NORTHWEST FLORIDA HAS POTENTIONAL TO SURPASS THE HIGH-TECH GROWTH OF THE NORTH CAROLINA'S RESEARCH TRIANGLE

As noted on many occasions, with the new Panama City International Airport and the multi-missions/multi-services at Eglin AFB and the surrounding military bases, Northwest Florida will be on the map for both the national and international communities to not only invest, but enjoy the many things our region has to offer (like the crystal white beaches of the Gulf Coast).

By PAT KELLY / News Herald Writer
2009-11-13 20:49:06
PANAMA CITY BEACH — The new economic development czar for The St. Joe Co. told the Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce on Friday that Northwest Florida had the potential to duplicate or even surpass the high-tech growth of North Carolina’s research triangle.
With the new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport set to open in May, the region’s “branding” is poised to go from bathing suits to business suits, said Kevin Johnson, new vice president of economic development for St. Joe.
“You can not only have a great tan, but make a million bucks,” said Johnson, who previously served as business development vice president for the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina.
All that was needed to make it happen was “regional leadership,” he said, with the opposition coming from a divisiveness generated by the parochial squabbling of interests represented by “political jurisdictions.”
“The enemy of high-impact economic development progress is political jurisdictions,” said Johnson, who will encourage companies such as aerospace, aviation and defense to expand or relocate near the new $318 million airport under construction near West Bay.
When the research triangle was first formed by state and local governments in the late 1950s, North Carolina was the second-poorest state in the country, Johnson said. Today, North Carolina ranks 25th in the country and the area around the research triangle has the second-highest per-capita income in the state.
“I think we can do that here,” Johnson said.
Both Johnson and airport executive director Randy Curtis were speaking to the chamber Friday about the economic influence of the new airport, the center of a 71,000-acre state-sanctioned West Bay Area Sector Plan of long-term industrial and residential development.
Johnson said the 7,000-acre research triangle in North Carolina is one of the most prominent research-and-development centers in the United States. It is sometimes compared to Silicon Valley, Calif., another high-tech corridor now dominated by computer companies.
Johnson said the West Bay Sector, with 10 times as many acres, roughly the size of Washington, D.C., had the capacity to outstrip the North Carolina effort by creating a “new urban land form.”
The resulting development could revolutionize the economic landscape of Northwest Florida “to put a stamp on it for a new generation,” Johnson told the large chamber crowd.
“We still don’t have the numbers,” he said, noting that he has asked for labor data for 100 miles in every direction from the new airport. His research will be shared with prospective industries.
Corps letter
Curtis told the crowd the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sent a letter Thursday to the Federal Aviation Administration, giving its approval for the 1,600-foot extension on the new airport’s runway, which will lengthen the runway to 10,000 feet.
“We are ready to go” on the extension’s construction as soon as the FAA signs off on the Corps’ recommendation, Curtis said after the meeting.
Not only are airport officials hopeful the new facility will make its projected May 18 grand opening, “it’s more than a goal; it will happen,” Curtis told the chamber crowd.
Curtis briefed the crowd on the construction progress of the new airport’s 120,000 square feet of terminal space, 2.5 miles of main access road and the facility’s 16,000-square-foot baggage handling area, which he called “truly state-of-the-art technology.”