New Airport Puts Panama City on
Track for Long-Term Growth
Jun 12, 2009
By: Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
Most of the country is waiting for the economy to turn, or even for the federal stimulus to have some measurable effect on local economies, but at least one part of the country has a third option. In the Florida panhandle, in particular the Panama City area, a new international airport--under construction, scheduled for completion next year--promises economic stimulation, both in terms of business growth and real estate development.
"A new business community will be able to grow around the new airport in a way that's impossible around the existing airport, which is too small and too hemmed in for further expansion," Randall S. Curtis, executive director of the Panama City-Bay County International Airport, told CPN. "But the long-term impact will involve more than development in the immediate vicinity of the airport. The entire region stands to benefit."
Indeed, the existing smallish airport--two runways, 6,308 feet and 4,884 feet long, on 745 acres--may have been hindering the area's growth while the rest of Florida has expanded mightily. Bay County is still fairly small, experiencing only modest growth in recent years, with its population expanding from about 127,000 in 1990 to 155,000 now, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Located on a complex of bays (St. Andrews, West, North and East bays) on the Gulf Coast, the area has access to miles of desirable beaches and other natural amenities, but mainly draws vacationers and second-home buyers mainly from the nearby states of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
New airports in other parts of the country, in fact other parts of Florida, also have a history of spurring growth over the long run. The Southwest Florida International Airport opened in Ft. Myers in 1983, and during the 1990s the population of Lee County (county seat, Ft. Myers) grew 31.6 percent, considerably faster than the rest of the state, and the area has continued to grow in the 2000s.
Curtis posited that after larger jets are able to fly into the area, more visitors will start coming from the cities of the Midwest and the Northeast. Ultimately, that may mean not only more vacationers, but more businesspeople with site selection on their minds, and more real estate investors.
The existing main landowner in that part of Florida, St. Joe Co., already stands to benefit enormously from the new airport. Formerly a paper company with vast acreage devoted to growing trees, St. Joe is now a company with vast acreage (about 800,000 acres) to develop. The company was instrumental in realizing the airport project, especially through its donation of the land necessary to build it.
The basic specifications of the $330 million new Panama City-Bay County International Airport include a primary runway of 10,000 feet (expandable to 12,000), a crosswind runway of 5,000 feet and a 120,000-square foot terminal building, occupying 1,300 acres on a 4,000-acre site. That will be the configuration of the airport when it opens next year, anyway. As air traffic increases, there's additional room for another runway the size of the primary one, plus an expanded terminal facility.
Currently, the Airport Authority is negotiating with low-cost air carriers about flying into the new airport, which Curtis calls a key component in spurring future development in the region. Bagging such an airline to fly in and out of the new airport is so important that a small increase in Bay County's bed tax was approved to pay for the effort.
Besides aviation-related facilities, the airport will have about 1,200 acres available for on-site industrial or other commercial development, including sites with direct runway access. "We've gotten the attention of the aerospace industry, for one," said Curtis. "Among other aerospace interests, this part of Florida, centered on Tyndall Air Force Base, is a major center for unmanned vehicle R&D."
The airport itself is only a small part of an entity called the West Bay Sector Plan, a master plan for 75,000 acres along the West Bay just northwest of Panama City that has been in the works for about a decade. Land use for West Bay Sector Plan calls for the ultimate development of about 37 million square feet of commercial property and 27,000 residential units, to be undertaken by a variety of developers. Jones Lang LaSalle has been hired as to oversee development with the West Bay Sector Plan, and is currently in negotiation with a master developer for the properties within the new airport.
Environmentalist opposition to the new airport was relatively mute because of the enormous conservation easements both within the new airport property and as part of the overall West Bay Sector Plan. All together, 41,000 acres of the total of 75,000 acres, including 33 miles of West Bay shoreline and 44 miles of creek and tributaries, will be never be developed.
"The West Bay Plan is a long-term plan that will encourage development in the long run," Janet Watermeier, executive director of the Bay County Economic Development Alliance, told CPN. The economy may be unfavorable to real estate development in the near term, but "when the economy turns, a template for development in Bay County in the area will already be in place."
By: Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
Most of the country is waiting for the economy to turn, or even for the federal stimulus to have some measurable effect on local economies, but at least one part of the country has a third option. In the Florida panhandle, in particular the Panama City area, a new international airport--under construction, scheduled for completion next year--promises economic stimulation, both in terms of business growth and real estate development.
"A new business community will be able to grow around the new airport in a way that's impossible around the existing airport, which is too small and too hemmed in for further expansion," Randall S. Curtis, executive director of the Panama City-Bay County International Airport, told CPN. "But the long-term impact will involve more than development in the immediate vicinity of the airport. The entire region stands to benefit."
Indeed, the existing smallish airport--two runways, 6,308 feet and 4,884 feet long, on 745 acres--may have been hindering the area's growth while the rest of Florida has expanded mightily. Bay County is still fairly small, experiencing only modest growth in recent years, with its population expanding from about 127,000 in 1990 to 155,000 now, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Located on a complex of bays (St. Andrews, West, North and East bays) on the Gulf Coast, the area has access to miles of desirable beaches and other natural amenities, but mainly draws vacationers and second-home buyers mainly from the nearby states of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
New airports in other parts of the country, in fact other parts of Florida, also have a history of spurring growth over the long run. The Southwest Florida International Airport opened in Ft. Myers in 1983, and during the 1990s the population of Lee County (county seat, Ft. Myers) grew 31.6 percent, considerably faster than the rest of the state, and the area has continued to grow in the 2000s.
Curtis posited that after larger jets are able to fly into the area, more visitors will start coming from the cities of the Midwest and the Northeast. Ultimately, that may mean not only more vacationers, but more businesspeople with site selection on their minds, and more real estate investors.
The existing main landowner in that part of Florida, St. Joe Co., already stands to benefit enormously from the new airport. Formerly a paper company with vast acreage devoted to growing trees, St. Joe is now a company with vast acreage (about 800,000 acres) to develop. The company was instrumental in realizing the airport project, especially through its donation of the land necessary to build it.
The basic specifications of the $330 million new Panama City-Bay County International Airport include a primary runway of 10,000 feet (expandable to 12,000), a crosswind runway of 5,000 feet and a 120,000-square foot terminal building, occupying 1,300 acres on a 4,000-acre site. That will be the configuration of the airport when it opens next year, anyway. As air traffic increases, there's additional room for another runway the size of the primary one, plus an expanded terminal facility.
Currently, the Airport Authority is negotiating with low-cost air carriers about flying into the new airport, which Curtis calls a key component in spurring future development in the region. Bagging such an airline to fly in and out of the new airport is so important that a small increase in Bay County's bed tax was approved to pay for the effort.
Besides aviation-related facilities, the airport will have about 1,200 acres available for on-site industrial or other commercial development, including sites with direct runway access. "We've gotten the attention of the aerospace industry, for one," said Curtis. "Among other aerospace interests, this part of Florida, centered on Tyndall Air Force Base, is a major center for unmanned vehicle R&D."
The airport itself is only a small part of an entity called the West Bay Sector Plan, a master plan for 75,000 acres along the West Bay just northwest of Panama City that has been in the works for about a decade. Land use for West Bay Sector Plan calls for the ultimate development of about 37 million square feet of commercial property and 27,000 residential units, to be undertaken by a variety of developers. Jones Lang LaSalle has been hired as to oversee development with the West Bay Sector Plan, and is currently in negotiation with a master developer for the properties within the new airport.
Environmentalist opposition to the new airport was relatively mute because of the enormous conservation easements both within the new airport property and as part of the overall West Bay Sector Plan. All together, 41,000 acres of the total of 75,000 acres, including 33 miles of West Bay shoreline and 44 miles of creek and tributaries, will be never be developed.
"The West Bay Plan is a long-term plan that will encourage development in the long run," Janet Watermeier, executive director of the Bay County Economic Development Alliance, told CPN. The economy may be unfavorable to real estate development in the near term, but "when the economy turns, a template for development in Bay County in the area will already be in place."