PANAMA CITY BEACH: with more than 30 projects and lots of millions invested since Hurricane Michael, St. Joe Company has been the undisputed leader in bay County’s renaissance.
Becca Hardin, director of the Bay County Economic Development Alliance, called the company a “godsend. “
Hardin is among local officials who say without St. Joe, the region has recovered as temporarily as it did from the Category Five monster.
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St. Joe: More than 20 projects and heaps of millions of dollars since Hurricane Michael
“What they’ve done for our network is just great,” Hardin told the News Herald. projects that St. Joe Company has underway. “
Since the hurricane swept through Bay County and other parts of the Panhandle in October 2018, destroying countless homes, businesses and infrastructure, the land development company has spent or allocated more than $556 million on development projects. The priority of this staggering total represents 31 projects in Bay County, adding 19 completed progressions, 11 more structures, and a major progression planned for Panama City Beach.
And this major progression, an unnamed health care campus, will be a game-changer for Panama City Beach, Bay County, and the surrounding area. St. Joe approaches the hospital in partnership with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Florida State University College of Medicine.
Plans call for the hospital to be built on 87-acre land near the intersection of State 79 and Philip Griffitts Sr. Parkway. Although the inauguration is scheduled for later this year, lately there is no schedule for its opening.
The campus will be developed in phases, officials said, the first of which will come with doctors’ offices and a hundred hospital beds.
PCB Mayor Mark Sheldon said the hospital is the most exciting progression on the horizon.
“This is the task that will take Panama City Beach to the next level,” Sheldon said. “Having this hospital in Panama City Beach is the greatest asset we can bring to our community. This is something our citizens (and) visitors have been waiting for for a long time. “
Along with the overall destruction, Michael brought a wind of upgrade when St. Joe took aim at Bay County.
The company moved its headquarters from Walton County to Panama City Beach in 2020 and moved to Beckrich Office Park. The company owns more than 100,000 acres of land in Bay County.
St. Joe said the company submitted so many projects in just three years because it decided, in the wake of Hurricane Michael, to condense a vast work plan.
Mike Kerrigan, a spokesman for St. Joe, said the painting plan has been accelerated to meet Michael’s demands in many facets of the Bay County market. storm.
“There were several projects that we had in the pipeline before Hurricane Michael that we accelerated afterwards,” Kerrigan said. “We knew Hurricane Michael had destroyed much of the housing supply. “
Since the hurricane, St. Joe has built more than six hundred new homes in Bay County, more than 400 apartments and 3 hotels with a total of 380 rooms.
The company is also building 2,300 more homes, about 450 more apartments and two more hotels that will have 380 more rooms combined.
And that doesn’t come with Latitude Margaritaville Watersound, a resort-style network for others at least 55, under construction in Bay County, north of Panama City Beach. Plans for the first phase call for 3500 households.
“We ourselves are very fortunate to be in the position we are in with the land we have in Bay County and the ability we have to meet market demand,” Kerrigan said.
He noted that of the 19 projects completed in St. Joe since Hurricane Michael, they are residential, 3 are hotel and 11 are commercial. Are:
Of the 11 projects still under construction, 4 are residential, 4 are hotel and 3 are commercial. Are:
St. Joe’s commitment to Bay County also contributes to the diversification of its economy. Hardin said the company’s long series of projects has been an attraction for EDA officials to reject building services from potential corporations in the area.
“When you bring domestic and foreign corporations here to make a stopover at the sites, and they see all the structure projects underway, they see progress,” he said. “The public-private partnerships that St. Joe has been able to forge bring new life. to Bay County like we’ve never noticed before. “
Like Hardin, Sheldon said he believed the domain was “lucky” to have St. Joe, which proved that he would not hesitate to help Bay County revolutionize.
“(St. Joe is) our netpainting spouse who is involved,” Sheldon said. “(He) needs to have a positive effect on a netpainting where (his employees) not only live, but also paint and play.
“It’s their home, so they (develop it) the way they’d like it to be at home, and they do it beautifully. “