Panama City Clear for Takeoff

It appears the $500-million investment in Panama City’s new international airport is already starting to pay dividends, with Southwest Airlines pledging to start jet service to and from the Panhandle vacation spot next spring. The popular Dallas-based low-fare carrier has a strategic alliance agreement with the airport’s developer, Jacksonville-based St. Joe Co., for eight daily nonstop flights.

Southwest’s arrival is expected to stimulate job growth and economic development within Northwest Florida, along with providing another option to bring travelers from around the country to its beaches, says Britt Greene, St. Joe president and CEO. The major state landowner is building the airport on 4,000 acres as part of its massive 75,000-acre Bay West development.

What To Do With Empty Space?

Ever wonder what else could become of all our vacant buildings and lots while landlords clamor for tenants? BusinessWeek magazine has some interesting ideas, some of which might work pretty well in Florida.

The magazine put out a call for various ideas and ran them unedited. Many of them came from architects, who are constantly striving to turn lemons into lemonade when it comes to empty shells and wide open spaces.

Cruel Summer for Orlando Hotels

A few random thoughts to close out a busy week…

• The summer tourist season was a tough one for Orlando, the nation’s second-biggest hotel market. According to a report by the Orlando Sentinel, only 58% of the market’s 112,000 rooms were filled in August, marking the worst month since Smith Travel Research started keeping track in 1987.

Huge discounts and other special offers didn’t help, with room rates down 14% over the year to around $76 per night. Theme parks won’t disclose how many people came through their turnstiles, though they did seem less crowded and the wait times for rides and attractions were shorter.

Late Summer Odds and Ends

There’s a lot to talk about in Florida commercial real estate as summer winds down, so let’s take a few moments to get some of it out:
• Several former staffers of GVA Advantis appear to have landed softly at other firms after getting dumped by their former employer. Mark Cooney, Randy Mills and Michele Whalen have moved their Land Sharks operation over to the Duncan Cos. in Tampa, which you read about here. Meanwhile, Paula Buffa has joined Grubb & Ellis|Commercial Florida in Tampa as senior vice president of its office group, along with associate Maria Camarinos Hall. And Lisa Bailey, senior director of the Orlando office, has joined Morrison Commercial Real Estate as vice president.

Getting Ready for ICSC, And More

As the deadline for another issue of Real Estate Florida approaches, allow me to declutter my mind and desk a little:

• The International Council of Shopping Centers is hosting its annual Florida Conference next week at Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee, with at least 5,000 expected in attendance. A slight amount of falloff is expected because of the recession and a perceived shutdown in retail development, but don’t expect empty corridors and booths.

“It’s not going to be a doom-and-gloom conference,” says Dale Scott, ICSC state director. “The retail developer is as creative a person as you’re going to find. They’ll figure out a way to adapt to what is out there. The attitudes are changing.”

New Solution to Golf Course Sales

With the US Open on golfers’ minds this week, it seems a good time to talk about how difficult it is to sell golf courses. Marcus & Millichap thinks it has a pretty good solution.

Steven Ekovich, director of the firm’s National Golf Group based in Tampa, says he wants to bring efficiencies to an inefficient market, bringing a new underwriting standard to golf course brokerage and valuation. Marketing packages run between 40-50 pages, versus the usual two or three, and include information such as course financials, pro forma predictions, area demographics and comparables of other courses for sale.

Students Are Teaching Us

Now is possibly the worst time ever for anyone to enter the commercial real estate profession. Rather than getting discouraged about their prospects, however, the next generation appears to be coming out of the corner swinging.

Nancy Surak, a broker with Eshenbaugh Land Co. and adjunct real estate professor at the University of Tampa, shared with me a paper submitted by one of her students that offers some pretty good perspectives. Shane Scanlon, like so many other students, enrolled in college at a time when value run-ups were all the rage, but is graduating into one of the worst busts ever.

Ports Without Water? It Could Happen

Intermodal cargo containers are a common sight at Florida’s ports, and soon they may become more common in open fields, farther from shorelines. Two proposals are in the works to develop so-called “inland ports” where big Lego-like boxes will be stacked, awaiting delivery or export.

Palm Beach County leaders have approved land-use changes for an industrial complex to be built on more than 300 acres south of Lake Okeechobee, according to this report by the Palm Beach Post. Meanwhile, The Tampa Tribune writes that a California developer looks to replace a pepper farm in south Hillsborough County with the same type facility.

Grove Sound-Off: St. Joe’s Future

The St. Joe Co., once the state’s biggest land baron, is not exempt from difficulties in the lumbering real estate market. The Jacksonville-based company (also known by its simple ticker symbol, JOE) posted net losses of $27.9 million in the fourth quarter and $35.9 million for all of 2008.

Those financial results would have looked much better had it not been for huge write-downs related to the SevenShores condominium project in Bradenton and a goodwill write-off from a past acquisition. St. Joe still owns 586,000 acres in Florida, mainly in the Panhandle where it has transformed several beachfronts.

Britt Greene, the company’s first-year CEO, says St. Joe is in a sound position to capitalize on future growth, with plenty of cash and almost no debt. What do you think?

Grove Sound-Off: Buy Now or Wait?

Trevor Hall of Colliers Arnold in Orlando brings up a really good question: How do commercial real estate brokers convince investors that now is the right time to buy? “Most of them are convinced that if they wait nine months, they will be able to buy at 15% cheaper,” Hall says.

There are a lot of opinions on this, and I’m pretty sure if you ask five different brokers you might get six different answers. Who wants to give theirs here?