Friday, January 28, 2011
The United States may be slow to recover from the recession, but a local economist projects Okaloosa County will experience what would normally be 10 years of growth in the next two years.
Rick Harper, interim director of the Office of Economic Development and Engagement at the University of West Florida, was one of the guest speakers Wednesday at the Economic Development Council of Okaloosa County’s annual Military-Community Sustainability Forum. The forum is designed to provide an avenue for community and military leaders to share their plans and address issues that affect them.
“I expect this to be a year of unprecedented growth for Okaloosa County,” Harper said. “If you simply look at the jobs that we’re expecting, just the positive shot to the local economy that results from the BRAC relocations, from the announced arrival of Vision Airlines serving over 20 destinations, that’s about a 10 percent bump in direct employment in the area.
“We’re going to be growing rapidly and the challenge once again as we look back to the last decade is going to be how do we manage that growth effectively and how to turn it to the benefit of those who live in the community and meet our missions?” he added.
Harper said Vision Airlines will have a huge impact on the tourism market in Okaloosa and South Walton County.
Southwest and Delta airlines provided a 7.9 percent increase in tourism for Panama City after last year’s opening of Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, which added 1,100 new seats flying into Bay County every day. Harper said Vision Airlines’ increase is more than four times that amount.
“The economic future is bright. It’s happening in 2011 and it’s going to put us back on the path we should have been on if not for the oil spill,” Harper said.
Wednesday’s forum also included a panel discussion that featured some of the top commanders at Eglin Air Force Base, Hurlburt Field and Naval Air Station Whiting Field.
Construction of the cantonment south of Crestview for the Army 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) is ahead of schedule.
“A lot of people ask me when 7th Special Forces is going to get here,” said Lt. Col. Martin Schmidt with the Special Forces. “When are we coming? Really, we’re here.”
Schmidt said 103 soldiers of the 1,887 in the group already have been assigned to Eglin. Between 70 and 80 soldiers will arrive in April, and starting May 1 between 90 and 150 soldiers and their families a week will be relocated to the area. That will continue until the move is completed Sept. 15.
Schmidt said the 7th Special Forces Group will add a fourth battalion in the near future. That will mean a total of 2,247 troops and 6,000 dependents in the region.
Marine Col. Arthur Tomassetti, vice commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing, also gave an update on the delayed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. At the same event last year, Tomassetti said the first two fighters were expected at Eglin last fall.
Tomassetti said Eglin now expects to have 10 to 14 fighter jets on base and be ready to fly by the end of the year.
“We’ve got the right people on our team to deal with those changes and handle them,” Tomassetti said. “Things will be a little different than what we thought they’d be, but that’s OK because we’re still going to do it smart, we’re still going to do it safe and we’re still going to do it right.”
Naval Air Station Whiting Field also is getting new aircraft. It is replacing its aging T-34C Turbo Men-tor fleet with 150 Beechcraft T-6 Texan IIs. Capt. Pete Hall said Whiting Field already has 54 of the planes and will receive about one a week for close to two years.
“We needed this aircraft and it’s coming to us one at a time,” Hall said.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Kerry McNulty and Jerry Bielawski were recently awarded Top Producers for 2010 at Newman-Dailey Resort Properties Real Estate Division.
Our 2010 Top Sales Agent, Kerry McNulty, lives the Newman-Dailey company mission, “To be the #1 Choice for Real Estate Services in the Greater Destin Area.” His commitment to succeed despite the economic climate was proven by exceeding all his goals for 2010! We are also proud to announce that Jerry Bielawski is our Top Listing Agent for 2010. He has achieved this award for his outstanding customer service and overall production.
McNulty has built a great business as TheWiredAgent.com and is as dedicated to the long-term development of our community as he is to helping people achieve their real estate buying and selling goals. McNulty is a Destin Chamber of Commerce Ambassador, an annual contributing member of The Destin Seafood Festival planning committee and a graduate of The Destin Forward 2010 Leadership Class. He was also the Top Sales Agent for the First and Second Quarters of 2010, and Top Listing Agent for the Fourth Quarter 2010.
Bielawski earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Central Michigan University and a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from Michigan State University. Following a rewarding career with Dow Chemical in sales and marketing, he moved to Destin. “Real estate was a natural progression for me. I enjoy working with people and assisting them as they define and achieve their real estate goals.” Bielawski said. He continues to exceed his client’s expectations with genuine personal commitment to customer satisfaction. He was the Top Listing Agent for the First, Second and Third Quarters of 2010.
“I am very proud of these two gentlemen. Their positive attitude and refusal to accept that times were difficult earned them these top awards. I am honored to have them on the Newman-Dailey team,” said Jeanne Dailey, Broker, for Newman-Dailey.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Vision Airlines, a company that started by giving tours of the Grand Canyon, will begin offering commercial flights to 20 U.S. cities on Tuesday, promising to save vacationers time and money on getaways to Florida.
Vision says fares, some initially as low as $49 one way, will go on sale Tuesday for trips between the beach communities of northwest Florida and such cities as Baton Rouge, Knoxville, Tenn., and Little Rock starting March 25.
Flights aimed at business travelers shuttling between Louisville and Atlanta began Dec. 13, while service between northwest Florida and Miami and Niagara Falls, N.Y., launched Dec. 17.
The carrier, based in Suwanee, Ga., is taking a page from the playbook of Allegiant, one of the most profitable airlines in the country, by flying non-stop from smaller cities to tourist spots and offering vacationers one-stop shopping by selling packages that include everything from the hotel room to the rental car.
"If Allegiant Airlines is Coke, then there's always got to be a Pepsi," says David Meers, Vision's COO. "Our goal is not to take over the aviation industry. It's not to go out and try to poke the large carriers in the eye. We believe there's a niche available in the marketplace to provide ... packages to consumers at discounted prices."
Low fares, non-stop service and large jets — perks more often enjoyed by fliers through major hubs — will be key, Meers says.
"We'll be flying from cities that have been neglected by large carriers with large aircraft for a number of years," Meers says, adding that many visitors to the tourist hubs of Destin and Fort Walton Beach in northwest Florida often drive to avoid connecting flights and high fares.
"It opens up the ability for people from all these communities to not only go as they normally would (but) to go more frequently," he says.
Vision's entry into commercial passenger service comes as the airline industry is starting to climb back to profitability after skyrocketing fuel prices and the economic downturn that caused leisure and business travelers to cut back on flying.
Still, airline analyst Mike Boyd says that Vision is carving out good turf. "They're not going into business to meet pent-up demand, they're going into places to provide a product that wasn't there before," Boyd says. "It's an entirely different business than an airline, but I think it's going to be a very successful one, as Allegiant has been. They're creating their own business, a low-cost, high-value vacation to the Florida Gulf Coast."
Vision started in 1994, operating tours of the Grand Canyon with small planes, and grew into a charter service for celebrities and others.
But it's long been a goal to become a full-service travel company that offers commercial flights and other packaged travel services, Meers says.
Vacation packages should be available on Vision's website in the next 60 days, he says. And in the next three years, "It's realistic to expect we'd add cities out West ... and we'll look at the Caribbean and Mexico."
Some smaller airports are welcoming the new service, seeing it as a way to boost Gulf Coast tourism, which dipped after the BP oil spill last year, and to get travelers who would usually drive to take to the air instead.
Vision's non-stop service could even help Florida residents traveling within the state, such as those who now take a connecting flight or drive seven hours from the Destin area to get to Tampa, says Greg Donovan, director for the Northwest Florida Regional Airport in Fort Walton Beach.
"The communities that they're going to be flying to are difficult to get to via hub connections," says Donovan, who adds that fares on larger carriers such as Delta and US Airways are often more than vacationers want to pay. "I think it's going to bring back many people we've lost to driving," Donovan says.
Some airports are waiving fees for Vision and helping to promote its new service.
Northwest Florida Regional will waive Vision's landing fees and terminal rent for two years, as well as spend tens of thousands of dollars on marketing efforts in targeted communities.
Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport, which will see non-stop service to and from Orlando Sanford International, as well as Northwest Florida Regional, which serves the Fort Walton Beach-Destin area, is also waiving some fees and tapping funds for new air service.
"We all try to secure low-cost carriers for our community," Anthony Marino, Baton Rouge's airport director, says of small and midsize airports. "The competition it creates in the market helps us when we're dealing with (legacy) carriers like American and Continental and US Airways."
Vision will continue to separately offer tours and chartered flights. That diversification, along with the vacation packages it sells, should create a healthy revenue stream, Meers says.
Source: USA Today