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Northwest Fla., Panhandle Business Briefs - Nov. 2009
Destin — A years-long battle between beach property owners and Walton County over public vs. private property rights could come before the U.S. Supreme Court this winter. Beach property owners claimed the county’s 2006 beach restoration project deprived them of their property rights. A Florida Supreme Court decision in 2008 upheld the project.
Gulf Breeze — The city will build a $5-million garage to accommodate expanding technology businesses AppRiver and Avalex Technologies, which are jointly planning a $12-million, 80,000-sq.-ft. office building.
Navarre — Gulf Power’s recently installed weather-data tower on Navarre Beach will gauge the potential for generating electricity from wind power. Data gathered in the two-year test will be analyzed by Southern Co. Services and also sent to Navarre High School for use in the science curriculum.
Northwest Florida — California media company Freedom Communications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but the filing isn’t expected to affect normal operations of its holdings, which include 10 newspapers in northwest Florida. Freedom owns the daily Panama City News Herald and the Northwest Florida Daily News in Fort Walton Beach, plus weeklies in Milton, Chipley, Port St. Joe, Santa Rosa Beach, Bonifay, Crestview, Apalachicola and Destin.
Pace — U.S. District Court Judge Casey Rodgers ruled that Pace High School principal Frank Lay and athletic director Robert Freeman didn’t intentionally violate a court order forbidding prayer at school events when they offered a blessing at an athletic banquet.
Pensacola — Skopelos on the Bay restaurant closed after 50 years in business.
» Ohio-based Wayne Dalton Corp. has agreed to sell its mainline door business to Sanwa Holdings Corp., a Japanese door and window maker, for an undisclosed amount. The sale, expected to close this fall, moves the majority of production to Sanwa’s Overhead Door Corp. Wayne Dalton will still make home controls and operators, of which a portion of production is being handled at its 140-employee Pensacola plant.
» Depending on construction timing, federal stimulus dollars could provide $13.4 million to help fill a funding gap for the University of West Florida’s Maritime Museum in the downtown Community Maritime Park, which broke ground Sept. 17. The money is part of $75 million in tax credits awarded to Gulf Breeze-based Capital Trust Agency Community Development Entity from a federal program called New Market Tax Credits, which received authorization by Congress for additional tax credits in the 2009 stimulus bill.
» PCI Gaming Authority, owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Atmore, Ala., has invested $10 million to acquire controlling interest in the Pensacola Greyhound Track and $6 million for majority ownership in a Mobile, Ala., track operated by the same partnership group.
Santa Rosa Beach — Walton County commissioners have approved St. Joe Co. (NYSE-JOE) plans to build Topsail West, a town center in 116 acres of woodland along U.S. Highway 98.
Tallahassee — Tallahassee Regional Airport has received a $4.5-million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration and $2.7 million from the Florida Department of Transportation, in addition to $2.4 million announced earlier. The new grants will be used for upgrades and design of future projects. The airport is midway into a 10-year, $25-million improvement program.
