/CVB Marketing Committee Actions 4/18/08

A complete recap will follow, but here are the actions taken by the TDC/CVB Marketing Committee at their meeting today.

Changes to Summer Marketing Campaign

The committee voted 7-2 to approve the theme “Summer White Sale” along with an accompanying estimated savings statement such as “Save up to $1000”. The exact amount of estimated savings to be included in the advertisements will be determined by staff and Y Partnership after the tourist-related businesses submit their discount offers. The motion also directed staff and Chairman Phillips to develop a co-op plan so that sufficient funds can be raised to upgrade the newspaper advertising to color.

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