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The Panama City - Bay County International Airport and Industrial
District (Airport Authority) today held a ceremonial groundbreaking
initiating the construction phase of its new state-of-the-art
international airport.
The airport is being built in the 75,000-acre West Bay Area Sector
on 1,300 acres of a 4,000-acre site being donated to the Airport
Authority by The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE).
With this ceremony, work also soon will begin on an unprecedented
environmental preservation effort designed to help protect the entire
West Bay watershed, an area considered one of Florida's environmental
jewels. Relocation of the airport triggers the creation of the West
Bay Preservation Area, a conservation area that will permanently
protect approximately 40,000 acres around West Bay, including 33 miles
of undeveloped shoreline and an additional 44 miles of creeks and
tributaries.
In a prepared statement, Florida Governor Charlie Crist said the
new airport is "a national model for economic transformation and
environmental preservation." Crist added: "The State of Florida stands
as a proud partner of this project for the new jobs it will create and
the environmental jewels it will protect."
"Though we celebrate today, tomorrow we redouble our efforts to
harvest the potential of this project for the people of Northwest
Florida," said Airport Authority Chairman Joe Tannehill. "We will work
together to attract better air service and high-quality jobs to our
region, and we will continue to work with a range of partners to make
this airport as green as it possibly can be."
"I am very proud of the way our community pulled together to
create a shared vision of better air service, stronger economic
development and permanent environmental protection for West Bay," said
Tannehill.
"We have planned this property to allow this airport to serve this
region and our children for the next fifty years and beyond," said
Tannehill. "At the same time, we have worked with the environmental
community, the state of Florida, Bay County and St. Joe to create an
unprecedented environmental preservation area that protects West Bay
for those future generations.
"Over the past ten years hundreds, if not thousands of people
contributed to make this day possible," said Tannehill. "It would be
impossible to recognize them all. But we do thank them. And we pledge
to work harder than ever to make this airport a tremendous asset for
this community, for the Panhandle, and for the entire state of
Florida."
About the Relocated Panama City - Bay County International Airport
The Panama City - Bay County International Airport and Industrial
District (Airport Authority) is nearing completion of a ten-year
process to relocate the Panama City - Bay County airport. The
relocated airport is expected to be the first new airport built since
September 11, 2001.
In late 1980s the Airport Authority began an effort to address
significant deficiencies at the existing airport, including
non-standard runway safety areas. When local environmentalists and the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection objected to extending
the existing runway system into Goose Bayou, a particularly
environmentally sensitive part of St. Andrews Bay, the Airport
Authority began considering relocating the airport.
After working with the FAA to complete a feasibility study in 2000
and a site selection study in 2001, the Airport Authority identified a
new site for the airport in northwestern Bay County (West Bay) on land
owned by The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE).
Following the FAA's selection of the site, the Airport Authority
partnered with the State of Florida, Bay County and The St. Joe
Company in an innovative planning process authorized by Florida law
known as "optional sector permitting and planning." The process
included dozens of public meetings, data gathering, analysis and
visioning for the future. The plan was approved by Bay County and the
State of Florida in 2002 and detailed specific area plans were also
approved in 2003. Its policies will guide future development and
conservation of the West Bay area.
One of the most innovative elements of the plan, in addition to
the airport and economic development provisions, is the proposed West
Bay Preservation Area. The West Bay Preservation was designed by local
and state environmental leaders to preserve the health and habitat of
West Bay forever. This watershed scale plan will preserve
approximately 40,000 acres and, when fully implemented, include the
provision of habitat corridors, open space and stream protection.
Simplified, the objective of the West Bay Preservation Area is to
maintain West Bay in its present, pristine state forever. Its vision,
especially when compared to the development that has occurred on
Florida's other bay front lands, holds the potential to be one of the
most significant conservation measures in Florida history. The plan
has won statewide praise including the "2007 Promising Practices
Award" from the Council for Sustainable Florida this month.
In 2004 the FAA began preparing a Draft Environmental Impact
Statement considering two-dozen alternatives for addressing the
deficiencies at the existing airport. In May 2006, the FAA issued its
Final Environmental Impact Statement, identifying relocation to the
West Bay Site as its Preferred Alternative. In September 2006, the FAA
issued its Record of Decision recommending and approving relocation of
the Panama City airport to the proposed site in West Bay.
In August 2007, after extensive review, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers issued a Section 404 permit, the final permit necessary to
begin construction of the airport.
In September 2007, the Airport Authority approved a contract to
sell the current airport site to a subsidiary of Leucadia National
Corporation of New York (NYSE:LUK) for $56.5 million in cash and an
estimated $38 million in transfer fees from the sale of future
properties developed on site. The current airport site is
approximately 700 acres adjacent to North Bay in Panama City.
Under the Airport Authority's current schedule, the new airport is
expected to open in the first quarter of 2010.
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