Economic Development in the West Bay Sector

The West Bay Sector, anchored by the relocated airport, provides Northwest Florida with an extraordinary economic development platform.

Critics have said airport relocation advocates have a "build it and they will come" attitude. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those of us who strongly support airport relocation and the West Bay Sector realize that we have a lot of work ahead of us to bring high-quality, good paying jobs to Bay County and Northwest Florida.

But we also realize that the new airport and surrounding land zoned commercial/industrial represents a unique opportunity for a wide range of companies to expand or relocate to well-planned greenfield sites adjacent to free-trade zone and international airport. Not many other locations in the United States can offer that.

Here's what the FAA said about our opportunity:

“The relocated airport would serve as a catalyst for the economic development of the West Bay Area...." and it "...would likely attract general aviation, commercial, office and industrial tenants, which would provide additional regional employment opportunities…” (FAA's Final Environmental Impact Statement)

Note: You can get a copy of the FAA's EIS at the Panama City airport web site, look under "Future Developments."

It's up to us to work together to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity.