Tag: panama city beach

Pier Park Summer Concert Series Schedule

Ah, summertime.  When I think of it, almost every time without fail, a certain Sublime song begins to play in my head – nevermind the underlying story.  All I remember is “Summertime and the livin’s easy.”  And easy living will surely have this fantastic summer we have coming up.

Tourism numbers are up, the weather’s been perfect lately and today we’re announcing the lineup of this summer’s Pier Park Summer Concert Series!

The series is every Thursday evening and begins at 7 pm.

Pier Park Summer Concert Series Band Lineup and Schedule

June 7  — Eric Lindell

June 14 — The Black Lillies

June 21 — Telluride

June 28 — The Kevin Jacobs Band

July 5 — Heritage

July 12 — George Porter Jr. and the Runnin’ Pardners

July 19 — The Lee Boys

July 26 — Boukou Groove

August 2 — Heat and the Zydeco Gents

August 9 — Colin Lake

August 16 — The Barry Fish Band


Panama City Beach City Pier – Driving Pilings

The city pier is moving along as scheduled with the old structure completely removed and the new structure being constructed right now. Engineering firm Baskerville Donovan’s VP, Dave Hemphill said construction is on schedule and moving forward at the scheduled pace.

Construction is “top-down” construction, meaning there will be no barge with a crane in the water driving piles. The crane will “crawl” across the top of the piles that it puts in in order to put the next series of piles. I thought this was pretty cool, as it allows them to continue work even if they have rough seas. Delays will be less likely.

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Can we expect flights from Chicago to Panama City for $99?

A buddy sent me an email from AirTran advertising one-way flights for as low as $69 with the flights from Chicago to Pensacola priced at $99. When I was in Dallas, there were one way flights all the time to Austin for $49. Heck, my parents used to fly down for the day all the time when I was in high school.

This would open up our area in a way we can only dream about right now. There have not been any airlines announced for the new airport yet, but this is what we could see a few years after the airport opens up, demand starts to rise and the number of flights increases.

Check after the break for a complete list of prices.

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Do families spend more on spring break than spring breakers? – Survey Results

At the request of the Panama City Beach Tourist Development council, The Klages Group put together a visitor profile survey to compile information about who is coming to our beaches. The report is on Quarter 1 2008 and is compared to Quarter 4 2007.

I’ve emailed and asked how to the study sample was chosen and asked how the data was collected. Having taken a class on survey methodology in undergrad school, I have some experience with this and am interested to see their reply. I had heard that their study sample was just under 500, but I want to know how the sample was chosen.

The entire study is available for download after the break.

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Housing Starts Post Surprise Rise

As reported by the Wall Street Journal:

By JEFF BATER
May 16, 2008 9:51 a.m.

WASHINGTON — Home construction turned up unexpectedly in April and showed surprising vigor, making the biggest increase in two years. However, the increase was driven by a surge in multi-family housing, while single-family starts dropped.

Housing starts increased 8.2% to a seasonally adjusted 1.032 million annual rate, driven higher by a surge in apartment building construction, the Commerce Department said Friday. Starts plunged 13.8% in March to 954,000, the data showed; Commerce initially estimated March starts down 11.9% to 947,000.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected April starts to drop by 1.4% to a 934,000-unit annual rate. The 8.2% increase was the largest monthly climb since a 14.0% jump in January 2006.

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My Safe Florida Home Program

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – May 14, 2008 – The My Safe Florida Home (MSFH) program will achieve its goal of 35,000 grants to homeowners by the end of this month, and the first-come, first- served program will stop accepting grant applications.

The MSFH program will transition to an inspection-focused program beginning June 2008, offering free wind inspections for eligible homeowners until it reaches the Legislature’s goal of performing 400,000 inspections or until the program sunsets in June 2009.

“With hurricane season less than one month away, I encourage Floridians to sign up for a free wind inspection to learn how to harden their homes against hurricane damage,” says Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who oversees the Department of Financial Services. “The response from homeowners has been overwhelming, and I thank the Legislature for creating this program and allowing us to enable more than 35,000 Floridians to make their homes more storm-resistant.”

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Panama City Beach TDC CVB Strategic Planning Process Outline

I was able to get my hands on the Bay County Tourist Development Council Panama City Beach CVB Strategic Planning Process Outline. It spells out where we are wanting to take Panama City Beach over the next couple of years and how we are going to get there. Following are excerpts from the document with the option to download the whole document at the end.

In January, the Bay County TDC initiated a strategic planning process to help chart the course for the Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau in coming years.

Building off of the initial work conducted, the CVB developed four key initiatives and potential funding strategy to serve as the framework for discussion as the initiatives are explored and articulated in advance of the final plan. This document includes the initiatives, as well as the notes from the retreat.

In June, a final strategic plan will be presented to the TDC for adoption.

Key Initiatives:

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5/13/08 TDC/CVB Meeting: Indian Summer Festival, College Spring Break

Only 6 of the 9 Board members were present. Absent were Mike Nelson, Rick Russell, and Gary Walsingham.

INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL UPDATE

President Dan Rowe reported that things have not gone as planned since the April 18th Marketing Committee meeting. To begin with, Mr. Jeffrey Wolfe of Multi-Media who was selected by the committee to operate the festival this year revoked his commitment to operate the festival with only $10,000 of the traditional $60,000 financial support from the CVB. In addition, Beach Events who I believe was not chosen by the committee mainly due to the reduced funding requested from Mr. Wolfe, now no longer is interested in promoting any fall festival for 2008. However, a group headed up by Marketing Committee member Jack Bishop is working on a proposal for the 2008 festival and expects to make a proposal and request for funding to the Board at the June meeting. Corky McCollum, from Beach Events, advised that his company was proceeding with their plans for an October 2009 festival, but did not anticipate requesting any marketing funds from the CVB. Board Member Buddy Wilkes asked Mr. Bishop whether his group was planning to operate the festival just for 2008. The response from Mr. Bishop seemed to show that his group’s interest was not limited to 2008. So we might end up with two competing Indian Summer Festivals in 2009.

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New Hooters on Panama City Beach

Wow, that was quick. It was just a couple of weeks ago they were putting the roof on this place. They couldn’t have been building this place for more than three months and it is opened.

Across the street from the navy base, Coastal Palms is the newest commercial development starting to come to life on the beach.

Burger King and Bruster’s Ice Cream opened a few months ago with La Quinta having been opened for over a year.

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