Panama City International Airport Featured in Magazine

In about a year, the Northwest Florida Airways will be looking alot different. The Panama City International Airport is scheduled to be up and running and opening many doors to our region. If you are not excited, you should be. The areas of Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Freeport, Defuniak Spring, and other communities in our area should be big benefactors. Take a look at what is coming.

Airport Featured in Magazine 03/30/09 - 09:30 AM Bay County, Fla:
Destin, Fla. (March 30, 2009) – Site Selection, one of the nation’s premier magazines of corporate real estate strategy and economic development activity, highlights the new Panama City-Bay County International Airport construction currently underway as “just one piece of a regional economic development story unfolding in Northwest Florida.” The four-page spread appears in the Florida Area Spotlight section of the publication’s March issue, currently in circulation. Written by Mark Arend, editor of Site Selection magazine, the article describes the events already unfolding and the possible ways the region will be transformed by the new airport.
The article entitled If We Build it, Will They Come describes the atmosphere surrounding the soon-to-be-completed commercial airport occupying 4,000-acres. Slated to open in May of 2010, it will replace the existing 745-acre Panama City airport and, upon completion, will become the country’s first international airport built in the U.S. since 9/11, also hoping to claim the unofficial title of “America’s Greenest Airport.”
The article also highlights opportunities related to the 75,000-acre West Bay Sector Plan, one of the largest mixed-use, planned development and conservation communities in the United States, that surrounds the airport. The West Bay Sector Plan, owned by St. Joe Company, will offer 37 million square feet of commercial and industrial space to aviation-related companies seeking close proximity to the airport’s 10,000 foot runway.
Florida’s Great Northwest is energized by these unfolding events “that could transform the 16-county Florida’s Great Northwest region into a new economic engine for the state and the U.S. southeast,” as stated in the article. In addition, “The Panama City-Bay County International Airport could serve as a key international transport and commercial hub for ALL of northern Florida and the deep Southeast,” said Arend, which will further support and strengthen the regional economic strategy.
“We are extremely pleased with Site Selection magazine’s recognition of Northwest Florida’s economic progress,” stated Florida’s Great Northwest President, Al Wenstrand. “Although the article focused on the Panama City area, the notoriety received from this nationally-respected magazine certainly promotes the region and highlights some of the exciting developments occurring in Northwest Florida,” said Wenstrand.
In addition to appearing in the magazine’s March issue, a full-version of the article can be accessed online at www.siteselection.com/portal under the ‘also featuring’ section or on Florida’s Great Northwest’s website at www.FloridasGreatNorthwest.com listed under press and events, in the news.
The award-winning Site Selection magazine, published by Conway Data, Inc., is the official publication of the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC). The magazine delivers expansion planning information to more than 44,000 qualified readers and executives. Site Selection is available in a bimonthly print magazine, or on their web site at www.siteselection.com.
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Florida’s Great Northwest provides regional leadership in economic and workforce development, serving 16 counties in Northwest Florida from Pensacola through Tallahassee. Its primary mission is the creation of a diversified and sustainable economy in Northwest Florida that creates nationally and globally competitive advantages for the development of key industry clusters, increases the income and prosperity of workers and families and preserves the region’s vibrant quality of life.