2017 Bay County Business Journal

AN 850 BUSINESS MAGAZINE SPONSORED REPORT

2017 BAY COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL

ECONOMIC OVERVIEW | GKN AEROSPACE | DOWNTOWN PCB | RANDY HANNA AND FSU850PCBusiness | TOURISM | BAY COUNTY FILM OUTLOOK Magazine | OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2017 | 45

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| DEMOG RAP H I CS

BAY COUNTY, FLORIDA WORKFORCE DATA TOTAL EMPLOYEES BY MAJOR STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing.. ........................................ 736 Mining . . ....................................................................................... 15 Construction..................................................................... 5,334 Manufacturing. . ................................................................3,565 Transportation, Communication. . ..............................3,550 Wholesale Trade. . .............................................................. 1,921 Retail Trade.. .....................................................................24,961 Finance, Insurance, Real Estate................................ 8,337 Services . . .......................................................................... 36,041 Public Administration. . ..................................................6,906 Unclassified. . ........................................................................335

TOTAL ESTABLISHMENTS

BY NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 1-4. . ........................................................................................ 5,828 5-9 . . .........................................................................................1,756 10-19....................................................................................... 1,010 20-49.......................................................................................585 50-99...................................................................................... 175 100-249..................................................................................... 98 250-499. . .................................................................................. 23 500-999. . .....................................................................................5 1,000+........................................................................................... 2

ON THE COVER: The redevelopment of the Downtown Marina area pursuant to a private-public partnership is a top priority for Panama City Mayor Greg Brudnicki (rendering at top of page). Meanwhile, Bay County has landed GKN Aerospace as a new employer; FSU Panama City is simulating the interest of students in math and science; new retail and restaurant space is being developed in Panama City; and Bay County is a hotbed for cinematography (inset photos).

PHOTOS BY STEVE BORNHOFT (STEM CAMP) AND COURTESY OF CITY OF PANAMA CITY (MARINA), BAY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE (AERIAL SHOT OF VENTURECROSSINGS), GKN AND FORWARD MOTION (FILM)

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PHOTO BY HANSSLEGERS / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS

Source: Applied Geographic Solutions, 2017

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| EC ON OMI C OV ERV IEW

THE FIRST DOMINO A chance meeting led Bay County to a ‘whale,’ and its harpoon hit the mark BY STEVE BORNHOFT

W

hen Neal Wade was executive director of the Bay County Economic Development Alliance, he kept track of every job that was added to the local economy with an outsized thermometer — like those that the United Way once used in connection with community fundraising campaigns. It was his way of saying, in the manner of Gov. Rick Scott, that every job is important.

At the same time, Wade talked about the importance of that first big domino that, once landed, would put Bay County on the economic-development map and stimulate interest by many other companies.

When Wade accepted a position at the University of Alabama, he brought in as his successor Becca Hardin, a one-time broadcast journalist who had served for 13 years as the executive vice president of the Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

“Neal did a great job of getting the foundation of the Bay EDA stabilized, so when I got down here, I was ready to blow and go,” Hardin said.

Good thing. Developments were about to unfold quickly.

Hardin and her husband were brand new to Bay County when a neighboring couple arrived at their townhouse door with a cake as a welcoming gesture. Hardin struck up a conversation with the guy next door — a man in his 60s and with a British accent — and learned that he had moved to Bay County from Alabama following his retirement.

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“Where did you work?” Hardin was curious to know.

“You probably never heard of it,” said Paul Cocker. “GKN Aerospace.”

Hardin, as it happened, was thoroughly familiar with GKN, owing to her industrial recruitment experience in Columbus. Cocker had retired from the job of CEO of Londonbased GKN’s North American operations.

Presently, Hardin asked Cocker to travel with her to the biennial Paris Air Show in 2015. He accepted.

In Paris, Cocker proved to be a “rock

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star at the exhibition halls and the chalets,” Hardin said. “Aerospace is a big industry, but it’s a small network. He knew everybody.”

The temptation here is to refer to Cocker as Hardin’s wing man. Indeed, he served her as a door-opener. Hardin was introduced

by Cocker to his successor and learned that GKN had a project it was looking to site.

Bay County was about to bag a whale.

In May, the governor and GKN officials gathered at the VentureCrossings industrial park adjoining Bay County’s Northwest Florida Beaches Airport in West Bay and

PHOTO COURTESY OF BAY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE

GKN Aerospace has completed construction of its 135,000-squarefoot manufacturing facility in VentureCrossings.

Landing the company is a milestone for the Bay County Economic Development Alliance.

took part in an official and much heralded announcement of the aerospace company’s commitment to Bay County: a $50 million investment and 170 jobs with an average salary of $65,000, with operations to commence in November 2017.

At this writing, the 135,000-square-foot building is up, the product of an aggressive construction schedule driven by commitments to customers. (Construction of the building actually began before the announcement event was held.) A few Bay County jobs have been offered internally at GKN to

established employees, and GKN may have to look outside the region to find the specialized mechanical engineers they require, but the vast majority of jobs — technicians and manufacturing front-line workers — will be filled from the local labor pool.

While every job may be important, some jobs are better than others and, as Hardin said, “For Bay County, $65,000 is very competitive.”

“We’re working very hard to help GKN recruit and hire people and get them in training,” Hardin said. “We had a career fair in Bay County in April and 300 people

showed up. The fair didn’t start until 10 and we had a line around the block at 8.”

Until loaded trucks are seen leaving GKN’s new plant, few people will know exactly what GKN, a manufacturer of aircraft structural and engine components, will be making at VentureCrossings.

And Hardin, frankly, doesn’t give a damn.

“As long as they create jobs and are building in our area, it doesn’t matter what the product is,” Hardin said.

Bay County’s large military presence — Tyndall Air Force Base and Naval Support

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“We have tremendous momentum and we are just trying to make sure that we keep all the balls in the air.

GKN is an anchor project and we are starting to talk to GKN suppliers and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) companies that need to be at an airport. The GKN success is going to breed more success. GKN is going to help convince companies to visit Bay County, and when that happens, Bay County sells itself. We’ve already garnered international attention.” – Becca Hardin, President of the Bay County Economic Development Alliance

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going to help convince companies to visit Bay County, and when that happens, Bay County sells itself. We’ve already garnered international attention.”

Hardin is quick to acknowledge the chapters in the GKN success story written by the St. Joe Company, developer of VentureCrossings, and by Bay County community leaders.

“St. Joe has been a critical partner,” Hardin said. “We never could have done the deal without them at the table with us.

I should write a case study on what we had to do to win this project. There were times when it was in the ditch, but leadership in this community stepped up to the plate and pledged to make it happen. Never was there a time when I said I needed help that people didn’t jump in with both feet. They never tired of me calling them on their cell phones.”

Hardin is confident that the economic activity at the airport will extend to include other assets in Bay County.

The Bay County EDA is hawking a certified site with existing warehouse space located on 54 acres owned by Port Panama City off U.S. Highway 231, north of Panama City. The site is served by rail that

connects it with the port, a situation, Hardin said, that is “almost impossible to find.”

And there is more to come at the airport, way more.

“We have multiple sites with access to the 10,000-foot runway,” Hardin said, “and three active projects are looking at them. We will fill them within a year or two, there’s no doubt in my mind. And, right now, we’re applying for permits to develop another 350 acres with access to the runway.”

And, wait, there’s still more.

BP is sending $300 million in oil spill recovery money to Florida, and Bay is among eight counties that will receive a share of the settlement.

Hardin and Glen McDonald, recently installed as a Gulf Coast State College vice president, have hinted that Bay will be seeking BP money for an advanced manufacturing (3-D printing) project that will revolve around the Advanced Technology Center at GCSC. “There is a lot of energy with AM and our community right now,” Hardin said, referring to the cutting-edge manufacturing process.

“It’s a great time to be in Bay County.”

VentureCrossings Enterprise Centre, developed by the St. Joe Company to promote economic development, and Bay County’s large military presence were instrumental in GKN Aerospace’s decision to site their new facility in Bay County.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF BAY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE (HARDIN) AND THE ST JOE COMPANY (VENTURECROSSINGS)

Activity Panama City — was an attractant to GKN, Hardin said. A number of its employees will require security clearances, leading GKN to focus recruiting efforts on personnel exiting the military and members of the military contractor community. For a person without a security clearance, the process can consume two years, time that GKN doesn’t have.

Hardin is highly encouraged by GKN’s corporate culture.

“When they invest in a community, they are there for the long haul,” she said.

“And they are very philanthropic. They get involved in the community. They aren’t going to be the kind of company that comes to town and just takes, takes, takes. They are already involved in our schools, from K-12 to Gulf Coast State College and FSU PC. “Already, they are working with (GCSC president) John Holdnak to develop specific curriculum that will relate to their workforce of the future. They will be developing internships and mentorships at the high school level. And they are talking up Bay County to companies they have relationships with. GKN is that first domino we have been waiting on.”

Earlier this year, Hardin and a Bay County delegation that included Jennifer Conoley, the Panama City-based senior economic development representative for Gulf Power Co., were back in Paris, and GKN’s Bay County project was the talk of the show.

Dominoes, it seems, may be falling.

Hardin met with 20 companies during the weeklong show and left with eight solid leads. At previous shows, one solid lead would have been considered a success.

“We have tremendous momentum and we are just trying to make sure that we keep all the balls in the air,” Hardin said. “GKN is an anchor project and we are starting to talk to GKN suppliers and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) companies that need to be at an airport. The GKN success is going to breed more success. GKN is

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| GK N AE ROS PACE

GKN Aerospace, operating in 15 countries, selected Bay County for its new manufacturing facility based on local infrastructure designed to supply education and training, a skilled workforce, transportation assets and a project-ready site.

A SPIRIT OF COLLABORATION Partnerships with local stakeholders attract GKN Aerospace to Bay County

BY ERIN HOOVER

I

n 2016, GKN Aerospace was seeking a new site to build its products.

“We’re always considering the right future locations,” said Sue Barnes, GKN Aerospace vice president and general manager of strategic projects. She visited Bay County at the invitation of Becca Hardin, the president of Bay County Economic Development Alliance.

The company had a specific project in mind, and Barnes and a group of senior GKN employees traveled to Bay County in April 2016 to assess potential sites. She remembered that they met with representatives from Gulf Coast State College, FSU Panama City, Gulf Power, the local school 54

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district and other stakeholders. “Many different groups were open to explaining the area to us.”

A global company serving the world’s leading aircraft manufacturers, GKN Aerospace operates in 15 countries and employs more than 17,000 highly skilled workers. The company works closely with universities, knowledge institutes, suppliers and customers and leads the industry in developing new technology.

Less than a year later, in February 2017, Bay EDA announced that GKN planned to make a capital investment of approximately $50 million and to create 170 highly skilled jobs in Bay County.

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According to Barnes, Northwest Florida’s educational resources factored into the decision to locate in Bay County.

Several workforce development programs are now in the planning stages. “GKN plans to partner with CareerSource Florida and GCSC on focused training programs, and we’re talking to FSU about the degree programs that will supply workers in the long term,” Barnes said, adding that CareerSource Florida is working to promote GKN in the area.

Partnerships to increase the talent pipeline in Bay County are also underway. “We’re working with the school district on STEM subjects,” Barnes continued, referring to

PHOTO COURTESY OF GKN

North Florida’s Premier Google AdWords Agency the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. “GKN wants to engage and support activities to make sure people consider us for their career 15 years from now.”

Land and air transportation assets also drew GKN to Bay County, Barnes said, referring to Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP) and I-10, as well as the opportunity to build the new facility according to the company’s specifications.

The building site at VentureCrossings Enterprise Centre, owned and managed by St. Joe, is a project-ready Florida First Site. “We’re working with St. Joe to build the building according to our requirements,” Barnes continued. “It was important to us to have the right building.” Construction has involved close coordination with local authorities around permit requirements, in a process Barnes called “very efficient.”

GKN Aerospace, one of three divisions of the larger global engineering group GKN, operates 55 manufacturing locations across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.

Asked how operations in Bay County will differ from those already established in Missouri, for instance, or in Nagoya, Japan, Barnes responded, “GKN has a branding, a culture— the GKN way. There are certain things that we want to make sure are in the DNA of our sites.” At the same time, the company recognizes that every area has different talents and skills, she continued.

In fact, GKN Aerospace will make a long-term investment in Bay County. The training programs now under development will improve the skills of the local workforce in general, as will GKN’s efforts to promote STEM subjects in the school system.

Barnes also looks forward to the impact the company’s corporate citizenship program, Hearts of Gold, will have in the community. Over the years, GKN employees have supported their communities, donated time to good causes, and raised millions of dollars for various charitable projects around the world.

Meanwhile, there are immediate benefits of GKN’s presence in Bay County — jobs. “GKN Aerospace will need the direct support of people who would like to join the workforce,” Barnes said. “We’ve had phenomenal support from FSU and GCSC, and we continue to work to define the training programs. The recruitment that CareerSource Florida is doing is key for us.”

The new facility will also turn to the Bay County community for supplies and services on an ongoing basis.

Barnes continued, “We’re really looking forward to day one of operations.” GKN Aerospace anticipates that the new facility will be up and running by the end of the year.

Ultimately, the potential for collaboration is what lured GKN to Bay County. With recruitment and construction underway, the results of the collaboration Barnes and her colleagues imagined at the new site are beginning to materialize. “I’d say that spirit of collaboration has come across from the first meeting when we went to look at the area. It’s continued all the way through our decision making process and through the start of construction,” Barnes said.

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| DOW N TOW N P CB

A VISION COMING TO FRUITION City of Panama City works to maximize its assets

BY STEVE BORNHOFT

W

hen Greg Brudnicki, now in his third term as mayor of Panama City, first sought the office, he pledged to bring about climate change.

Supporters believed that Brudnicki, a successful accountant and businessman himself, could create an environment so conducive to commerce that the city’s many empty storefronts would be reoccupied, new enterprises would come calling, downtown would live again and vagrancy would give way to vibrancy.

There are signs that he may be succeeding at all of that.

“We certainly have more businesses that are coming to town than are closing or leaving town,” Brudnicki said.

R.H. Ledbetter Properties, LLC, a developer out of Rome, Georgia, is creating restaurant and retail space on a parcel across State Road 77 from the geriatric Panama City Mall. Cracker Barrel, whose eateries are usually located at interstate highway exits, is departing from form and will be one of the tenants.

The developer, in working with prospects, has landed some and inadvertently

led others to move to town — but in other Panama City locations. Lucky’s Market is moving into an old Albertson’s grocery store location that is virtually across 23rd Street from the Ledbetter project.

HomeGoods also has plans to move into the neighborhood.

The arrival of such new businesses will benefit the city in the form of increased revenue from the city’s one-percent merchant fee, a consumption tax that helps the city keep property tax millage rates low.

The historic St. Andrews neighborhood is no longer just Hunt’s Oyster Bar and a collection of kitschy shops. A hotelier has purchased the Shrimp Boat restaurant, located at the Smith Yacht Basin, and Brudnicki is optimistic that the new owner will add new places to stay to the St. Andrews mix.

The Los Antojitos restaurant, whose previous location was razed to make way for a U.S. 98 flyover, is “blowing and going,” the mayor said. Neighborhood activity had the effect of increasing property values to the point where the Tan Fannies topless club finally overcame its inhibitions about selling; the new owner of the property is exploring options.

Central to the mayor’s efforts to reinvent Panama City are plans to redevelop the Downtown Marina and the Marina Civic Center and surrounding parcels.

In May, the city entered into an agreement with Sonnenblick Development, a Los Angeles firm whose previous work has included the Boca Raton Resort. Per the agreement, the developer will determine what improvements, falling within publicinterest parameters dictated by the city, it

would be willing to build at the marina. A mixed-use approach is being contemplated.

The agreement, in fact, waxes almost philosophical in the midst of its “Whereas” paragraphs: “The time is now to build a consensus that downtown Panama City can become a vibrant mixture of office, commercial, governmental, cultural and tourismrelated activities, a place where people can come together, meet and exchange ideas in the professions, in commerce, in government, in the arts, in recreation. In so doing, they will form a tapestry of human interaction. Variety and richness of activity is essential to a vision of downtown. Anything less misses the potential of downtown entirely.”

“We want to be able to attract a variety of people for a variety of reasons,” Brudnicki said. “The developer is at a point where he has been meeting with representatives of the hotel, restaurant and retail sectors.

They’ve also met with people who specialize in movie theaters and civic centers.”

Brudnicki hopes that a feasibility analysis will support expanding the Civic Center so that it can serve as a convention center. The retail component likely will comprise “upscale outlet stores,” a model that Brudnicki says is continuing to succeed despite the impact of e-commerce on brick-and-mortar operations.

He cited the continuing success of the Silver Sands outlet mall in south Walton County.

Constituent reaction to the proposed marina development has been almost universally positive, the mayor said.

“We do have a few people who are dead set against us doing anything with the marina,” Brudnicki acknowledged. “They

Central to Mayor Greg Brudnicki’s efforts to reinvent Panama City are plans to redevelop the Downtown Marina, the Marina Civic Center and surrounding parcels.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF CITY OF PANAMA CITY

R.H. Ledbetter Properties Inc. of Rome, Georgia, is developing a retail/restaurant complex, Bay City Point, at State 77 and 23rd Street in Panama City. Tenants will include Cracker Barrel restaurant and the Which Wich sandwich shop. Mayor Greg Brudnicki is confident that the new development will stimulate activity at established businesses nearby.

are convinced that we are going to destroy the marina, and they have the attitude that they don’t want anything to change.

“Others seem to think that the city should do the work itself and not rely on a developer. But if that were possible, why didn’t somebody get off his butt in the last 40 years and do something?”

(From the developer agreement: “Do too little and nothing happens. But do enough to pass the critical mass threshold and downtown seems to take off.”)

“In the marina, we have a $30 million non-performing, non-revenue-producing asset,” Brudnicki said. “It hasn’t evolved into anything because we haven’t taken steps to make that happen.”

The city purchased the former Trustmark bank building on Harrison Avenue in the heart of downtown as the future home for City Hall; it will replace today’s waterfront municipal offices at the marina. The vacated City Hall building may become a juvenile justice center for a time, because the federal courthouse located near City Hall will be moving to the juvenile center’s current location, 11 blocks inland.

Brudnicki credited U.S. senators Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn with helping to ensure that Panama

City did not lose the federal courthouse to Marianna, as was proposed.

The mayor anticipates that new residential development will be part of the overall marina district re-do.

“We know we need to have people living downtown,” Brudnicki said. “We will have a residential component that will be home to people who can bicycle, walk or canoe to work if they want to, and be part of what’s here.”

People have long hoped that a full-fledged grocery store would locate downtown, and an increased resident population may make that possible. Visitation, meanwhile, will be critical to the success of the overall marina project.

“Without visitors, we don’t have enough people here to support the kind of development that Sonnenblick has in mind,” the mayor said. “We live in a county where 60 percent of public school students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Those families cannot afford to spend at the level of the average ticket that restaurants need to succeed.”

Even today, businesses in St. Andrews, for example, rely heavily on tourist traffic. Brudnicki said that businesses there report that 70 percent of their revenue comes from visitors.

Already, the city has taken steps to let the region — and beyond — know what

Panama City has to offer. A five-percent bed tax, passed by 24 percentage points in September 2014 and applicable to the city’s approximately 2,400 motel/hotel rooms, has been generating about $1.5 million in revenue a year.

The levy was endorsed by the Bay County Chamber of Commerce and supported by hoteliers throughout town, Brudnicki said.

“Nobody wants to spend general tax dollars on marketing,” the mayor recognized. “You have to have it, but you can’t put a hand on it and it’s difficult to measure.

But now we have an alternative, dedicated source of dollars for that purpose.”

The developer’s financial analysis of its proposed project will be subjected to public hearings, and the agreement anticipates that it will be finalized and approved by the City Commission as of Feb. 1, 2018.

A month later, the city expects to receive all lease proposals and related agreements authorizing private uses of the marina.

“We know that visitors to the area will have an interest in both Panama City and Panama City Beach,” Brudnicki said.

“We have no problem with people making side trips to the beach. We just intend that they stay here, in Panama City.”

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| R AN DY H AN N A AN D FS U P C B

A TWO-FOLD PURPOSE Dean Randy Hanna wants FSU PC to serve students in ways that benefit the community

BY STEVE BORNHOFT

T

he powerful stench of formaldehyde has overtaken the Larry Bland Center on the campus of Florida State University-Panama City.

This is shark day at a summer STEM camp hosted by the campus and coordinated

by Ginger Littleton, a Bay County School Board member who serves as the FSU PC Foundation’s STEM Liaison.

The students are so consumed by the notion of inspecting the innards of dogfish that they are oblivious to the aroma that forces Littleton to step outside, where she speaks to a writer about the importance of making young people aware of science, technology, education and math careers.

And there is another byproduct of the STEM camp, one of real importance to Randy Hanna, the dean at FSU PC. Hanna introduces himself to the campers, fully aware that while they were likely not to remember his name and may not know what a dean does, they will never forget the day at FSU PC when they learned that male sharks have claspers and females do not.

FSU PC admitted freshmen for the first time in August 2013. Just four years before that, the Panama City campus had survived a death threat issued from Tallahassee. Then-FSU president T.K. Wetherell and an FSU budget crisis committee had issued recommendations that included one calling for the closure of the Panama City campus.

FSU PC would survive, of course. It sustained cuts, but not to the quick. It had to shed 20 jobs, and it agreed to grow enrollment so as to become financially self-sufficient. Dean Ken Shaw spearheaded stepped-up recruiting efforts and capitalized on 58

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community partnerships, and enrollment grew 29 percent in three years to reach 1,270 students.

In the fall of 2015, enrollment stood at 961, and freshmen and sophomores comprised just 5 percent of that total.

Attracting more four-year students is a key to the vitality of the campus and doing so, Hanna says, requires that FSU PC establish relationships with students well before they enter high school.

At this writing, he anticipated that enrollment, including the number of freshmen, in particular, would be up for the fall 2017 semester.

“I am a firm believer that as soon as you put a baseball cap or a t-shirt on a kid,” Hanna said, “he begins to expect that he is going to go to college. In this

area, we want to make sure that such imprinting involves an FSU logo and the STEM camps are a big part of that.”

Hanna said hundreds of elementary, middle and high school students became familiar with FSU PC during the summer via their participation in camps devoted to subjects ranging from engineering to computer coding and crime scene investigation. There was even a camp, “The Physics of Dance,” taught by a former Rockette.

“The earlier we can get students interested in the sciences, the more successful they will be,” Hanna said.

FSU had much to do with Hanna’s success.

He attended FSU in Tallahassee as an undergraduate and went on to the FSU

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITYPANAMA CITY

By the Numbers

ENROLLMENT FALL 2014 Headcount.. .........................................................................856 Undergraduate Degrees Awarded. . ............................ 293 Graduate Degrees Awarded. . ............................................77 Students Receiving Financial Aid. . ........................ 76.5% Students with Disabilities.. .............................................. 67 ENROLLMENT FALL 2015 Headcount.. .......................................................................... 961 Undergraduate Degrees Awarded. . ............................ 295 Graduate Degrees Awarded. . ...........................................34 Students Receiving Financial Aid. . ........................... 69% Students with Disabilities.. ..............................................48

PHOTO BY STEVE BORNHOFT

A summertime STEM camp hosted by FSU PC introduced students to sharks and dogfish to spark their interest in biology and other sciences. STEM curriculum aims to launch early academic pursuit of science, technology, engineering and math.

School of Law. The time he spent in law school, Hanna said, was “transformational” and impressed upon him the importance of lifelong learning.

Hanna practiced law for almost 30 years and became the managing partner of a multi-state firm with six offices. Much of his work had to do with financing public improvements. His clients included the City of Panama City Beach, Bay Medical Center in Panama City and the Bay County School Board.

So, he was no stranger to Bay County when he was named dean of the FSU PC campus in November 2016 after serving four months as interim dean.

He started in higher education as a trustee at Tallahassee Community College. He moved on to the state Board

of Community Colleges, and boards at Florida A&M University and the University of West Florida before becoming chancellor of the state college system.

He has settled in at FSU PC and plans to stay for a good while.

“I’m enjoying it,” he said. “It’s great. I told someone recently that I haven’t had a bad day here since I started.”

He arrived on Day 1 at his office in the Holley Academic Center overlooking St. Andrew Bay to find on his desk the strategic plans for 2009-2014. He sought first to take advantage of planning work that had been completed by predecessors.

That work fell into three phases.

The first involved strengthening the campus’s business and accounting programs by adding faculty, and also

ENROLLMENT BY CLASS YEAR Freshman..............................................................................2% Sophomore...........................................................................3% Junior................................................................................... 23% Seniors. . .............................................................................. 56% Graduate............................................................................... 11% Unclassified. . .......................................................................5% WHERE FSU PC STUDENTS ARE FROM Bay County . . ....................................................................... 52% Florida.. ................................................................................ 92% Out of State. . ......................................................................... 7% Out of Country.. .....................................................................1% WHERE FSU PC ALUMNI RESIDE Bay County . . ........................................................................47% Outside Service Area..................................................... 29% Jackson County . . ................................................................ 3% Okaloosa County.. ...............................................................3% Walton County. . ...................................................................3% Washington County. . .........................................................3% Gulf County. . .........................................................................2% Holmes County. . ..................................................................2% Escambia County................................................................1% Santa Rosa County.............................................................1% Source: 2016 Annual Report

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adding bachelor’s degree programs in hospitality and entrepreneurship. Both of the new programs were set to begin in fall 2017.

Phase two involves adding engineering programs related to the needs of Tyndall Air Force Base, Naval Support Activity Panama City (the Navy base on Thomas Drive in Bay County’s beaches area) and new employers who are coming to town. New engineering degree programs will be added in fall 2018, including, Hanna said, a biomedical engineering program that will afford students an opportunity to move from FSU PC to medical school.

Phase three will look at adding new programs related to the sciences.

for our students and for student success?’ We want our students to graduate from here with a degree and a job. And we want them to have great critical thinking skills and to become active members of their community. The effort here has to be about much more than just walking out of Florida State University with a degree. It’s about being a productive member of our society and our community.”

Hanna has been surprised by the number of first-generation college students FSU PC attracts, especially from rural areas of the region. Higher education, he said, “can help break the bonds of generational poverty. Whether it’s a one-year certificate

“Enrollment is dependent upon a lot of things and one of them is having the right programs. That is something that we have clearly focused on. It is my goal for this campus to meet the needs of students in ways that benefit the community.”

— Randy Hanna, dean at FSU PC “Enrollment is dependent upon a lot of things and one of them is having the right programs,” Hanna said. “That is something that we have clearly focused on. It is my goal for this campus to meet the needs of students in ways that benefit the community. If you are going to have a hospitality program anywhere, this is surely the place to have it.” He added, “We have a huge need for engineers.”

“I want to see to it that everything we do is an answer to the question, ‘What is best 60

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from Haney Technical Center or a certificate or associate’s degree from Gulf Coast or a bachelor’s or master’s degree from Florida State, everyone needs some post-secondary education in one form or another.”

Hanna was a first-generation college student, himself, and the son of a miller. His father owned and operated the last waterpowered grist mill in Florida, located a mile outside of Greensboro on Highway 12. Hanna grew up in a white house next to “Shepherd’s

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Mill” and says he could still grind corn into meal if he had to.

Growing numbers of students are arriving at FSU PC after graduating Chipola State College (Marianna) and Northwest Florida State College (Niceville). But fully 52 percent of FSU PC students come from Bay County, and the bulk of them from Gulf Coast State College.

The relationship between GCSC and FSU PC is great, said Hanna, who knew GCSC president John Holdnak when both men worked for the Florida College System.

FSU PC has professors who cross Collegiate Drive to teach classes at GCSC and vice versa. Articulation agreements in the works will provide for an increased complement of FSU PC advisors on the GCSC campus and will unite the two-year hospitality and entrepreneurship programs at GCSC with the four-year programs at FSU PC. But the proximity of GCSC doesn’t guarantee the enrollment that Hanna seeks and that FSU PC needs.

Hence, FSU PC has committed to what Hanna called a “new and enhanced focus on recruitment.” Four full-time recruiters spend time on both high school and community college campuses. FSU PC faculty members get involved in recruitment.

And Hanna does his part.

“I spent last Thanksgiving afternoon calling prospective students to let them know they had been admitted,” Hanna said. “It’s a good feeling to be able to do that. It’s good to connect with students, whether they wind up coming to our campus or not, at such an exciting time in their life.”

PHOTO BY SCOTT HOLSTEIN / FILE PHOTO (HANNAH) AND COURTESY OF FSU PC (EXTERIOR)

Florida State University’s Panama City campus bolstered its faculty, expanded tracks in business and accounting, and is adding engineering and science offerings, including a biomedical engineering program.

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| TO URI S M The New Year’s Eve Beach Ball Drop, an event launched in 2008, grew nearly seven-fold in attendance, to more than 50,000 revelers last year.

BRIGHT FUTURE

Diversification strengthens Panama City Beach’s tourism economy

BY STEVE BORNHOFT

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D

an Rowe’s 10 years as Bay County’s top tourism official has coincided with the most difficult period in Panama City Beach’s bed-tax era.

There was the matter of the Great Recession. And the disruption caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Thirdly, bad behavior strained the community’s relationship with the annual bacchanal known as Spring Break to the breaking point, leading the Bay County Commission and the Panama City Beach City Council to adopt ordinances curtailing alcohol consumption on the sand.

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Only twice in the history of the bed tax, known more formally as the Tourist Development Tax, have collections in Bay County’s western beaches area dropped from year to year. Both of those dips occurred on Rowe’s watch, but both were beyond tourism officials’ control.

“We’ve been through the wringer,” said Rowe, the president and CEO of Visit Panama City Beach and the longest tenured top dog in the history of the Bay County Tourist Development Council (TDC). “But Panama City Beach has been exceedingly resilient and the most

TOURIST DEVELOPMENT TAX COLLECTIONS PANAMA CITY BEACH

PHOTO COURTESY OF VISIT PANAMA CITY

PANAMA CITY BEACH - CALENDAR YEAR

fundamental reason for that is simple: We are a great destination.”

Some predicted that the alcohol ordinances would prove calamitous for Panama City Beach, where tourism, as a component of the local economy, is as great as it is anywhere in the state and where March, traditionally, had been the third strongest tourism month of the year. Briefly, it appeared the doomsayers might be right.

Bed tax collections dropped 41 percent for the month of March in 2016, the first year in which the ordinances were in force. But March collections rebounded this year by

TDT COLLECTIONS

2014

2015

2016

2017

JANUARY

$390,029

$446,108

$475,340

$495,113

FEBRUARY

$580,225

$683,922

$662,056

$728,369

MARCH

$1,913,476

$2,012,955

$1,192,962

$1,421,784

APRIL

$1,305,434

$1,532,803

$1,437,883

$1,625,317

MAY

$1,600,954

$1,842,628

$1,883,810

$2,148,364

JUNE

$3,171,751

$3,379,852

$3,491,951

----

JULY

$3,463,580

$3,960,944

$4,362,155

----

AUGUST

$1,871,889

$1,745,766

$1,671,868

----

SEPTEMBER

$1,046,274

$1,323,646

$1,422,161

----

OCTOBER

$968,998

$1,043,773

$1,312,781

----

NOVEMBER

$367,917

$480,391

$523,191

----

DECEMBER

$342,313

$354,270

$393,263

----

TOTAL

$17,022,839

$18,807,058

$18,829,421

$6,418,947

19 percent and, meanwhile, efforts to make Panama City Beach a 12-month destination are paying off.

In 2009, the TDC, Rowe recalled, committed strategically to giving people more reasons to come to the beach … at all times of the year. To do so, Rowe and his team have introduced new special events, including a wildly successful Beach Ball Drop on New Year’s Eve, and they have leveraged the power of the news media, social media and especially video to promote awareness of them.

“We were working to diversify our tourism economy years before the alcohol ordinances were put in place and that effort was continuing,” Rowe said. “Even the 100 days of summer were under attack with school resuming earlier and earlier. Standardized testing has not been our friend. And we had learned that even June and July are not immune from unforeseen impacts. The oil spill occurred in April, but its effects were felt in the middle of our summer season.”

Diversification has made Panama City Beach harder for the media to pigeonhole, a development that Rowe has much welcomed.

“We’re not just that place where a certain Spring Break episode happened,” he said.

“We’re a family destination that happens to be visited by college students a few weeks each year. We share with the media photos and video of kids taken at our Pirate’s Festival (held in October) and that point is made.”

The story of the provenance of the Beach Ball Drop is a favorite one for Rowe. The idea was first expressed by Richard Sanders, the sports marketing director for Visit Panama City Beach. Rowe repeated the idea as part of his president’s report at a meeting of the TDC on May 13, 2008. (He’s never forgotten the date.) A day later, the Panama City News Herald published a headline promising a Beach Ball Drop at newly opened Pier Park on New Year’s Eve. “I read that and said to myself, ‘Now we’re

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Visit Panama City Beach replaced its Spring Break reputation with familyvacation branding that has local businesses and visitors all smiles.

committed,’ ” Rowe said, recalling a moment he can now laugh about. “I was deadly afraid that we would throw a party and no one would show up. I begged people to turn out.

I did early-morning television, I talked up the event at Kiwanis Club meetings, whatever I could think of.”

The event drew 7,500 people in Year 1, thanks in part to the support of Pier Park marketing director Felicia Cook. Last year, it attracted an estimated 50,000 revelers and Rowe now says confidently that “we have one of the greatest New Year’s Eve events on the planet.”

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Rowe is pleased, with good reason, with the way Panama City Beach tourism numbers are trending. Visitation is up, the average income of a visitor is up, the average daily spend is increasing and tourists are coming from a greatly enlarged footprint, given the arrival of more direct flights at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.

“When plans for a new direct flight to Panama City Beach are announced, we’re in the originating city telling our story before the first such flight leaves the ground,” Rowe said. Earlier this year, Jayna Leach, vice president/marketing for Visit Panama City Beach,

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was in Chicago, where Southwest Airlines was introducing a seasonal direct flight to the “World’s Most Beautiful Beaches.”

Leach met with media including the editors of Chicago Parent magazine and “they were saying that they had heard that Panama City Beach was the place to go on summer vacation.”

Gone, perhaps forever, are the days when Panama City Beach was saddled with the moniker “Redneck Riviera,” at whose mention Leach snarls.

But, for Rowe, for whom the sun is always shining, even that handle wasn’t all that bad.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF VISIT PANAMA CITY

The Pirates of the High Seas Fest and the Pirate Parade at Pier Park help send the tourism message that Panama City Beach is, above all, a family-friendly destination.

“You have to break it down into components,” Rowe offered. “You hear ‘Riviera’ and you think Monaco and the most desired, aspirational beach in the world. And ‘Redneck’ is just a geographical reference that signifies that, by the grace of God, you were fortunate enough to be born in the agrarian Southeast, just a couple of hours from our fabulous beaches.”

Rowe sees the future of tourism in Panama City Beach as bright. He believes that advances in technology will intensify in people the need to take a vacation and “disconnect.” He noted a book, Megatrends,

authored by John Nesbitt and first published in 1983.

“One of the themes Nesbitt emphasized,” Rowe said, “was high-tech, high-touch.

High tech is a depersonalization of the world. Some of what it has had to offer we like, ATMs, for example. But we need texture in our lives, things like plants … and beaches. We need to replenish and we’re at our most free when we’re on vacation.”

Rowe noted that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which he described as a “gut punch to America’s psyche and all of its sectors,” business travel dropped off dramatically, but leisure travel spiked.

“We weren’t going to let anyone rob us of activities that we hold dear and going on vacation is one of them,” Rowe said. “It’s almost as if we view it as a right.”

Maybe that is something that Gideon Thomas sensed when he decided to build a motel on Panama City Beach in 1936.

People thought him a fool, but Thomas countered, “I am not going to grow vegetables, I am going to grow people.” He had shells hauled in from Apalachicola to build a road bed to his project.

Rowe counts Thomas and J.E. Churchwell, who established the Petticoat Junction

Amusement Park in the 1960s, as “icons” who saw potential in Panama City Beach that others could not see.

Today, Rowe is satisfied that Panama City Beach is, far from resting on its laurels, striving to “stay relevant and cutting edge.

We’re not staid and stuck with tumbleweeds rolling down the streets.”

He is excited that Florida State University-Panama City is adding a four-year hospitality degree in conjunction with the Dedman School of Hospitality on the main campus. He sings the praises of the culinary program at Gulf Coast State College.

“People are coming to recognize that the tourism industry is in fact an industry that does more than provide jobs that many have dismissed as entry-level, throwaway employment,” Rowe said. “The tourism industry in Bay County employs professionals who legitimately view tourism as a profession. (GCSC president) John Holdnak and (FSU PC dean) Randy Hanna are looking over the horizon.”

So, too, is Rowe when he is not blinded by another brilliant Panama City Beach sunset. And he likes what he sees.

“The best is yet to come.”

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| BAY COU N TY F I LM O UT LO O K

Chicago-based Forward Motion sets up a shoot for Destination Panama City’s marketing campaign.

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COMMISSIONER GORDON Film chief shines spotlight on Bay County

BY HANNAH BURKE

PHOTO COURTESY OF FORWARD MOTION

B

ay County Film Commissioner Julie Gordon operates under a single mission: to market Bay County, Florida, to the film industry worldwide.

For Gordon, the film industry encompasses print, television, music video, motion picture and essentially anything that involves a camera. Since 2001, Gordon has been the liaison between production companies and all resources required to shoot, from providing locations, casts and crew to securing craft services and transportation.

In conjunction with the Tourist Development Council (TDC), which Gordon refers to as her “lifeblood,” Bay County’s Florida Film Office sustains itself on an annual budget of $30,000 from the county. In its course, the company has suffered its share of budget cuts, through both the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill and the cutbacks in state tax incentives for film in 2016.

“The loss of incentives has made my job twofold,” Gordon said. “Now that the State has switched its position, we (film offices under the Florida Office of Film and Entertainment) are totally under the Office of Economic Development. My goal is to bring in more than a million dollars per quarter in economic impact, and we definitely surpass that every quarter.”

Last year alone, the Florida Film Office produced 19 television series, five music videos and six commercials of note in Bay County. Gordon estimates that she shoots 225 to 250 days per year. This year, the projects have grown even bigger.

“There are many projects that haven’t been shown yet — that have been shot and wrapped and are in the can, ready to go,” Gordon said. “One of our best friends and partners is Home & Garden Television — HGTV — and we have a couple of new series and a pilot airing with them.”

One of these television programs is called Sweet Beach Renovations, showcasing the refurbishment of beach homes. Additional HGTV shows in that vein, including House Hunters” and Beachfront Bargain Hunt, can shoot anywhere from Mexico Beach to Camp Helen to the Grand Lagoon Waterfront Farmers Market. Gordon believes that each time these shows air, it’s a chance to create a new impression of Panama City Beach and Bay County for tourism and future film prospects.

This fall, several shows from other parties — which Gordon cannot name due to non-disclosure agreements — will air that have been filmed in Bay County in their entirety. According to Commissioner Gordon, one of these was a behemoth of a project, demanding a crew of 100.

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“We had 50-person crews, each working 12-hour shifts per day over several months,” Gordon recalled. “It was a lot of heads in beds, hired local crews, caterers. I can’t describe how many people we put to work, how many jobs it supplied. That’s going to be a doozy, because it’s literally generated millions of dollars of economic impact.”

Despite the burgeoning production of television, Florida remains overshadowed by its feature-film-site neighbors: Georgia, Louisiana and even Alabama. The culprit?

A lack of film incentives, again.

“We just don’t have state reimbursements like we used to,” Gordon remarked. “For a long time, we felt like everyone else was eating our lunch, but Bay County has never survived on feature films. However, Bay County and Northwest Florida are really on the brink of being something great. If we were to get the film incentive from the state office, we could see that, instead of pondering what could be.”

A healthy hint of “what could be” was most recently demonstrated by Moonlight, the 2016 winner of the Academy Award for best picture. Directed by Florida State University 68

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Film School graduate Berry Jenkins and shot almost entirely in the Miami area, the film stands as a symbol of hope for the future of Florida’s film industry.

“A lot of the Moonlight crew was from Florida, so that was a huge deal,” Gordon said. “Yet, it almost backfires on us when we point that out: The government asks why they should give us an incentive if something like Moonlight can be made without state funding. There’s a big difference between a $300,000 TV show, and a $30 million film; but those films are what keep people in production houses and on sound stages in larger areas working steady, and we need those to keep people from leaving and going up to Atlanta.”

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Fortunately, this also means that the Film Office in Bay County catches most of the runoff from Atlanta. Whenever a beach scene needs to be filmed, it’s common for crews to load up and head to Panama City Beach. Although Gordon couldn’t be happier with the success garnered from the trickle-down and the profit from TV and music videos, she has a vision for an even bigger future.

“We need a grip house, a production house, a sound stage … there’s nothing like that in this region,” Gordon said. “If we had something like that, then we’d be the biggest draw. For now, marketing Bay County may not be all glitz and glam, but I love what I do and I love where I do it.”

“We had 50-person crews, each working 12-hour shifts per day over several months. It was a lot of heads in beds, hired local crews, caterers. … It’s literally generated millions of dollars of economic impact.” — Film Commissioner Julie Gordon, on a new show shot in Bay County

PHOTO BY CHASE LAUER (“A LITTLE MORE LOVE”) AND JULIE GORDON

Jerrod Niemann (left) and Lee Brice shot the music video for their song “A Little More Love” in Bay County. The video includes local sites such as Johnny’s Tint Station, Bay Cycle & Fitness and Sharky’s. FInd it on YouTube. Niemann will perform at the Florida Seafood Festival in Apalachicola on Nov. 4.

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