Florida Trend's - Business Florida "Florida is open for business." - Charlie Crist, Gov. of Florida Your 2008 Florida Opportunity Guide The following magazine was left in our room this week while staying at the Amelia Island Resort. The magazine titled - Northwest states the following: Brimming with Possibilities - Florida's Northwet grows new business on solid military, aviation and tourism roots. By Charlotte Crane The cultural landscape of the 16-county Northwest region manages to retain its color and charm while the region also earns top-gun rankings in defense and aerospace, educational leadership and white- sands tourism. Northwest Florida is home to the U.S. Air Force's largest air base and the only high-magnetic field laboratory in the Western Hemisphere, not to mention luxury resorts and progressive new-town communties. Until the late 1990's, timber, fishing and textiles ruled the economy here; today's core businesses are retail, construction and tourism. And the strongest gains are in aerospace, information technology, biomedicine, international commerce and alternative energy. Helping growth happen in this region is an ample stock of logistical essentials: interstate highways, cross-regional and short-line rail, and four regional airports, plus two deepwater ports and a third undergoing redevelopment. PCB Ready for Takeoff PCB County's new super-sized airport is poised for takeoff; construction is slated to begin in late 2007. The $331-million international airport will be located at West Bay on 4,000 acres donated by Florida's largest private landowner, The St. Joe Comapany. Plants for residential, industrial and commercial development adjacent to the airport promise to add business, job sand tax benefits, according to airport authority, chairman Joe Tannehill. Traffic at Port Panama City logged a 57% gain in 2006. Beginning in 2008, the port will be handling some 300,000 tons per year of compressed wood pellets bound for Europe from Green Circle Bio Energy Inc.. PCB, a perennial favorite for vacationers, continues to attract new resorts. The lates is Splash, a luxury condo resort by The Sterling Companies that has been named one of this year's hot new beach resorts by Florida Travel & Life. This was a comp they gave for Northwest Florida: Population 1,309,347 Labor Force 661,176 Households 522,200 AVG Household EBI $43,094 Consumer Spending $22.80bil. Total Retail Sales $23.26bil. Consumer spending and retail sales surpassed the Southwest region - Naples, Marco Island, Cape Coral, Captiva & Sanibel Time will tell, but with the International Airport and w/o any hurricanes almost......2 years now...cross my fingers....our area will prosper and the real estate market will come back in time.... This area of Northwest Florida is just too nice to pass by.......
