Bay County Business Journal

SPECIAL REPORT

2020 Bay County Business Journal AN 850 BUSINESS MAGAZINE SPECIAL REPORT

LATITUDE MARGARITAVILLE WATERSOUND | HANEY TECHNICAL CENTER CAPITAL CITY BANK | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT UPDATE DRONE TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMS | NORTHWEST FLORIDA BEACHES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT PHOTOS BY MIKE FENDER (DRONES AND CAPITAL CITY BANK) AND COURTESY OF THE ST. JOE COMPANY (MARGARITAVILLE)

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FOOD, FUN, MUSIC, ESCAPISM St. Joe Company, Minto Communities building project of municipal proportions

By Steve Bornhoft

A

fter successfully undertaking the development of age-restricted, active-adult communities in Daytona Beach and Hilton Head, South Carolina, the master builder Minto Communities USA commenced looking around for its next large-scale opportunity.

“We have learned that there are four or five elements that every successful active-adult community must have,” said Bill Bullock, a Minto division president. Enumerating them, Bullock touched upon the need for sufficient land, proximity to an airport, a coastal location, convenient retail and service businesses, and a nearby medical facility.

Inevitably, one might suppose, Minto found itself sizing up the vast land holdings of the St. Joe Company, now headquartered in Panama City Beach, and especially its real estate along ı5 miles of the Intracoastal Waterway close to the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.

Minto approached St. Joe with an interest in buying some dirt, but a relationship that might have been transactional became a partnership instead.

Today, the parties are united in a joint venture — the third Latitude Margaritaville community in the United States — a project of a scope so large it is not easily comprehended.

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The hook-up represented a merging of like visions. St. Joe had been considering an active-adult component as part of its Bay County plans for more than ı0 years.

“They had the land asset teed up, they had done their strategic research and believed in the concept,” Bullock said. “And we already had grabbed a tiger by the tail in teaming up with Margaritaville Holdings.”

Margaritaville Holdings, in which the beachy balladeer Jimmy Buffett has an ownership interest, is the brand licensee and brand steward for what will be known as Latitude Margaritaville Watersound, currently in development on ı00,000 acres north of Panama City Beach and west of State 79. The project’s first phase will encompass 3,500 homes, most all of them ranging in price from the low $200s to about $450,000, on 50-foot and 60-foot lots. Homes will range in size from ı,200 to 2,400 square feet.

To date, Minto has not sold any lots to other builders on its Latitude platform, and it has no plans to do so at this time.

The notion of Margaritaville resonates well, Bullock said, with people seeking lives of “food, fun, music and escapism” — the lifestyle embraced by the brand — and old enough to remember the prominence of “sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll” as a motto.

“To engage with a partner like St. Joe, which is so fully in sync with our longterm vision for Latitude Margaritaville Watersound really was a perfect alignment,” Bullock said. “We have always said that we make money with our partners, not off our partners.”

A sales center is under construction and will open next spring, Bullock projected, but not before model homes are ready for inspection. Minto started clearing land for its first production lots in June. Customers will be able to buy a house at the development’s grand opening and can expect construction to begin immediately.

“It’s a massive undertaking when you are talking about laying the groundwork for a city that, based on plat approvals, will include upwards of ı70,000 houses

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ST. JOE COMPANY

The St. Joe Company, Minto Communities and brand licensee Margaritaville Holdings have teamed up on an active-adult development, Latitude Margaritaville Watersound, located north of Panama City Beach on State 79 opposite its intersection with what will be rerouted State 388.

when it is built out,” Bullock said. “It doesn’t happen overnight.”

The Paradise Club provides subscribers with monthly updates on the Daytona Beach, Hilton Head and now Watersound projects (see LatitudeMargaritaville.com).

Among 400,000 club members, ı5,000 have expressed interest specifically in Watersound.

“That’s pretty eye opening, to have that level of interest at this stage,” Bullock said. “At Daytona, we’re in our third year of home sales. We sold 60 homes last month (June), and we expect to do even more volume at Watersound.”

Bullock said visitors to the sales center will be introduced first to the JV partners, their strength and their history with a presentation he expects to be confidence-inspiring. As they

“We have carved out approximately 40 acres on a bluff that overlooks the Intracoastal Waterway.

You look out from there, and you feel like you have stepped back 200 years in time. Developers say you should never fall in love with a parcel of land, but I love that piece of dirt.” —Bill Bullock, Minto Communities proceed through the center, visitors will learn how the development incorporates the Latitude lifestyle. They will hear the familiar strains of Jimmy Buffett standards. Amenities — marina, bandshells, restaurants, retail, fitness center, miles of walking, bicycling and multi-modal trails — will be described.

Environmental aspects of the property will be showcased.

“People start asking themselves,

‘Why would I go on planning vacations when I could live every day on vacation?’ ” Bullock said, speaking from experience. “When people realize that the development checks all of their boxes, they ask, ‘Where do I sign?’”

Bullock said residents of Latitude Margaritaville developments readily find common ground.

“It isn’t about how much you paid for your house; it’s about a whole bunch of 850 Business Magazine

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Latitude Margaritaville Watersound’s developers anticipate opening a sales center — and model homes — in the spring of 2021. The first phase of the project is planned to include 3,500 homes.

people having a great time and forming some of the best friendships they have ever had,” Bullock said. “I’m stunned at some of the prices paid for properties along the Emerald Coast, but that’s not the market we’re after. How are you going to get through tens of thousands of houses if you’re trying to get a million bucks a piece for them?”

Bullock said Latitude Margaritaville Watersound will be able to separate itself from The Villages in Central Florida and the best adult communities in Arizona on the strength of its “worldclass amenities,” its location ı5 minutes from Florida’s best beaches and its Intracoastal Waterway setting. There is no waterway in Scottsdale.

Amenities will reflect current desires.

“If you ask people what they want and you deliver it, you really can’t go wrong,” Bullock said. “It used to be that golf was No. ı, and other things were down at the bottom. In the last ı0–20 years, we have seen almost a complete reversal.

Wellness, exercise and walking trails are the top three or four. We will have an extensive trail network where people can exercise, maintain their health and appreciate the environment.”

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“The marina location has been identified, and it will be open to the public,” said Bridget Precise, St. Joe’s senior vice president for residential real estate. A Marina Village including retail, food and beverage will adjoin the waterfront amenity. A second commercial “village” will be developed along State 79.

“People hear about the development, and they come to us and try to figure out if it represents an opportunity for them,” Precise said. “We work very openly with anyone who has an interest. We are not going to solesource everything with pre-determined people — and it’s not going to be ı00 percent organic. We have spoken with multiple medical services providers, including Ascension and HCA. We try to be inclusive. Those conversations are ongoing, and there has been a lot of interest from different corners.”

Bullock noted that extensive private amenities will be reserved for residents.

“We have carved out approximately 40 acres on a bluff that overlooks the Intracoastal Waterway,” he said. “You look out from there, and you feel like you have stepped back 200 years in

time. Developers say you should never fall in love with a parcel of land, but I love that piece of dirt.”

The bluff, Bullock said, will be home to a two-story restaurant with rooftop dining, a resort-style pool and activity centers.

“They will be the first collection of amenities to be built, and we will add more as our footprint expands,” he said.

The developers plan to leave undisturbed natural areas of a character that hasn’t changed for thousands of years while also employing new technologies.

“We are working on autonomous vehicles,” Bullock said. “We’re going to deploy them at Daytona first and quickly add them to Watersound as soon as we get everything figured out.”

The vehicles, Bullock anticipates, will be used first as delivery vehicles and eventually will carry passengers.

“The Villages is an amazing place,” Bullock said. “You can’t knock what they do. But why wouldn’t you go to the Panhandle? We have a unique opportunity here in a setting that people enjoy, and we are proceeding from scratch with sound masterplanning techniques. And we’re going to put a lot of people to work.”

Bullock said Minto believes in using local tradespeople, until the supply runs out.

“To get the trade base built up to where it needs to be for the kind of volume we are going to be doing, you have to start pulling regionally, for sure,” he said.

Precise spoke to the development’s future economic impact on the community.

“Our economy has always been tourism and hospitality dependent.”

Precise said. “Latitude Margaritaville Watersound will bring more yearround stability to our economy.

Businesses will have a bigger base of year-round residents.”

Added Bullock: “Our residents don’t have school-age children, but they all will pay ad valorem taxes. That will be a huge benefit to local government.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ST. JOE COMPANY

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Ann Leonard, the director at Haney Technical Center in Bay County, sees the school’s aviation program as among those with the potential for significant expansion.

H

WORKFORCE DEVELOPER Haney Technical delivers career-oriented instruction

By Steve Bornhoft 30

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aney Technical Center works to maintain close ties with businesses that are established in Bay County — and some that may be on their way.

In association with each of its occupational programs, the school empanels an advisory committee made up of business owners in the fields of, for example, cosmetology or welding.

“The committees meet twice a year and keep us current regarding what they need to see in potential employees,” said Ann Leonard, Haney’s director. “And we work closely with the Bay County Economic Development Alliance so that we are aware of the projects they have in the pipeline and how we might relate to them.”

Officials with Suzuki Marine, which has committed to building a research and testing center in Panama City, toured Haney’s marine mechanics program as part of its site selection consideration, and Leonard looks forward to the day when Haney graduates will go to work at that facility.

Becca Hardin, president of the Bay County EDA, said Haney often figures in the alliance’s recruiting efforts.

“When prospects ask about workforce development, Haney is our answer to that question,” Hardin said. “We are working with the Airport Authority, Haney and our aviation recruitment team to build an aviation center of excellence at the Panama City Beaches International Airport.”

Haney students completing Federal Aviation Agency-certified airframe and power plant training at the airport might simultaneously participate in internships and co-op programs offered by employers located there, Hardin said. At this writing, she was hopeful about landing two aviation companies with maintenance, repair and overhaul operations.

In Leonard’s view, Haney’s role includes efforts to make Bay County more attractive to prospective employers.

Photography by MIKE FENDER

The welding program at Haney has long been among its strengths, and it supplies talent to employers including Eastern Shipbuilding. The unmasked man is instructor Eric Johnson.

Leonard left Asheville, North Carolina, where she was career and technical education director (CTE director) for the public school system, to accept the same position in Bay County. She was named director at Haney in 20ı5.

In her tenure, she has been confronted by two anomalies, as she called them — Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm that made landfall in Bay County, and the COVID-ı9 pandemic.

“Prior to Hurricane Michael, enrollment was steadily growing and was the highest it has been in a long time,” Leonard said. “Today, we’re still trying to recover from the storm. We have buildings on campus that remain unusable.”

Fortunately, Haney, before the storm hit, had secured $906,000 in Triumph Gulf Coast (BP reparations) funding with which to renovate the space for its heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) program. That project was nearing completion this summer.

And a new building will house the computer systems, nursing, office administration, medical administration and massage therapy programs.

Traditionally strong programs remain so. A national boilermakers association has cited Haney’s welding program as one of the best in the country. Haney welding students consistently perform well in testing that qualifies them to go to work for national companies.

“Our nursing program is excellent,” Leonard said. “Students consistently earn high scores on the National Council Licensure Examination. In our computer system program, students have earned a record number of highlevel industry certifications that lead to high-paying jobs in Bay County.”

Haney’s enrollment dropped after Michael, but Leonard was encouraged by enrollment in the fall of 20ı9.

“It’s hard to identify trends in enrollment and completion for the past two

years because there have been such anomalies,” Leonard said.

With Leonard at the helm, Haney has added industrial pipefitting, plumbing and power equipment technology programs. She has worked to establish articulation agreements with both public high schools and Gulf Coast State College, which helped fund her position as district CTE director and furnished her with office space. CareerSource Gulf Coast also was a partner in the CTE position. That triad, Leonard said, made a lot of sense.

Over the past couple of years, a growing number of high school students have dual-enrolled at Haney.

“I am very encouraged that the K-ı2 system is working hard to implement more career and technical education programs,” Leonard said, praising the work of Beth Patterson, the district’s new CTE director. Patterson is a former administrator at Rutherford High School and taught in a career academy.

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“She has a good sense of the importance and relevance of CTE programs,” Leonard said. “We are working closely to find articulation areas where we can develop agreements between the high school programs she offers and the programs that we offer. They are getting ready to open a welding program at Rutherford, and we hope that students from that program will matriculate into ours.”

Going forward, Leonard said, “We want to see our aviation program expand. That’s a component of the local economy that is very important, and it’s also a career field where students can go anywhere. Our aviation program benefits from extremely strong instructors and leadership. Our HVAC program is really growing. Our welding program is thriving and has close ties to Eastern Shipbuilding.”

As of late June, Leonard anticipated that Haney would open back up on Aug. 4, pursuant to a hybrid virtual/ classroom instruction plan that was approved by Bay District Schools.

“We plan to stagger classes so that we have no more than half of our students on campus at any given time,” Leonard said in June. “Those who are not on campus will be engaged in distance learning via Canvas (a learning management platform).”

COVID-ı9 significantly disrupted programs in the spring, especially those requiring a lot of hands-on skill development work. The popular cosmetology program was placed on hold because it could not be migrated to an online option.

All things considered, however, Leonard said her job at Haney is the best she has ever had.

“It’s a great school, and the work we do here is so important,” she said. “I am incredibly proud of the staff. There is a special camaraderie here and close relationships between instructors and students.”

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Nursing program students at Haney consistently achieve high scores on licensure exams.

Photography by MIKE FENDER

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Bay County Business Journal SPEC I A L R EPORT

Rachel Greynolds, handpicked by her boss, is the experience manager at Capital City Bank’s Bay County location.

CAPITAL CITY GOES COASTAL

Bank develops Bay County office and commits to one in South Walton

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A

n hour after the federal government rolled out its Paycheck Protection Program, extending forgivable loans to help small businesses make payroll during the COVID-ı9 epidemic, Capital City Bank mobilized.

“Bank leadership jumped on it immediately, discussing how we were going to integrate the program and exactly what we were going to do,” said Ryan Davis, the bank’s Bay County market president. “We recognized that our clients were relying on us in their time of need, and it wasn’t going to matter to us if we worked 20 hours a day for three weeks. It was going to be all hands on deck, and we were going to get those loans approved, processed and funded as quickly as we could.”

Working at home, Davis was among bank officers who saw loans from application through to funding for Photography by MIKE FENDER

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAPITAL CITY BANK (DAVIS)

activity that makes Davis proud of his association with Capital City.

Capital City is new to Bay County, having opened its first banking office at the St. Joe Company’s Breakfast Point development on May ı — it had previously established a Panama City Beach toehold in the form of a loan production office. But for Davis, Bay County is the only home he has ever known, save for his years as a student at Florida State University’s main campus.

Late in 20ı7, Ed Canup, a co-chief operating officer at Capital City and Ramsay Sims, the executive for metro banking, contacted Davis in the course of looking for the right person to lead the bank in Bay County.

“The cornerstone of the bank is relationship banking,” Canup said. “A lot of people use that phrase, Market leader Ryan Davis, above, welcomed the cusbut what that means to us tomer acquisition assistance is that we are really there of former Florida House to take care of our clients’ Speaker Allan Bense, a needs, and we are commitCapital City board member. ted to our communities.”

Canup said that in assessing potential new markets for Capital City, the bank looks for communities that will embrace its business approach.

“We quickly determined that Bay County and the Emerald Coast were such communities,” Canup said. “The market in Bay and Walton counties clients in his market and in locations is so vibrant. The impression is that including Tallahassee, Gainesville and only older, retired people move there, Macon, Georgia. but that’s really not the case. Many “This was not an opportunity for the newcomers are people who can live bank to make money,” Davis said. “We and do their jobs or run their businesses want our business clients to stay in wherever they want to, and they have business, and we want their employees chosen Northwest Florida.” to have jobs.”

In Davis, Canup and Sims had their PPP, then, was an activity wholly man. He is a community guy in extremis consistent with what chairman Bill and subscribes wholeheartedly to Smith emphasizes as a fundamental Capital City’s quest for relationships tenet of the bank’s philosophy: Build that move beyond transactions. a strong community, and you build Davis has served as a Panama City a strong bank. And it was the kind of Beach Chamber of Commerce board

member and, in 20ı7, was board chairman. He is currently serving his second three-year term on the board of the Bay County Chamber of Commerce.

He is an Ascension Sacred Heart Bay hospital trustee; sits on the FSU Panama City Development Board; and is on the executive leadership team for the American Heart Association Heart Walk in Bay County.

His wife of 23 years, Kara Davis, is a mortgage consultant for Capital City Bank subsidiary Capital City Home Loans, and is located along with her husband at the Breakfast Point office.

Prior to joining Capital City, Davis worked for Wachovia Bank, before it merged with Wells Fargo, and for Regions Bank, where he was a senior commercial relationship manager and then Bay County market president. He handpicked Rachel Greynolds, with whom he had worked previously, to serve as the client experience manager at Breakfast Point.

“Throughout 20ı8, we looked all along Highway 98 in Panama City Beach for a site and felt that Breakfast Point was the right place,” Canup said. “About a month after Hurricane Michael, (St. Joe CEO) Jorge Gonzalez and I talked and he said the community needed for us to get started quickly. Two months later, construction was underway.”

The Great Recession claimed several Bay County community banks as victims, including Peoples First Community Bank, Vision Bank and Coastal Community Bank. By contrast, Capital City, now ı25 years old, made it through the downturn without laying off any employees, without accepting Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) assistance all while continuing to lend money to customers including builders.

Capital City, which exited the recession with more capital than it had when the real estate bubble burst, was the only Florida chartered bank not to receive TARP funds.

“That’s important, because when you go in and talk to somebody — a builder, 850 Business Magazine

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Capital City Bank’s Breakfast Point office delivers personal service along with the latest customer-contact technologies.

a developer or an auto dealer — we can tell them we never exited the business,” Canup said. “That’s a powerful relationship statement.”

The Breakfast Point office, including its four Interactive Teller Machines (ITMs) providing for face-to-face exchanges between clients and Call Center personnel, represents a significant capital investment.

“It’s a manageable space,” Davis said, noting that banks are getting away from large brick-and-mortar edifices.

“I have the space that I need and little more. As a market president who needs to balance the balance sheet, I don’t want to have to pay for a big building.”

Technology, he said, equates to convenience, and ITMs preserve a human element.

Davis said the customers visiting ITMs can make deposits, make payments, cash checks, change addresses on accounts, transfer funds, place stop-payment orders, reset online banking passwords 36

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— almost everything other than opening an account.

Canup manages the lending and wealth management sides of the bank and said he is seeing strong loan demand, a testament, he finds, to the confidence that people have in the economy of Bay and Walton counties.

Davis concurred.

“We are heavily invested in several large acquisition and development projects,” he said, “and there is nothing that we are not willing to look at.

If it’s the right client and the right opportunity and it makes sense, we’ll do it. Once we engage, we’re extremely competitive.”

Capital City, with assets of more than $3 billion, is not done with its westward expansion. Already, it has established a Capital City Home Loans and private banking shop next to Dune Lakes Elementary School in Santa Rosa Beach, and it has signed a land lease with St. Joe with plans to develop a full-service

banking office at the Watersound Origins development. Canup said that branch will be a duplicate of the Breakfast Point office and will be located directly in front of a future Publix supermarket.

Both Canup and Davis noted contributions made by Bay County resident, former Florida speaker of the House and bank board member Allan Bense to establishing Capital City in the Bay County market.

“He has been extremely influential in helping me and opening doors,” Davis said. “I’m a familiar face, but he’s a really familiar face. I am thankful that he has lent his name to our bank. A lot of people wouldn’t do that. This is not his day job, but I can’t count the number of hours that he and I have spent together brainstorming, strategizing and identifying who we want to bank.

“This community will never know all that Allan Bense has done for people and organizations anonymously.”

Photography by MIKE FENDER

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GOING ELECTRONIC With travel curtailed, Bay EDA revises its marketing approach

T

he Bay County Economic Development Alliance ordinarily conducts its employer recruitment activities in theaters around the world: Europe, Asia, Canada, Central America.

The emergence of the COVID-ı9 pandemic, with its impacts on international travel, forced the EDA to shelve travel plans and similarly affected several businesses that have committed to projects in Bay County.

“We have shifted our priorities under the circumstances,” said EDA president Becca Hardin. “We are doing a lot to help out our existing businesses where we can, and we have been fortunate.

The big players in our manufacturing sector — Berg Pipe, Oceaneering, Trane and Eastern Shipbuilding — were able to maintain their operations and avoid layoffs. They got really creative in

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modifying workstations to comply with social distancing recommendations.”

Recruitment efforts continue but in new ways.

“We are placing an intense focus on our electronic marketing,” Hardin said. “We are creating virtual site visits for companies who want to know more about Bay County but don’t feel comfortable traveling. We shot aerial video of our business parks and supersized our buildings and sites on our website. And we have started a social media campaign.”

Monthly EDA board meetings were being conducted via Zoom.

The pandemic halted progress that two manufacturers new to the county had been making. Both were working to retrofit and equip existing buildings for their operations.

Air Temp, an auto parts manufacturer based in Merida in the Yucatan Peninsula

of Mexico, announced plans in May 20ı8 to establish as U.S. headquarters in Panama City and acquired the former Boyd Brothers printing plant on U.S. 98.

“They have renovated their building, and they had installed a crane system, were receiving equipment and were well on their way to hiring people when COVID-ı9 hit and everything was put on pause,” Hardin said. “But they are still moving forward. They have contracts with Volvo and Volkswagen that they have to fulfill, and they are anxious to get back to work.”

The pandemic affected but did not halt Air Temp’s operations in Merida where the business employs 850 people.

Shifts were streamlined, but the company was fully operational in Mexico as of late June.

Air Temp was launched as a designer and manufacturer of air conditioners

PHOTOS BY DESIREÉ GARDNER (BECCA HARDIN) AND COURTESY OF EDA (BERG PIPE, ACMT) AND CASA LAXMI

By Steve Bornhoft

Rendering, above, depicts campus of international boarding school planned by the Casa Laxmi Foundation; drawing at right depicts the future of the one-time Honeywell building in Lynn Haven. ACMT, an aerospace contractor, has built out about half of the manufacturing space there.

and heat exchangers for the automotive industry. Renault Mexico was an early customer.

Volkswagen came on board in ı987.

Air Temp’s product line has been expanded to include condensers, evaporators, heaters, radiators, refrigerant gas and fans, and fan motors.

“As soon as international travel opens back up, they will come back up here and get things going with the Panama City facility,” Hardin said. Renovation work has been confined to what was the newer building on the Boyd Brothers campus.

“Things look rough on the outside mostly because another building that they aren’t using was heavily damaged from the hurricane,” Hardin said. “They are trying to decide what to do with it.

They may just take it down and build another warehouse over there.”

Hardin maintains regular contact with company owner Jorge Habib, who told her this summer that his two sons would be moving to Panama City temporarily after international travel resumes and will oversee the startup of manufacturing.

Advanced Composites and Metalforming Technologies had built out about half of the manufacturing space at the

old Honeywell plant in Lynn Haven when COVID-ı9 slowed progress.

The 33-year-old, Connecticut-based aerospace company specialized in its early days as a maker of adhesives and chemicals for aerospace applications such as bonding rubber to sheet metal parts. As of 2004, ACMT moved into areas including fabrication work.

With products ranging in size from an inch to 20 feet in length, ACMT operations employ robotics, lasers, waterjet cutters and computer numerical control (CNC) machining equipment, the latter involving computer software that dictates the movements of tools.

Work on office space has been completed, and ACMT was pursuing Federal Aviation Administration certifications required before they can start manufacturing.

“They are sitting on go. They have done as much as they can while waiting for activity to open back up,” Hardin said, adding that she anticipated that hiring would start early in the fall.

Hardin said that despite delays related to the pandemic, the Casa Laxmi Foundation, registered in Florida and headed by Kiran Kulkarni, a private equity investor who lives in Toronto,

remains committed to establishing an international boarding school in north Bay County.

“The plan hasn’t changed,” Hardin said.

“The biggest thing is that they have closed on the property (260 acres on Fanning Bayou). They hired a local architectural firm to do the site planning and they are starting on the permitting process.”

Students will be hand-picked by the school, according to plans, and enrollment will be limited to 300 students.

Casa Laxmi had hoped to enroll its first students in grades 6–8 in 202ı, a goal that factors including the pandemic have placed beyond reach.

Clark and Son, Inc., a custom kitchen cabinet business, has located its distribution and final assembly headquarters in ı00,000 square feet of leased space at the Intermodal Distribution Center owned

“We are placing an intense focus on our electronic marketing. We are creating virtual site visits for companies who want to know more about Bay County but don’t feel comfortable traveling.”

—Becca Hardin, EDA President 850 Business Magazine

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Coming soon

Suzuki Motor of America Inc. announced in March plans for Suzuki Marine Technical Center USA to be built on a 20-acre waterfront property at the foot of Frankford Avenue in Panama City.

“We are planning a state-of-the-art Suzuki marine technical center that will help us develop, test and refine the best possible Suzuki outboard products for today and tomorrow,” Max Yamamoto, president of Suzuki Motor of America, said in a news release at the time.

The Suzuki project team visited Panama City before and after Hurricane Michael made landfall in Bay County and, said Hardin, “commented on the resilience of our community and how everyone is working together to build a better Bay County.”

Suzuki Motors of America has announced plans to establish a research and testing facility in Panama City (drawing at top). A spec building, right, has been added to the St. Joe Company’s VentureCrossings commerce park.

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An official groundbreaking has been postponed by the pandemic.

“We had been planning a big groundbreaking ceremony at the site," says Hardin, "and we will still do something when international travel opens up and Suzuki’s executive delegation from Japan will be able to come over and help celebrate.”

At this writing, Hardin was optimistic that two aviation-related companies would commit to Bay County, one at Panama City Beaches International Airport and the other at the nearby VentureCrossings commerce park owned by the St. Joe Company. Both prospects were approved for Qualified Industry Tax Credits before that opportunity sunsetted in June.

St. Joe and the EDA were disappointed last December when GKN Aerospace, celebrated as an anchor tenant at VentureCrossings, pulled up stakes, leaving its 60 Bay County employees without jobs.

GKN’s departure came as a second big blow to the EDA, after Hurricane Michael and before the pandemic, arriving as a third challenge, validated what had been the fears of epidemiologists.

Hardin is nonetheless irrepressible.

“In Bay County, we are so lucky because we have a great public-private partnership,” she said. “Everybody gets along, and we all know where we want to take our community. The hiccups have not diminished our resolve to make Bay County a great place to live and work.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF EDA (VENTURECROSSINGS) AND SUZUKI MOTORS

by Port Panama City. It had just begun to receive product via the port when COVID-ı9 shut down manufacturing operations at a plant owned by a partner in Merida.

“But their activity is heating back up,” Hardin said in June, “and they are working with CareerSource on hiring.”

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W

ReliantSouth: A Commercial Contractor You Can Trust

hen businesses have commercial construction needs, they often rely on the construction professionals at ReliantSouth Construction Group. A full-service, commercial general contractor and construction management firm, ReliantSouth has offices in Panama City and Miramar Beach. Led by professional engineer Richard Dodd, ReliantSouth has successfully completed numerous projects throughout Northwest Florida and the entire Southeast. Starting his construction career 37 years ago in Northwest Florida, Dodd has been

leading successful and award-winning construction companies for 30 years.

When asked about the primary mission of ReliantSouth, Dodd stated, “Our mission is quite simple: We provide solutions and value to our clients in a collaborative fashion.”

By offering comprehensive construction solutions, Team ReliantSouth’s diverse portfolio includes retail, restaurants, offices, banks, schools, industrial, entertainment venues, and governmental projects.

ReliantSouth is blessed with a rich legacy and is comprised of seasoned and integrityfilled construction professionals who have worked as a team for years. “My partners and I, as well as our entire team, are incredibly passionate about our clients’

needs and strive to make our community stronger,” Dodd explained.

Wayne Lindsay, an owner of Sonny’s BBQ and longtime client of ReliantSouth, shared the following: “I have been in the restaurant business for 35 years. Once I found ReliantSouth, I knew I could quit looking for a contractor who was honest and had my best interest at heart. They do business the right way, and are extremely transparent. Their attention to detail is second to none.”

It is ReliantSouth’s continuous mission to provide their clients with solutions, value, and trust. Whether a client needs a general contractor, a design-builder, or a construction manager, ReliantSouth has the expertise to make a dream become a reality.

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THOMAS DRIVE PANAMA CITY 2104 Thomas Drive 3009 Hwy 77, Suite H Panama City Beach, FL Panama City, FL (850) 249-3615 (850) 248-3615 CountsRealEstate.com850 Business CountsPanamaCity.com Magazine | FALL 2020 | 43

Bay County Business Journal SPEC I A L R EPORT

FLIGHT TRAINING FSU, GCSC add drone curriculum

By Bob Ferrante

T

he technology is still in its infancy. But the sky is the limit for unmanned vehicles.

Hobbyists fly small drones that may be equipped with a high-definition camera. Beyond that modest activity lies an emerging business with air, land or sea devices that assist in a variety of fields: real estate, insurance, emergency management, agriculture and ecology.

Gulf Coast State College and Florida State University administrators realized about five years ago the value in launching a drone technology program, seeing a need for personnel who could fly, build and maintain the vehicles.

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“That’s when the college, along with Embry-Riddle, decided to start the program to provide the skills that will be needed in the future,” said Jose Lopez-Baquero, who is an assistant professor at Gulf Coast State and the Unmanned Vehicle Systems Operations program manager.

Lopez-Baquero is a retired diving instructor who was once based at Tyndall Air Force Base. He was working on his graduate thesis on unmanned aerial systems when Gulf Coast concluded that he would be a good candidate to lead its two-year associate of science unmanned vehicles program. With

face-to-face classes, labs and the opportunity to fly drones, it’s easy to see why this has become a popular endeavor for students and the college.

Why is the field taking off? One reason is that the cost of drone photography is significantly less than the cost to send a photographer up in a helicopter. What could be a costly few hours for a pilot and professional photographer is instead around $ı50 for an unmanned aerial vehicle.

“From the beginning, it was really big in real estate,” Lopez-Baquero said.

Realtors, contractors and insurance companies were early adopters of Photography by MIKE FENDER

Jose Lopez-Baquero, an assistant professor at Gulf Coast State College, is a former diving instructor who discovered an affinity for flying machines.

the technology. Insurance companies would often demand aerial photos of construction sites as part of progress reports. What an unmanned drone could do in less than an hour, and at a fraction of the cost, was evident. Some environmental groups have used unmanned devices for monitoring, tracking and research.

A drone can also fly over a pine tree plantation and assess the soil content.

“Say you had a 40-acre plot of pine trees, and you have to identify what areas are the healthier ones,” LopezBaquero said. “It would take you a long time if you are doing it on foot. But with a flight, it would take maybe ı5 minutes and two hours of processing the data. In one day, you have an answer.”

FSU professors in the Emergency Management and Homeland Security program felt the unmanned vehicle studies were a natural complement to

their curriculum. Led by David Merrick, FSU’s team has worked every hurricane since 20ı6 — including storms making landfall in Florida, Texas or the Bahamas.

When they arrived in Mexico Beach a day after Hurricane Michael’s landfall there in October 20ı8, emergency managers were without communications. With roads often blocked by debris, Merrick’s team sent up a fixed-wing drone.

“That was the first drone imagery that the county-level decision makers had seen of exactly how bad that area had been hit,” Merrick said. “That was critically important. We ended up running air operations for three days.”

Even with the limitation of a 90-minute flight time on the fixed-wing drones, they landed the aircraft throughout the day to swap out batteries and send them back up in the sky. Quadcopters have even less battery capacity, often just enough for a 20- or 30-minute

flight, but are easier to fly and land.

Fixed-wing aircraft also need a long and wide field, similar in size to a football or soccer field, for landing.

But the drones, costing just a few thousand dollars each, helped provide information that was critical in decisionmaking as Bay County officials looked to help residents as best they could.

“The difference between a good disaster response and a bad disaster response is typically going to come down to what decisions emergency managers and government officials make throughout that disaster timeline,” Merrick said. “In order to make a good decision, you have to have good information about the situation.

“Our goal has always been, through whatever technology we have, to speed up that information-gathering phase so that we have better information faster and can make better decisions.”

Fire departments have also sent in devices to determine if the air quality is harmful. A sensor detects harmful gasses, ensuring that firefighters aren’t put into a situation that compromises their safety. Drones also are used in various law enforcement applications.

“Anything that is dull, dirty and dangerous, we use unmanned systems,” Lopez-Baquero said.

Want to Learn More?

For information on unmanned systems studies at Gulf Coast State College, visit gulfcoast.edu/academics/ programs/unmanned-vehicle-systemsoperations-as/index.html.

Information on FSU’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program is available at em.fsu.edu.

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ECP GETS READY FOR MORE As Bay County grows, so does its airport

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S

everal times a year, Parker McLellan, the executive director at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP), pitches Panama City Beach to prospective carriers.

To convince them, he is never without a hand-sized treasure chest containing a sample of the powdery, bright white sand unique to Panama City beaches.

McLellan encourages airline reps to sift the sand through their fingers while he assures them, “The coast makes us who we are, but we have abundant inland attractions, too.”

It’s a soft sell with a sharp impact as ECP’s steady growth in its first decade in operation reached new altitudes in 20ı9.

“You look at where ECP started in 2009, and there were two signatory airlines carrying about 25,000 passengers

through our gates each year,” McLellan said. “Last year, we saw a record-breaking number of ı.3 million. Our current partnerships with Delta, Southwest, American and United Airlines give us four legacy airlines, and with new flights to Denver, Kansas City, Chicago and Washington D.C., we’re able to broaden the spectrum of travel destinations for our residents, as well as encourage tourism.”

While much of ECP’s success is attributable to visitation from the addition of more than ı6 non-stop routes in major hub cities, McLellan counts as factors Bay County’s economic development and the airport’s efforts to make travel “ECP” — that is, easy, convenient and painless.

“It’s important to us that our facility remains modern, that we are still attractive and an easy airport to travel in and Photography by MIKE FENDER

Passengers approach the terminal at Northwest Florida Beach International Airport via a covered walkway; masks have become part of the uniform for security personnel.

out of,” McLellan said. “As tourism grows, so must we.”

In a June interview with 850 Business Magazine, McLellan noted that the airport was finalizing a 7,000-square-foot terminal expansion, which provided all seven of its gates with its own loading bridge.

The airport is in the early stages of implementing a 20-month master plan that addresses runway systems, parking, surrounding business development and environmental issues.

Year to year, travel at ECP was down in April by 95 percent due to the COVID-ı9 pandemic, an event that McLellan views as a “speed bump, not a wall.”

Traffic rebounded in June after beaches were reopened and a ban on short-term vacation rentals was lifted.

The airport has adopted “ECP Ready” procedures to “instill the highest level

of confidence that ECP is the safest, cleanest, and most secure airport for our employees and passengers.” Key components of the plan call for aggressive facilities maintenance, clear communications, organizational resilience and achieving economic recovery.

ECP’s social distance markers for travelers are placed as a recommendation but are not a requirement. Abundant hand sanitizing stations, McLellan believes, will likely stick around, but it’s still too early to predict any permanent changes to ECP etiquette.

“As for new marketing efforts, our No. ı priority right now is to instill confidence in passengers again,” said Katie Spillman of Moore, a Tallahassee marketing agency. “Safety and security of passengers and staff have always been priorities, but now more than ever we need to be communicating 850 Business Magazine

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that message so people feel comfortable, ready and know what to expect when they arrive.”

“We are all moving forward,” added McLellan. “We had two or three projects that were underway prior to COVID-ı9

and that we’ve kept going. We continue to work with the Bay Economic Development Alliance in attracting new jobs so that we can diversify our region’s economy and seek funding for future projects.”

Projects outlined in an airport master plan include runway systems, parking, business development and environmental mitigation; Southwest Airlines has been providing service to Bay County since 2010.

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Meanwhile, the state Department of Transportation is rerouting and fourlaning State Road 388 from State Road 79 to the airport.

That project will include a two-lane roundabout at the airport’s entrance for facilitated accessibility. The project, estimated to be complete by 2024, will link the airport to the Margaritaville Latitude adult living community currently in development.

“What’s exciting about Margaritaville is that there are 3,500 homes in phase one of its construction,” said McLellan.

“In a survey, potential residents indicated that access to an airport with good commercial service was more important to them than golf. That’s 3,500 people who, between their travels and their families coming to visit, are going to help us go from a summer destination to one that is year-round.

“I’ve watched this terminal grow from two airlines to four, and hopefully there will be more,” said McLellan. “We like to say there’s an ‘E-C-P’ in every escape. For us, it’s Emerald Coast Paradise.”

Photography by MIKE FENDER