Market Updates, More Positive Agents

John Skinner, a local agent also known as the “Condo Man” was kind enough to allow me to post his monthly newsletter providing some current data on sold pre-construction condos.

As of right now, he indicates that the MLS shows:

  • 188 active 1 bedroom gulf front condos
  • 326 active 2 bedroom gulf front condos
  • 134 active 3 bedroom gulf front condos
  • 32 active 4 bedroom gulf front condos
  • 86 sold 1 bedroom gulf front condos built 2003 – 2007 this year so far
  • 188 sold 2 bedroom gulf front condos built 2003 – 2007 this year so far
  • 41 sold 3 bedroom gulf front condos built 2003 – 2007 this year so far
  • 9 sold 4 bedroom gulf front condos built 2003 – 2007 this year so far

This brings the total of new condos sold this year to 254. He also notes that the current inventory has gone down consistently since August 2006. (more)

I continue to get emails from agents telling their positive stories:

When I watch the news and they say that the real estate market is doomed, I look at my team partner and say so then why have we already closed over 13 million in production numbers this year?  Why are we so stacked with customers that we are literally forced to work 7 days a week to keep on top of all of the deals we are currently working on?  My 2 person Realtor Team did over 15 million in 2005 which everyone sites as our “boom” year.  If we close a fraction of the deals we are currently working on then we will exceed our 2007 goal of 20 million in closed production numbers with ease.  I wonder what our numbers could have been this year if we had some positive press instead of all the negative…….hmm…..

Stephanie Adams, Realtor

ADAMS TEAM

ERA Chipola Realty

http://www.AdamsTeam.net

Florida Home Insurance

Despite promises of a new Governor, urgings, and passed bills, Florida home owners have yet to see any relief on their insurance premiums. Personally, my premium went up 33%, but from what I heard from readers and other locals, this is nothing. I talked with some whose premiums went up 100% and more. So far, the average final rate filing is at an increase of over 30% although the insurance commissioner’s office has rejected these increases. The insurance companies seem to be having trouble making everything pencil with the estimated $40 billion paid out by insurance companies during the active hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, claiming that they still have to have enough cash on hand should we have another active hurricane season, despite how painful it may be to the wallets of the policy holders.

Front Beach Road CRA

As some of you may know, there is a CRA (community redevelopment area) for all of Front Beach Road. This was created to funnel some of the tax money from all the new condos into improving the infrastructure. Planned is a complete reworking of all of Front Beach Road, along with many of the feeder streets as well. The vision seems awesome and will certainly be beautiful when it is done. I’m just wondering when it WILL be done.

I’ve seen little activity other than the Churchwell Drive improvements. I think the answer may be that they will start on another project when they complete Churchwell Drive, but I don’t understand why that can’t start other projects more immediately. If someone has some insight to this, or more information, that would be great.

PCBOnTheMove.com seems to have some pretty good information, but it is a little vague. I sent an email to info@pcbonthemove.com asking for more specifics on project information, including projected start and end dates. I got no response last time I sent them an email, so hopefully they’ll respond this time.

The plans for the redevelopment of Front Beach Road include an expansion of the road way to a combination of 66′ wide and 100′ wide road ways with three lanes and a dedicated tram/bike lane on each side. There is a planned multi-modal tram station proposed at the east end of Front Beach Road, just down from Walmart.

At the web site, there is a short movie showing and explaining what the new Front Beach Road will be like. All in all, it is going to be a great thing, I’m just a little impatient, and want it now.

FAA's NextGen

The other day I posted on the FAA’s NextGen reform. The reform addresses many aspects of the aviation industry, including the new airport, however something else it addresses is the rapidly becoming overwhelmed radar network. Technologically, the aviation industry has never seen much improvement with regards to aircraft location tracking with the GPS or ADS-B, as it is called having been in the works for the last 10 years.

Anyway, Popular Mechanics just wrote an article speaking into the technology of ADS-B giving a little background and an explanation of how it works. And yes, I said how it works, as in present tense. They have been testing the system, with great success I might ad, on Alaska Air. UPS has already began utilizing this technology and Southwest Airlines expects to install the system on its entire fleet of 737’s by next year. (more)

Pier Park on time

I had the great pleasure of attending a tenant meeting yesterday for Pier Park and was excited to get new information. Forgive the bullet point style if you are a reader, but sometimes I just like to give the information the way it is:

  • Target has reported that their store at Pier Park is in the top 10% of their nationwide sales portfolio.
  • Ron Jon Surf Shop expects to take possession in the next couple of weeks, this will be their sixth location nationwide.
  • Borders Books and Music will be the 1st in the Panhandle.
  • 200,000 sq ft to be turned over to tenant coordination within 30 to 45 days
  • Starbucks to be opened October 1
  • Grand opening for the Boardwalk area on 2/15/07
  • I think they said that Dillards and JCPenny’s will be open March 1, 2008 (Simon, please correct me if I’m wrong)
  • Half of all Pier Park to be opened before year’s end
  • ULTA will be the first in the Panhandle, with the closest being in Orlando or Atlanta

Personally, I’m super stoked. Up at the front across from the dedicated beach will be Ron Jon’s and Margaritaville along with Reggae J’s and Back Porch Seafood House and another restaurant that has yet to be announced. I was told that some of these restaurants will have second floor outside seating that will overlook the Gulf.

Along the boardwalk will be expansive, open areas in front of the stores to provide room for playing and gathering. It was described as a park-like setting. In the meeting, Paul Ajdaharian, of Simon kept talking about “feel good first, buy later”. Their emphasis towards the tenants is make the customers feel good and the sales will take care of themselves. This is awesome because it provides for a great place to, just be.

All along, Simon has talked about creating a great place for gathering. I can say they’ve already gotten off to a great start with the concerts in the park. My family and I went a couple of weeks ago and it was packed. There was barely enough room on the lawn for all the people, and the space is no small space. I can tell you right now: Pier Park WILL be a great place for gathering.

Ajdaharian said that he was unsure of the exact percentage, but if he said that if he had to guess he would say that Pier Park is over 80% leased. “They cannot believe their sales”, Ajdaharian said of Panera Bread.

I’m very excited about Pier Park, as I know many of you are, and I’m very glad to see it moving along so quickly.

 

   

Possible Delay on Airport Grant, NextGen Air Trans Reform

Douglas Murphy, head of the southern region of the FAA, was in town last week reviewing plans for the new airport. The current budget plan will expire at the end of September, and at that time, a new budget plan will go into effect possibly delaying the airport 6 to 12 months.

The new plan, dubbed The Next Generation Air Transportation System Financing Reform Act of 2007 (what a mouthful), amongst many other things, will eliminate the domestic ticket tax and frequent flyer tax and instill a larger tax on commercial jet fuel and aviation gasoline.

Technological improvements will include an upgrade from radar to sophisticated gps tracking systems installed in each aircraft that will constantly relay positioning not only to a central control, but also to other planes. Follow the link above for more info.

Back to the airport: Douglas Murphy, while here reconfirmed the FAA’s commitment to the airport relocation and was quoted by the News Herald that it makes sense, and will attract new airlines and possibly low-cost carriers.

Pier Park – Concerts in the Park

This is a little old, but I was thinking about it, so I thought I would “blog”. A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I had the great pleasure of attending the Concerts in the Park at Pier Park, and let me say: it was packed.

We had no idea that so many people knew about it, much less showed up. I could be off, but I would say there was at least 1000 people there. This very much surprised me here in little ‘ol Panama City Beach. I don’t even remember the band, but it was awesome to be at a place with so many other people from our area.

For the last two years, my wife and I have been saying we were going to begin going every Thursday, and for the last two years, the summer ended before we got to go. We will definitely be making it a point to spend more time there.

For the schedule of bands, visit the Panama City Beach’s Chamber web site.

posted by Jason at 9:11 PM

Bids on old Panama City Airport Site

In a meeting at 10 am today at the current airport, the Airport Authority is expected to award the old airport site to a purchasing bidder. The board has been reviewing the bids for several months.

The three bidders are:

PCA Development Group – $61 million up front and $14 million over the next 14 years totaling $75 million

Community Airport Redevelopment (from Utah) – $60 million with $10 million at contract

RMC Investors – $56.5 million

The Old Airport Site is Sold

In the meeting that was held this morning, the old airport site was awarded to the Pittsburgh-based group, PCA Development. The final price was $99 million with $61 million at closing and $38 million over the next 30 years to come from land/property sale proceeds.

Part of the deal includes a letter of credit from PCA that the airport authority will be able to borrow against during construction of the new airport.

The old airport site is 715 acres. Google maps location.