By Marta Rose-Thorpe
The Bay EDA’s (Economic Development Alliance) mission is to work with local companies to help them grow and expand, as well as work to recruit new companies to come into our area. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Becca Hardin, President of the Bay EDA, and get updated on good things coming our way. Becca shared with me that she loves her job. “It’s different every day,” she explains. “We get to travel around the world and showcase this beautiful community. We get to meet with different people. It’s knowing we are in a position to help companies grow, bring companies here, and help create jobs for people.” It’s a tough job, she says, but rewarding. You lose more than you win. But when you do get a win, it’s worth it.
Workforce is the number one thing when recruiting companies. The EDA shares a building with Career Source Gulf Coast, and every project they do is hand in hand with their workforce partners. “Gulf Coast State College is extremely instrumental in our recruitment efforts, as well as FSU-PC,” Becca explains. “If we can’t pull our workforce team together and convince the company that we can meet their workforce needs, we can never get to the table to discuss the site, the incentive package – or anything.”
The first thing the EDA does is pull together how many jobs they’ll need to fill. What are the titles? The skill sets? The pay ranges? “We assemble our team to be able to answer these questions,” she says. “Career Source is a one-stop shop. They develop a recruitment plan, a hiring plan, a training plan.” Another resource is the newly developed Gulf Coast FAME chapter (Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education), a national work-study program adopted by the Bay EDA, GCSC and local manufacturers. This initiative helps develop global entry-level, multi-craft maintenance technicians.
One main objective of the EDA is to help diversify Bay County’s economy. “Tourism is always going to be important to our economy,” says Becca. “It’s our number one economic driver. But after the oil spill, this community leadership made a conscious decision that we needed to diversify our economy and not have all our eggs in the tourism basket.” And thus, they began recruiting businesses such as manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, distribution, logistics, technology-related companies, and aviation-related projects around the airport. “Most of the growth that we see, from an economic standpoint, is going north toward the airport,” she explains. “That’s where we have certified sites and the most available property that’s ready to go. We’ve got the newest airport that’s been built in the U.S. and we have 3,000 acres around the airport, so that is a big part of our future.”
Focused on maintenance repair and overhaul projects at the airport, the EDA currently has three active projects, all shovel-ready sites. “The Airport Authority has spent more than $5 million to pour concrete in order to get the jets from the runway to the sites,” she explains. “They’re being very aggressive about getting infrastructure ready so we can put more projects out there.” In April, Becca is hoping the EDA can make the announcement of “Project Gator,” another project that’s been in the works for more than a year. This company will be building a hangar adjacent to the Airport runway.
Another site the EDA has in its arsenal is 200 acres at Venture Crossings, which is owned by the St. Joe Company. The new Hilton Garden Inn, opening in early Summer 2021, is being built on the site by the main entrance of the airport. This full-service hotel will have a restaurant and bar. The EDA looks forward to utilizing this new venue for putting up customers that come into town.
The Duplin Winery has decided to mirror their operation in South Carolina and open a winery in Panama City Beach. Coming to the former Hombre Golf Clubhouse site, their mini vineyard and retail will go on 20 acres behind the clubhouse area. Guests will engage in wine tasting, strolling through the vineyards, and learning how the Muscadine wine is made. This $15 million capital investment will employ 50 people; a ribbon cutting is planned for 2022.
In an effort to support Bay County’s state-of-the-art outdoor shooting range and the new indoor shooting range (The Powder Room) built by the St. Joe company, the Bay EDA is targeting the recruitment of companies in the gun manufacturing sector. “There are some states and communities that don’t look favorably on gun manufacturing; Bay County is a Second Amendment county that supports the right to bear arms,” says Becca. “We’re looking in the northeastern part of the U.S. to target gun manufacturing companies that may want to be down here in paradise.”
The Latitude Margaritaville Watersound project will be “transformational for this part of Florida,” states Becca. “It’s going to spur so much growth.” This 50-year planned community will have the road complete in the next two years. “Highway 388 is being realigned to come north and will dead-end into the entrance of Latitude,” she says. Phase 1 will have 2,500 homes. Like the Villages in Central Florida, Latitude will be like a city within itself, with medical services, golf amenities, restaurants, grocery stores, everything that a city would have. “People in a 55+ Active Community like to do two things,” she states, “they like to play golf, and there will be a lot of golf courses there, and they like to travel… this will be a direct shot to the airport. I’ve heard they already have a long waiting list on the first phase.”
We discussed several other projects: TechFarms, situated in the industrial park in the Grand Lagoon, is building a second building. “Tech is a leg of our stool,” says Becca. “I think there are a lot of opportunities in that. I am very thankful for Steve Millaway.” She mentioned that the Viking Cruise Line is coming, beginning Summer 2021, and will be docking at Shell Island and shuttling people back and forth to the mainland. Suzuki Motor Marine recently purchased 20 acres at the end of Frankfort Ave. in Panama City for $12.5 million to place their research and development integration system.
“Other than workforce, what other assets are companies looking for?” I ask. “Sunshine, the beach, outdoor activities… Quality of Life. Most of the companies we recruit have never been to Panama City, much less heard of it, so a lot of what we do is educate people on the assets that we have,” she says. “Many people don’t realize that Bay County has an international port that has direct access to Mexico, Central and South America. From a distribution standpoint, that’s excellent channels to open up the world. We try to get their feet on the ground here. If we can get people to Bay County, Bay County sells itself.”
