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.

Getting Closer to the Bottom

Even as the Florida housing market is starting to improve, many are concerned that commercial real estate will drag behind for a while. Jeff Sweeney sees things differently.

The president of Orlando-based Grubb & Ellis|Commercial Florida believes the CRE market will fully improve in the second half of 2010, though there are already positive signs of a recovery. A lot depends on the willingness of banks to get back to lending on commercial projects, he says.

RealShare South Florida Highlights

Here are a few more notes and quotes from last week’s RealShare South Florida conference in Miami, which was attended by 275 people and deemed a solid success. In case you missed it, or even if you were there, you can read more about it here and here, but here are some other highlights:

• The region’s current oversupply of residential condominium units could be absorbed over the next four years, according to panelists of a discussion on the multifamily sector. There is still plenty of interest in both individual and bulk unit acquisitions, particularly from private-capital investors and foreign buyers from Canada and Israel.

Miami’s Office Space Swap

Now that Bilzin Sumberg is preparing to move from Wachovia Financial Center to 1450 Brickell, who will be the winners and losers in Downtown Miami’s race for office space? Millions of square feet are at stake, both in new and existing buildings.

Bilzin has called Wachovia home for the past 23 years but sought to move to newer quarters. The law powerhouse had a deal to move to Brickell Financial Center but canceled that lease agreement earlier this year.

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.

Ready for RealShare, And More

A few notes and thoughts after clearing out the inbox from a long Labor Day weekend:

• You can now register online for our fourth-annual RealShare South Florida conference, set for Sept. 30 at the Hyatt Regency Miami. We will cover a broad range of topics in a single afternoon, from distressed assets and excess condos to the new wave of office space coming soon to the market.

Featured speakers will include Gene Berman of Marcus & Millichap, Tere Blanca of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, Michael Fay of Colliers Abood Wood-Fay, Keith Jennings of Westmount Realty Capital, Jose Juncadella of Fairchild Partners, Jonathan Kingsley of Grubb & Ellis, David Lynd of the Lynd Co., Jay Massirman of Rivergate Residential, Jack McCabe of McCabe Research and Eric Swanson of Flagler.

Recycling a Newspaper Building

Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets has purchased the former site of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune for a reported $6.3 million. Publix has long advocated recycling plastic and paper bags, but this might be its first foray into newspaper recycling.

Publix will tear down the existing building along US 41 to make way for a 52,000-square-foot store that is expected to open late next year. The store will have ground-level parking, with escalators carrying shoppers (and carts) to and from the second level.

Disney Won’t Mess with Marvel

Two combinations of youthful memories were combined in one Spidey-like swoop Monday with the $4-billion buyout of Marvel Entertainment Inc. by the Walt Disney Co. It might be difficult to keep Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk separate from Mickey, Goofy and Buzz Lightyear, but it looks like Disney is going to try.

For starters, Disney will keep Marvel’s 70-year-old headquarters in New York City, rather than packing up those offices and moving westward to Burbank, CA. That’s a solid move on Disney’s part; you don’t mess with success, and Marvel has certainly enjoyed plenty at 417 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan.

NAIOP Completes UCF Endowment

Good news for prospective real estate students: NAIOP Central Florida has fulfilled its $600,000 capital commitment to the University of Central Florida’s Phillips School of Real Estate. A check for $25,500 was presented to the school earlier this summer as the final installment of an effort that has been under way since February 2005.

The money will endow the Jim Heistand-NAIOP Eminent Scholar Chair in Real Estate, named in honor of the majority owner of Orlando-based Eola Capital. A matching grant from the state puts the endowment at over $1 million.